Todd Brooker

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Todd Brooker
Alpine skier
Todd Brooker.png
Disciplines Downhill
ClubToronto Ski Club
Born (1959-11-24) November 24, 1959 (age 63)
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
World Cup debutDecember 13, 1981
(age 22)
RetiredJanuary 1987 (age 27)
Olympics
Teams1 – (1984)
Medals0
World Championships
Teams2 – (1982, 1985)
Medals0
World Cup
Seasons6 – (1982–1987)
Wins3 – (3 DH)
Podiums7 – (7 DH)
Overall titles0 – (25th in 1984)
Discipline titles0 – (7th in DH, 1985)
Medal record
Men's alpine skiing
Representing Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada
World Cup race podiums
Event1st2nd3rd
Downhill331

Todd Brooker (born November 24, 1959) is a former alpine ski racer member Crazy Canucks and a ski commentator on television. [1]

Contents

World Cup career

Born in Waterloo, Ontario, Brooker learned to ski and race at Blue Mountain, near Collingwood and made the Canadian national team in 1977; he competed on the World Cup circuit from December 1981 to January 1987. A younger member of the Crazy Canucks (Canada's downhill team) of the early 1980s Brooker won two World Cup downhill races at (Kitzbühel & Aspen) in 1983 finishing ninth in the season's overall downhill standings. Two years later he won the downhill race in Furano, Japan finishing seventh in the 1985 downhill standings.

Brookers rise to world class prominence placed him 13th at the 1982 World Championships, ninth in the downhill in both the 1984 Winter Olympics and the 1985 World Championships.

The Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel, Austria, is arguably the most physically and mentally demanding race on the downhill skiing world cup circuit. The Streif course is one of the most respected and feared downhill courses. A victory is a badge of honor, if not a bragging right to even the most seasoned and decorated racer. From 1980 to 1983, Canadians Ken Read, Steve Podborski, and Brooker broke the European dominance of victory at Kitzbühel.

After returning from a knee injury, Brooker's ski racing career ended in Kitzbühel at the top of the Zielschuss in January 1987 with the most gut wrenching spectacular ragdoll head-over-heels cartwheeling fall ever captured on film. [2] [3] [4] When asked about the video, Brooker has remarked that everyone remembers his Kitzbühel fall, except for him. The crash in the Friday training run ended his season and racing career. [5] [6]

Brooker finished his World Cup career with three victories, seven podiums, and 15 top ten finishes, all in downhill. [7]

World Cup results

Season standings

SeasonAgeOverall Slalom Giant
 Slalom 		Super-GDownhillCombined
1982 2232——not run14—
1983 2327——not
awarded		9—
1984 2425——9—
1985 2529——7—
1986 2683———33—
1987 2771———26—

Race podiums

SeasonDateLocationDisciplinePlace
1982 March 6, 1982 Flag of the United States.svg Aspen, CO, USA Downhill 2nd
1983 January 22, 1983 Flag of Austria.svg Kitzbühel, Austria Downhill1st
March 6, 1983 Flag of the United States.svg Aspen, CO, USADownhill1st
1984 December 9, 1983 Flag of France.svg Val d'Isère, France Downhill2nd
December 18, 1983 Flag of Italy.svg Val Gardena, Italy Downhill2nd
1985 January 12, 1985 Flag of Austria.svg Kitzbühel, AustriaDownhill3rd
March 2, 1985 Flag of Japan.svg Furano, Japan Downhill1st

World championship results

  Year   Age  Slalom  Giant 
 Slalom 		Super-GDownhillCombined
1982 22——not run13—
1985 25——9—

Olympic results Olympic rings.svg

  Year   Age  Slalom  Giant 
 Slalom 		Super-GDownhillCombined
1984 24 — — not run 9 not run

Post-racing career

Brooker has been a ski commentator on television for a number of years, and has worked for most of the major networks in North America. He has covered alpine skiing for numerous Winter Olympics for U.S. television, and currently provides commentary and analysis on CBC in Canada during the World Cup ski season. Brooker covered alpine skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics for NBC in the United States.

Brooker lives on a farm in rural Ontario near Thornbury, with his wife and three daughters. [8]

Crabbe Mountain Speed Camp

Brooker also made an appearance at the 2011 Crabbe Mountain Speed Camp, a camp where kids from across Atlantic Canada go to learn the discipline known as Super G.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Todd Brooker profile". fis-ski.com. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIu1ehx2vfI
  3. ↑ Starkman, Randy (23 January 1987). "Training-run crash sends Brooker to hospital". Ottawa Citizen. p. B1.
  4. ↑ "Brooker injured in spectacular crash". Ottawa Citizen. Canadian Press. 24 January 1987. p. E2.
  5. ↑ Starkman, Randy (26 January 1987). "Brooker loves course that causes pain". Ottawa Citizen. p. B4.
  6. ↑ "Brooker yet to decide on ski future". Ottawa Citizen. Canadian Press. 12 February 1987. p. D6.
  7. ↑ FIS-ski.com - race results - Todd Brooker
  8. ↑ Sonic Relief.com - Todd Brooker
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