Kimberley's Kalle Ericsson and his guide Sierra Smith of Ottawa, Ont., have added more hardware to their collection while competing at the FIS Para Alpine World Championships in Maribor, Slovenia.
Ericsson and Smith won silver in the Giant Slalom on Sunday and followed it up with another silver in the visually impaired slalom on Monday. Were conditions more favourable, they would have had a great opportunity to have stood on even more podiums.
"My first time at world champs and in Maribor was excellent," Ericsson told The Bulletin. "Being at such a big event like this makes me even more excited for the games next year.
"Due to unfortunate snow conditions in Maribor all of the speed races were cancelled which was definitely disappointing. Our team definitely had a good opportunity to bring home some more hardware in those events. However, FIS and the entire event crew still pulled off a great race series in Giant slalom and slalom."
According to an interview on alpinecanada.org, Ericsson finished his opening run in third place, but then followed it up with the fasted time overall in the second run, vaulting him and Smith into the silver medal position, with Smith telling him to "run [her] over and see how fast we could go."
"On the day of the slalom race I was not feeling very confident at all," Ericsson explained. "This season I have really been focusing on Giant Slalom and the speed events. So I haven’t had a whole lot of time skiing slalom.
"This was actually my first slalom race of the season and it just happened to be World Champs. Overcoming the nerves was not easy. But after coming up with a solid plan with Sierra and my coaches I definitely loosened up a bit. Sticking to the basics and trusting in my slalom abilities was all that I could do to try and lay down a fast run. We had somewhat decent run and were fourth after the first, which we were really pleased with considering my lack of slalom training."
Ericsson and Smith have been skiing together since 2022. Their relationship is crucial to their continued success.
"The dynamic between the athlete and guide is so important," Ericsson said. "Being a team we really have to work together and trust one another. I thinks it’s a lot of fun that we are pushing one another to go as fast as possible.
"It makes for a really good competitive dynamic. Sierra will give me little comments like that all the time which help me a lot to push as hard as I can which also leads to her having to push her self."
This was the duo's first time at a World Championship and it was the first time they have finished in the top three at a World Cup or World Championships slalom since their gold at the World Cup race in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Their strongest discipline and where they've medalled most so far this season has been in Giant Slalom and in Downhill and Super G.
"Coming back home with two World Champs silvers is something that I am very proud of," he said. "Leaving a race series with such good results definitely makes me hungry to race again.
"I think leaving the series with the results we achieved is a great stepping stone for the games next year. I’m really excited for the rest of the World Cup season to keep racing against these guys. With every race being a fight a fight for the podium it makes racing a lot of fun and really exciting."
Ericsson will now return to Canada for a few weeks, where he will spend a few weeks relaxing and catching up on sleep. Then he and Smith will do some training at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary and Nakiska Ski Area in Kananaskis. In a few weeks, he will return to Europe to finish the remainder of the World Cup season.
He noted that unfortunately there are no Canadian events in the schedule this year.
"[That] is really disappointing as it’s always so fun racing at home and especially when it happens on the Dreadnaught," he said. "I currently don’t have any plans to come to Kimberley but with a few weeks I might have to make a trip over.
"I think that our goals are just to remain competitive and keep a good fight going so we can bring home some more medals to finish off the season."
With the collection of medals growing steadily, Ericsson is going to need to find a good place to display them all.
"Currently I don’t really have a spot for my medals," he said with a laugh. "At the moment I’m keeping them on the top of a shelf or hanging from a curtain rod in my apartment in Calgary. I do plan on making some sort of display for them this summer though."
