Kenneth John ReadCM (born November 6, 1955) is a former World Cupalpine ski racer from Canada. He was a specialist in the downhill and a two-time Olympian.[1] He won five World Cup races during his ten-year international career, all in downhill.
Read was a member of the Canadian alpine ski team from 1973 to 1983, competing for nine seasons on the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup. He competed in two Olympic Winter Games and two FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. A lifelong Calgary resident, Read was part of the "Crazy Canucks", the Canadian downhill team of the late 1970s and early 1980s, that consistently challenged the Europeans with a daring racing style.[3][4] Canadian Corner, a section of the Lauberhorn near Wengen in Switzerland - the heavily twisting curve at the left-hand transition to the Alpweg is named after the Crazy Canucks, as both Dave Irwin and Ken Read fell here in 1976.
Read's first World Cup top ten finish came in his first season on the World Cup Tour in January 1975 in a combined event at Kitzbühel.
The following season, he achieved a Canadian first, becoming the first Canadian male to win a World Cup event in any sport - summer or winter.
On December 7, 1975, in the opening downhill of the 1975-76 World Cup Tours, he placed 1st in the Criterium de la Premiere Neige at Val-d'Isère, France. This was also a competition for North American men, as a first win in World Cup downhill. Read led four Canadians to finish in the top ten.[3][5]
Read went on to win four more World Cup downhill races and his point total for the 1980 season placed him second in the downhill final standings. He was the first non-European to win both the Austrian downhill Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel,[6][7] and the Swiss race Lauberhorn at Wengen.[8][9] These two victories complemented his 1978 win at Les Houches near Chamonix, France,[10] in the Arlberg-Kandahar, ski racing's oldest classic event. Another victory in January 1979 at Morzine was disallowed because of a non-conforming suit due to a manufacturing flaw.[11][12][13] His outstanding season in 1980 was marred by an unfortunate binding release, just fifteen seconds into the Olympic downhill where he was considered the gold-medal favourite.[14]
Honours
Read was named Canada's Athlete of the Year in 1978 (Northern Star Award, formerly the Lou Marsh Award) and Canadian Male Amateur Athlete of the Year in 1980. In 1991 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada Canada's highest civilian honour. He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1985, into Canada's Skiing Hall of Fame (Honour Roll of Canadian Skiing) in 1986, and to the International Ski Racing Hall of Fame in 2010. Along with his four teammates, the Crazy Canucks were inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2006.[15]
After racing
In his post-competitive years, Read has had an enormous impact on sport in Canada and worldwide. A testament to this continued work to advance Canadian sport was recognized by The Globe and Mail naming Read to their "Power List" for three successive years in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Following his retirement from competition in 1983, Read became a broadcaster with CBC TV Sports and a columnist. He also launched the "Breath of Life" Ski Challenge, which, over the next 23 years raised over $3.8 million for cystic fibrosis research. Two movies have been produced covering the careers of the Crazy Canucks: the documentary "The Dream Never Dies" (1980)[16] and a TV movie called "Crazy Canucks" (2004),[17] which is based on a novel he and Matthew Fisher wrote called "White Circus" (1987).
From June 2002 to July 2008 he served as President & CEO of Alpine Canada Alpin, the National Sport Organization for alpine and para-alpine skiing in Canada. Under his direction, the organization was transformed with athletic results (record performances in 2007 and 2008), strong financial performance and innovative strategies. Canada attained the highest ranking on the FIS World Cup from 14th (2002) to 6th (2008), fully integrated the alpine skiing disabled program (Canadian Para-Alpine Ski Team), which was ranked #1 in the world, secured the finances of the organization including a substantial reserve fund for future athlete development, created a long-range athlete development plan (Aim-2-Win) and published a long-range strategic plan. Over this six-year period, under his leadership Alpine Canada established three National Training Centres, worked closely with Winsport Canada to establish a new glacier training venue (Camp Green at Farnham Glacier), established a snow testing lab, was a key leader within the group of sports leaders than established "Own the Podium" which enabled Canadian winter sport to take top spot (by gold medal ranking) at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games (Note: Own the Podium was the phrase used by Alpine Canada in the development of their Strategic Plan in 2003 and was loaned to the founding group) and established numerous athlete development programs to create a high-performance stream for athletes at all levels.
After resigning from Alpine Canada in July 2008, he moved to the Alberta Alpine Ski Association to work with younger athletes and athlete development programs, between September 2008 and May 2010. In May 2010 Read was named director, Winter Sport for Own The Podium (OTP), Canada's high-performance program supporting athletes and National Sport Organizations in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, resigning in April 2013. In this period, Canadian winter sport moved into the #1 position for two years in both gold medal and total medal count, topping out with 19 gold medals and 37 total medals in 2012 as ranked by World Championship results.
Read has been active within Canadian and international sport for over 40 years, initially as the founding chair of the Canadian Olympic Association Athletes Council and subsequently, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes' Commission (1985–1998). He served as Chef de Mission for the 1992 Canadian Team to Barcelona, where the Canadian Team won 18 medals including a record 7 gold medals. In 1988, Read was named to the International Ski Federation's (FIS) Alpine Committee Executive Board, overseeing the discipline of alpine skiing. In 2007 he was nominated to chair the FIS Youth and Children's Coordination Group and Alpine Youth and Children's committee, to re-organize youth development programs for the International Ski Federation. This included Chairing the annual FIS Youth Seminar, attending FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships and codifying rules and organization for children's events world-wide. In June/2022, Read retired from all FIS committee work and was named an "Honorary Member" of both the Alpine Executive Board and the Youth and Children's committee, in recognition for exemplary work on behalf of athletes and the FIS.
Between October 2006 and July 2014, Read was a member of the ownership group of the Mount Norquay ski resort in Banff National Park,.[18] He resides in Calgary with his wife Lynda (née Robbins, a former racer with Canadian Alpine Ski Team)[19] and three sons, all of whom competed in alpine skiing. Two are members of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team, Erik Read and Jeffrey Read. team.[20] He is an alumnus of the Ottawa Ski Club and Lake Louise Ski Club. The Read family are members of the Banff Alpine Racers, located at Banff Mount Norquay, Alberta.
Popular culture
The National Film Board produced several short films and features about the Crazy Canucks, shot during the 1975-76 season.
In the 2006 episode of Corner Gas titled "Physical Credit", Oscar meets with Ken Read to try to persuade him to create an Olympic medal category higher than gold. Read responds that the other countries wouldn't agree to it. Oscar says the old Ken Read would have done it, the Crazy Canuck Ken Read. Read responds that he's not crazy anymore, with Oscar acknowledging it and then claiming that he is now useless.[22]
A made for TV movie about the Crazy Canucks was produced by Randy Bradshaw of Alberta Film Works. It aired on the CTV Network in February 2010.
The Crazy Canucks was the nickname for a group of World Cup alpine ski racers from Canada who rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. Jungle Jim Hunter, Dave Irwin, Dave Murray, Steve Podborski, and Ken Read earned themselves a reputation for fast and seemingly reckless skiing in the downhill event.
Kjetil André Aamodt is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Norway, a champion in the Olympics, World Championships, and World Cup. He is one of the most successful alpine ski racers from Norway.
Stephen Gregory "Steve" Podborski, is a Canadian former World Cup and Olympic downhill ski racer.
Phillip Ferdinand Mahre is a former World Cup alpine ski racer, widely regarded as one of the greatest American skiers of all time. Mahre competed on the World Cup circuit from 1976 to 1984. Starting with the 1978 season, Mahre finished in the top three in the World Cup overall standings for six consecutive seasons, winning the title in the final three. His total of 27 World Cup race wins is fourth among Americans, only behind Mikaela Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn, and Bode Miller.
Dave Irwin is a former alpine ski racer who represented Canada at two Winter Olympic Games and won a World Cup downhill. He was one of the "Crazy Canucks", a group of Canadian downhill racers who rose to prominence on the World Cup circuit in the late 1970s. He lives in Canmore, Alberta, near the Rocky Mountains.
Gustav Thöni is an Italian retired alpine ski racer.
Zeno Colò was a champion alpine ski racer from Italy. Born in Cutigliano, Tuscany, he was among the top ski racers of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Katharine Kreiner-Phillips is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Canada.
John Kucera is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from Canada.
Josef "Sepp" Walcher was an Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer. He specialized in the downhill event and won the gold medal at the World Championships in 1978 at Garmisch, West Germany.
David Murray was an alpine ski racer. He was noted for being a member of the Crazy Canucks, the Canadian downhill racers of the late 1970s and early 1980s known for their fearless racing style. His teammates in the group were Ken Read, Dave Irwin, and Steve Podborski.
Todd Brooker is a former alpine ski racer member Crazy Canucks and a ski commentator on television.
Christina Weirather is a retired Liechtensteiner World Cup alpine ski racer. She won a bronze medal in Super-G for Liechtenstein at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Viviane Forest is a Canadian multi-sport Paralympic medallist. She was born and raised in Quebec, and currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta. She is the first Canadian Paralympian to win a gold medal at the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games.
Jim Hunter, nicknamed "Jungle Jim", is a Canadian former alpine ski racer who represented Canada at two Winter Olympic Games in 1972 and 1976, and won a bronze medal in the 1972 World Championships. He was a member of the Canadian Men's Alpine Ski Team nicknamed the "Crazy Canucks", and is considered to be the original Crazy Canuck.
Ester Ledecká is a Czech snowboarder and alpine skier. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Ledecká won gold medals in the super-G in alpine skiing and in the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding, becoming the first person to not only compete in the Winter Olympics using two different types of equipment but to go further and win two gold medals and do so at the same Winter Olympics. She was the second woman to win an Olympic gold in two separate disciplines but the first to do so at the same Winter Olympics. She was the first Czech to win the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding at the FIS Snowboard World Cup.
Michelle Gisin is a Swiss World Cup alpine ski racer and competes in all disciplines. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, she won the Women's combined event in 2018 Winter Olympics, and Women's combined at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Born in Samedan, Graubünden, Gisin is the younger sister of alpine ski racers Marc and Dominique Gisin.
Valérie Grenier is a Canadian World Cup alpine ski racer. She started skiing in all disciplines and later specialized in giant slalom and super-G, with some occacional starts in downhill.
Erik Read is a Canadian World Cup alpine ski racer specializing the technical events of slalom and giant slalom. Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, he represented Canada at two Winter Olympics and five World Championships.
Jeffrey Read is a Canadian World Cup alpine ski racer. He specializes in the speed events of downhill and super-G, and made his World Cup debut in January 2018.
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