Club Calgary Alpine Racing Medals 1 (1 gold) Height 1.73 m Teams 1 – (2006) Seasons 6 – (2005–10) Weight 80 kg | Medals 0 Name John Kucera Disciplines Giant slalom Teams 3 – (2005, 2007, 2009) Role Alpine ski racer | |
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Born September 17, 1984 (age 39)
Calgary, Alberta, Canada ( 1984-09-17 ) | ||
World cup debut November 27, 2004 | ||
John kucera myskistory
John Kucera (born September 17, 1984) is a World Cup alpine ski racer from Canada.
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Born in Calgary, Alberta, he raced in all five alpine disciplines, focusing on the speed events of downhill and super-G. Kucera is a former world champion in the downhill, but has been sidelined due to injury since November 2009. His parents immigrated to Canada from Czechoslovakia in 1980.
Kucera made his World Cup debut at age 20 in November 2004, on home snow in Lake Louise, Alberta. Two years later, Lake Louise was the site of his first World Cup victory, a super-G race in November 2006. Three weeks later he made another World Cup podium with a third-place finish in the super-G at Val Gardena, Italy. His next podium came two years later, a second place in the super-G at Lake Louise.
He won the gold medal in the downhill at the 2009 World Championships at Val-d'Isère, France, to become the first Canadian man to win the event at the World Championships.
On November 28, 2009, Kucera finished sixth in the first downhill of the 2010 season at Lake Louise, but fractured his left leg in the super-G the following day. A compound fracture through his left calf, he missed the rest of the 2010 World Cup season and the 2010 Winter Olympics at Whistler.
Kucera returned to the snow a year later in late 2010, but has yet to return to World Cup competition. As part of his recovery, he has been a forerunner for a number of races in North America and Europe.
As the son of Czech immigrants, Kucera is fluent in Czech and races on Atomic skis. His surname is pronounced kuw-cze-rah. John hosts the Matt and Eric show on JACK FM Calgary on Monday July 5, 2010.