This article may be written from a fan's point of view, rather than a neutral point of view .(February 2023) |
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Born | Waterloo, Ontario, Canada | 24 November 1959|||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation | Alpine skier | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Skiing career | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Disciplines | Downhill | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Toronto Ski Club | |||||||||||||||||||||||
World Cup debut | 13 December 1981 (age 22) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Retired | January 1987 (age 27) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Olympics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Teams | 1 – (1984) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medals | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
World Championships | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Teams | 2 – (1982, 1985) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medals | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
World Cup | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Seasons | 6 – (1982–1987) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Wins | 3 – (3 DH) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Podiums | 7 – (7 DH) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Overall titles | 0 – (25th in 1984) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Discipline titles | 0 – (7th in DH, 1985) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Todd Brooker (born 24 November 1959) is a former alpine ski racer member Crazy Canucks and a ski commentator on television. [1]
Born in Waterloo, Ontario, Brooker learned to ski and race at The Toronto Ski Club 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]
Season | Age | Overall | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1982 | 22 | 32 | — | — | not run | 14 | — |
1983 | 23 | 27 | — | — | not awarded | 9 | — |
1984 | 24 | 25 | — | — | 9 | — | |
1985 | 25 | 29 | — | — | 7 | — | |
1986 | 26 | 83 | — | — | — | 33 | — |
1987 | 27 | 71 | — | — | — | 26 | — |
Season | Date | Location | Discipline | Place |
---|---|---|---|---|
1982 | 6 March 1982 | Aspen, CO, USA | Downhill | 2nd |
1983 | 22 January 1983 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Downhill | 1st |
6 March 1983 | Aspen, CO, USA | Downhill | 1st | |
1984 | 9 December 1983 | Val d'Isère, France | Downhill | 2nd |
18 December 1983 | Val Gardena, Italy | Downhill | 2nd | |
1985 | 12 January 1985 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Downhill | 3rd |
2 March 1985 | Furano, Japan | Downhill | 1st |
Year | Age | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1982 | 22 | — | — | not run | 13 | — |
1985 | 25 | — | — | 9 | — |
Year | Age | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1984 | 24 | — | — | not run | 9 | not run |
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]
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.[ citation needed ]
Hermann Maier is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. Nicknamed the "Herminator", Maier ranks among the greatest alpine ski racers in history, with four overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals, and three World Championship titles. His 54 World Cup race victories – 24 super-G, 15 downhills, 14 giant slaloms, and 1 combined – rank third on the men's all-time list behind Ingemar Stenmark's 86 victories and Marcel Hirscher's 67 victories. Until 2023 he held the record for the most points in one season by a male alpine skier, with 2000 points from the 2000 season. From 2000–2013 he also held the title of most points in one season by any alpine skier, until Tina Maze scored 2414 points in the 2013 season.
Franz Klammer is a former champion alpine ski racer from Austria. Klammer dominated the downhill event for four consecutive World Cup seasons (1975–78). He was the gold medalist at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, winning the downhill at Patscherkofel by a margin of 0.33 seconds with a time of 1:45.73. He won 25 World Cup downhills, including four on the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel. He also holds the record for the most victories (four) on the full course at Kitzbühel.
Kenneth John Read is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Canada. He was a specialist in the downhill and a two-time Olympian. He won five World Cup races during his ten-year international career, all in downhill.
Stephen Gregory Podborski is a Canadian former World Cup and Olympic downhill ski racer.
Didier Cuche is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland.
Didier Défago is a Swiss retired World Cup alpine ski racer.
Peter Müller is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland.
Roland Collombin is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland, a two-time World Cup downhill champion and Olympic silver medalist.
Kristian Ghedina is an Italian alpine skiing coach and former competitive racer. His 13 victories are the second most by an Italian downhill specialist in World Cup history: the first is Dominik Paris with 21 victories. He is currently an auto racer.
Günther Mader is a former alpine ski racer and Olympic medalist from Austria. Born in Matrei am Brenner, Tyrol, he is one of only five men to have won World Cup races in all five alpine disciplines.
Scott Macartney is a retired American World Cup alpine ski racer. He concentrated in the speed events of downhill and super-G.
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.
Johan Clarey is a French World Cup alpine ski racer. He specializes in the speed events of downhill and super-G.
Dominik Paris is an Italian alpine ski racer, who specializes in speed events of super-G and downhill. He was the world champion in super-G, as the gold medalist in 2019 at Åre, Sweden.
Beat Feuz is a Swiss former World Cup alpine ski racer, specializing in the speed events of downhill and super-G. He is 2017 World champion and 2022 Olympic champion in downhill. In 2021, he won consecutive downhills on the famed Streif at Kitzbühel.
Patrick Küng is a Swiss former World Cup alpine ski racer. He specialised in the speed events of Downhill and Super G and made his World Cup debut at Wengen in 2009.
Matthias Mayer is an Austrian retired World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic champion.
Thomas Dreßen is a retired German World Cup alpine ski racer. He specializes in the speed events of downhill and super-G. Dreßen made his World Cup debut in February 2015 at the Saalbach downhill. He made his first podium in December 2017 in the downhill at Beaver Creek and his first win came the following month at Kitzbühel.
The men's downhill in the 2021 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of seven events. The original schedule had contained nine downhills, but a rescheduled one on 5 March in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria, was canceled due to fog and continual snowfall after just nine skiers had finished, and the downhill during World Cup finals week was also canceled.
Kandahar is a classic World Cup downhill ski course in southern Germany. Located in Bavaria at the Garmisch Classic ski area on the Zugspitze above Garmisch-Partenkirchen, it opened 88 years ago in 1936.