Ed PODIVINSKY

First noticed internationally after becoming the first Canadian to win a gold medal in the Alpine Downhill event, a feat that he accomplished at the 1989 World Junior Championships, Edi Podivinsky would go on to claim six World Cup titles and a bronze medal in the downhill event at his first Winter Olympic Games in 1994. He began training with the national team at the age of 15 and was originally scheduled to compete in 1992, but he dropped out after tearing his knee on the final day of training, an injury that forced him to miss the remainder of that World Cup Season. He competed at two more Winter Games in 1998 and 2002, never again reaching the podium, and used his retirement after the latter to disparage Alpine Canada’s treatment of its athletes and demand changes. He later pursued finance and, as of 2009, is the vice-president of global equity sales for Royal Bank of Canada. No Canadian has won an Olympic medal in alpine skiing since his success at the 1994 Games.