Downhill skier Erik Guay, from Mont Tremblant, Quebec, raced recently in Kitzbuehel, Austria.
The 3.3-kilometre course at Kitzbuehel is often referred to as “the Super Bowl of the ski season.”
Guay finished second, skiing just 0.13 seconds slower than the person who came in first. Because he came in second, Guay earned a spot on the “podium.” In skiing, “podiums” is an official statistic. It refers to coming in first, second or third. (The word “podium” refers to the “podiums” or pedestals that top-three finishers stand on when they are awarded their prize or medal.)
Coming in second at Kitzbuehel earned Guay his 19th podium of his career. If he gets one more, he will be tied for the most podiums ever by a Canadian downhill skiier.
Guay is now preparing for the World Championships which take place on Feb. 10 in Austria.
Canada’s winter sports success continued in Aspen, Colorado at the Winter X Games.
Slopestyle
The Winter X Games is a competition made up of the greatest winter action sport athletes from around the world, competing in different types of snowboarding and skiing events.
Mark McMorris, from Regina, successfully defended his snowboard slopestyle title at the Games, while fellow Canadian Max Parrot, from Quebec, earned silver.
The 19-year-old McMorris won with a score of 98.00 — the highest mark in the event’s history.
In the win, McMorris edged out a very famous X Games competitor, Shaun White from the U.S.
Slopestyle is a type of winter sporting event in which the goal is to perform the most difficult tricks while getting really high and long jumps.
Slopestyle is one of the most popular events at the Winter X Games.
It will become an Olympic event, for both skiing and snowboarding, at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
At that time, Parrot and McMorris are expected to challenge for Olympic gold.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
The article highlights the amazing mark that McMorris earned. It states, “The 19-year-old McMorris won with a score of 98.00 — the highest mark in the event’s history.”
How do you think the judges score the event? What do you think McMorris had to do to earn this top mark?
Reading Prompt: Text Features
The journalist chose to write this article in two parts. The first section is about Erik Guay and the second is about Slopestyle.
Why do you think the article was divided this way?
How does the ‘slopestyle’ title help you to better understand the article?
Junior
Identify a variety of text features and explain how they help readers understand texts (OME, Reading: 2.3).
Intermediate
Identify a variety of text features and explain how they help communicate meaning (OME, Reading: 2.3).
Grammar Feature: Ordinal Numbers
In a competition, someone is going to be #1. That person comes in ‘first’. The person who comes next to them is in ‘second’ and the next person is in ‘third’. These are ordinal numbers.
What is the ordinal number for each of the following digits?
1. 31
2. 5
4. 89
5. 100
6. 33
7. 51
8. 72
9. 20
10. 27
