John Kucera

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John Kucera Alpine skiing
John Kucera in December 2006
John Kucera in December 2006
nation CanadaCanada Canada
birthday 17th September 1984 (age 35)
place of birth Calgary , Canada
size 175 cm
Weight 80 kg
Career
discipline Downhill , Super-G ,
giant slalom , combination
society Calgary Alpine Racing Club
National squad since 2004
status resigned
End of career April 24, 2014
Medal table
World championships 1 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
gold Val d'Isère 2009 Departure
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
 Individual World Cup debut November 27, 2004
 Individual world cup victories 1
 Overall World Cup 13th ( 2007/08 )
 Downhill World Cup 17th (2007/08)
 Super G World Cup 3rd ( 2006/07 )
 Giant Slalom World Cup 10th (2007/08)
 Combination World Cup 12. ( 2004/05 )
 Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 Super G 1 1 1
 

John Kucera (born September 17, 1984 in Calgary , Alberta ) is a retired Canadian ski racer . The all-rounder was one of the most successful active Canadian skiers when he was active as a multiple national champion. Although he started successfully in the World Cup, especially in the Super-G, and was able to record his only victory there, he won his biggest title, the gold medal at the 2009 World Cup , in the downhill. The Canadian also competed successfully in giant slalom as well as in slalom, which was a good situation for him for the Alpine Combined, in which he also achieved several top ten results.

biography

Kucera, whose parents emigrated from Czechoslovakia in 1981 , competed in his first ski race at the age of five. From the end of 1999 he started regularly in FIS races , and almost a year later in the Nor-Am Cup . Here he developed into one of the strongest runners in the downhill , super-G and giant slalom disciplines . At the Junior World Championships 2003 in Serre Chevalier he placed on March 5, 2003 in tenth place in the Super-G, the following year he was 12th in the downhill on February 10, 2004 in Maribor . He also improved at the Canadian Championships, having made it into the top ten in the giant slalom for the first time in 2002 and two days later he finished 20th in the Super-G. As fifth in the two speed disciplines at the championship in March 2004, he recommended himself for the national ski team, in which he was accepted at the beginning of the 2004/05 season. That winter, in the Nor-Am Cup, he decided both the overall standings and the discipline ratings of Super-G and Downhill, and he also competed in his first World Cup competitions . On January 14, 2005, he won World Cup points for the first time in the combination of Wengen in twelfth place. He traveled to the 2005 World Championships in Bormio , where he was only 25th in the opening competition (Super-G), but then became the best Canadian both in the downhill (16th) and in the combination (ninth). In the remaining World Cup races of the season, Kucera placed 30th each time, so that he scored more points for the World Cup, but he has not yet caught up with the top drivers. At the end of the season he only competed in the Nor-Am Cup to secure the overall standings there, which he also succeeded in doing.

In the winter of 2005/06 , Kucera remained behind the world's best and was only able to place 15th in two combinations ( Val-d'Isère on December 11, 2005 and Chamonix on February 3, 2006). Nevertheless, the association nominated him for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin , where he was 17th in the combination, 22nd in the Super-G and 27th in the downhill. Although he again performed well in the Nor-Am Cup towards the end of the season , he was eighth in the overall standings. He finished the national championships with a double victory in Super-G and giant slalom.

Although Kucera had never been in the top ten in the World Cup before, he surprisingly achieved his only World Cup victory at the beginning of the 2006/07 season at the Super-G in Lake Louise (November 26, 2006). With starting number one, he had set a time at which the following favorites also failed. At the same time, he ended a series of failures for his country's skiers who, through Felix Belczyk , had celebrated the only Super-G World Cup victory to date in Leukerbad on February 25, 1988 . He confirmed this performance in Val Gardena when he was also third in the Super-G. With further top ten results, he went to the 2007 World Ski Championships in Åre , where his best result was twelfth place in the giant slalom. He finished his most successful season to date in third place in the Super G discipline world cup.

In the 2006/07 World Cup , Kucera continued his good results; on December 15, 2006, he finished third in the Super-G in Val Gardena . Another podium result was missing; on December 17, 2006, he just missed this by finishing fifth in the giant slalom on the Gran Risa in Alta Badia , 0.29 seconds behind. The other balance was eight places between 12 and 20 and four more that were rewarded with points. At the 2007 World Ski Championships in Åre , 12th place in the giant slalom was his best result on February 14. With three more gold medals in Super-G, Combination and Downhill, he successfully took part in the Canadian Championships that winter.

In the winter of 2007/08 they were 4th in the giant slalom in Alta Badia on December 16, 2007 (missing 3rd place by 0.09 seconds), 5th in the Super-G in Kitzbühel on January 18, 2008 and in the giant slalom in Whistler Mountain on February 23, 2008 his most outstanding results. In total there were six other top ten and 13 other results that added to his World Cup points account, which brought him to 13th place in the overall World Cup with 528 points (victory: Bode Miller with 1409 points).

The winter of 2008/09 began on November 30, 2008 with a second place in the Super-G, again in Lake Louise, followed by 6th place in the Super-G at Beaver Creek on December 6, 2008. In the following races, however, he always missed the top 10. This series only ended when he finished sixth in the combination of Kitzbühel in his last competition before the World Championship (January 25, 2009). He started the 2009 World Ski Championships in Val-d'Isère with a good sixth place in the Super-G, which he exceeded on February 7, 2009 when he won the gold medal in the downhill and became world champion. Like few other drivers, including the two Swiss medal winners Didier Cuche and Carlo Janka , Kucera (with starting number 2) managed an almost flawless drive, which was also benefited by the fact that - unlike most of the especially from No. 17 top drivers starting - had good visibility; these worsened due to fog. Through this achievement he achieved the first big men's title in the alpine area for his country (so far Jan Hudec's downhill silver had been the "best result" two years earlier in Åre ), even though Kucera had previously been in this discipline had never been among the top five in the World Cup. Kucera himself justified his success, which was treated as a sensation by many media, with the fact that he was a good Super-G driver and the track would have suited him. The end of the season was quite impressive with three further top ten places in the downhill. As a result, he classified himself in the overall World Cup in 24th place (363 points) with the decisive partial results, 19th place downhill (143 points), 9th place Super-G (138 points) and 13th place in the super combined (77).

After finishing 6th the day before in the downhill, Kucera suffered an open tibia and fibula fracture in his left lower leg when he fell in the Super-G of Lake Louise, won by his compatriot Manuel Osborne-Paradis . He was therefore unable to contest any races for the rest of the 2009/10 season and was also absent from the 2010 Winter Olympics in his home country. Also in the 2010/11 season he could not take part in any competitions. In preparation for his return to the World Cup, he contested several races as a forerunner, but injured his left shin again. As a result, he had to pause another season in 2011/12.

It was not until November 2012 that Kucera returned to the World Cup after a three-year break from competition. However, only once during the winter of 2012/13 he was able to classify himself in the World Cup points in a total of eleven speed competitions that he contested (14th place in the Super-G of Lake Louise on November 25, 2012). Due to an inner ear disease, he suffered from a chronic dysfunction of the equilibrium organ and was again unable to contest any races in the winter of 2013/14. On April 24, 2014, he announced his retirement from top-class sport and announced that he would work as a coach in the future.

successes

Olympic games

  • Turin 2006 : 17th combination, 22nd Super-G, 27th downhill

World championships

  • Bormio 2005 : 9th combination, 16th downhill, 25th super-G
  • Åre 2007 : 12th giant slalom, 30th Super-G, 31st downhill, 32nd super combination
  • Val-d'Isère 2009 : 1st downhill, 6th super-G

World cup

  • Season 2006/07 : 3. Super-G World Cup
  • 3 podium places, including 1 victory:
date place country discipline
November 26, 2006 Lake Louise Canada Super G

Nor-Am Cup

  • Season 2003/04 : 8. Appreciation, 6th downhill standings, 6. Super-G standings
  • Season 2004/05 : 1. Appreciation, 1st downhill standings, the first super-G standings, fourth giant slalom rating
  • 13 podium places, including 7 wins

Junior World Championships

More Achievements

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Canadian Kucera drives away competition. Focus , November 26, 2006, accessed February 7, 2009 .
  2. ↑ a b Canadian Kucera grabs the downhill title. Focus, February 7, 2009, accessed February 7, 2009 .
  3. ↑ A "cowboy" rides the wildest. Stern , February 7, 2009, accessed February 7, 2009 .
  4. ↑ Kucera wins the supreme discipline. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 7, 2009, accessed on February 7, 2009 .
  5. ↑ Bad luck for John Kucera. (No longer available online.) ORF , November 29, 2009, archived from the original on December 3, 2009 ; Retrieved December 1, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / sport.orf.at
  6. ↑ John Kucera to begin rehab process following left leg injury. albertaalpine.ca, November 29, 2009, accessed December 1, 2009 .
  7. ↑ John Kucera suffers injury setback. (No longer available online.) Canadian Ski Federation, February 16, 2011, archived from the original on April 26, 2014 ; accessed on March 21, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.alpinecanada.org
  8. ↑ Ex-world champion John Kucera resigns. (No longer available online.) Skionline.ch, April 25, 2014, archived from the original on May 2, 2014 ; accessed on May 1, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.skionline.ch
personal data
SURNAME Kucera, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian ski racer
DATE OF BIRTH 17th September 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH Calgary