Rob Boyd
Rob Boyd 
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| Full name | Robert Alexander Boyd | ||||||||||
| nation |
 Canada
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| birthday | 15th February 1966 (age 54) | ||||||||||
| place of birth | Vernon , Canada | ||||||||||
| Career | |||||||||||
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| discipline | Downhill , super-G | ||||||||||
| status | resigned | ||||||||||
| End of career | March 22, 1997 | ||||||||||
| Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup | |||||||||||
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Robert Alexander "Rob" Boyd (born February 15, 1966 in Vernon , British Columbia ) is a retired Canadian ski racer . From 1985 he was a member of the Canadian national ski team, which was reformed for the 1988 Winter Olympics in his own country . During his twelve-year career, he won three World Cup runs . He took part in the Olympic Games once and was able to qualify six times for Alpine World Ski Championships. In 1989 he was the first Canadian to win a World Cup race on his home track. Because of his spectacular, risky driving style, he was seen as the successor to the so-called Crazy Canucks .
Career
Boyd first skied at the age of three and began racing at the age of eleven. In the beginning he played ice hockey in addition to skiing and also tried freestyle in imitation of his sister, a successful ski acrobat . As the number of ski races steadily increased, he concentrated on alpine racing.
At the age of 14, he joined the national racing series for the Fleischmann Cup and the races for the North American Nor-Am Cup . In 1983 he became a member of the British Columbia Province Ski Team. After winning the Fleischmann Cup in 1984, he was accepted into the so-called National Development Group , a junior squad that was formed by the Canadian Ski Association with a view to the 1988 Winter Olympics to be held in their own country. Under the aegis of the former Austrian downhill trainer Heinz Stohl , Boyd made it into the B-squad of the Canadian national ski team in 1985. In the 1985/86 season he won the downhill classification of the Nor-Am Cup, tied with the Americans Sam Collins and Mike Brown . In the same winter he contested his first world cup races.
In his second race in December 1985 in Val Gardena , he finished tenth, which he confirmed two months later with a sixth place at the World Cup downhill run in Åre . In his second World Cup season he again achieved his first World Cup victory in Val Gardena. His aggressive, uncompromising drive on icy slopes from starting number 26 to the victory podium established his reputation as the successor to the so-called Crazy Canucks and he advanced to the role of the key figure in the Canadian alpine team. Six weeks after this success, he achieved fifth place in the downhill at the 1987 Alpine World Ski Championships in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, and was the only driver to break through the phalanx of dominant Swiss drivers.
In the run-up to the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary , Boyd was able to repeat his victory in Val Gardena and ended up in the top ten in another four runs. However, the Olympic competitions, to which he had traveled with high expectations, were disappointing. In the downhill he only reached 16th place, in the Alpine Combined he was eliminated.
In the post-Olympic season he came back five times in the top ten and ended the season with a win on the Whistler Downhill . At the Pan American Games in Las Leñas , he won the silver medal in the downhill. He then suffered repeated serious injuries. Despite sporadic top results, such as a second place in Val Gardena (December 1990), a third place in the Hahnenkamm race (January 1991) and two fourth places in the double downhill run from Val Gardena (December 1992) consistently good placings were missing. Finally, he retired from the World Cup in February 1997.
In the following three years he took part in several races as a professional skier. After gaining media experience as a commentator at World Cup races between 1986 and 1997, he appeared in a number of films as a freestyler or stunt driver after his sporting career. Since 2004 he has been working as a trainer for the Canadian Ski Association.
successes
Olympic games
- Calgary 1988 : 16th Downhill, 22nd Super-G
World championships
- Crans-Montana 1987 : 5th descent
- Vail 1987 : 11th departure
- Saalbach-Hinterglemm 1991 : 14th descent
- Morioka-Shizukuishi 1993 : 25th departure
- Sierra Nevada 1996 : 28th departure
World Cup victories
| date | place | country | discipline |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 13, 1986 | Val Gardena | Italy | Departure |
| December 12, 1987 | Val Gardena | Italy | Departure |
| February 25, 1989 | Whistler | Canada | Departure |
More Achievements
- Winning the downhill discipline classification of the Nor-Am Cup 1985/86
- 1 Canadian championship title (Super-G 1991)
- Pan American Winter Games 1990 : Silver in the downhill
swell
- International Sports Archive 24/1987 from June 1, 1987
- Rob Boyd ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
- The Canadian Ski Hall of Fame (PDF; 67 kB)
Web links
- Rob Boyd in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
- Rob Boyd in the database of Ski-DB (English)
- Rob Boyd in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Boyd, Rob |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Boyd, Robert Alexander |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian ski racer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 15, 1966 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vernon , British Columbia |