Career
Erik Guay was five when he competed in his first ski race, and when he was twelve his father, himself a ski team coach, took him for professional coaching.
In Guay's best events, the speed events of Super G and downhill, he has 15 World Cup podiums through the end of the 2011 season. His first podium came in November 2003, when he finished 2nd in a downhill at Lake Louise. He finished in second twice in 2005 in the Super G and third once in downhill. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Guay, who suffered an injury two weeks before the Olympic Games, had to withdraw from the downhill but finished in fourth place in the Super G. He won his first World Cup race the following season at Garmisch, Germany. He was the first Canadian to win a World Cup men's downhill race since 1994, and the first man ever from Québec. Guay's performance in the downhill discipline over the 2007 season was sufficient to place him in third position in the World Cup discipline standings at season end.
In 2009, Guay achieved ten top-10 finishes in World Cup speed events but reached only one podium, a third. Finally, in 2010, after starting the season the same way, Guay broke through after two fifth-place finishes in the speed events at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. He achieved three straight podiums during March, including wins in the last two Super G races of the season, which enabled him to come from far behind and win the World Cup discipline trophy in Super G. Guay became the first Canadian man to win a crystal globe for a discipline title since Steve Podborski in 1982.
Guay struggled with back issues during the 2011 season, forcing him to miss events at both Kitzbühel and Wengen. During the 2011 World Championships at Garmisch, Guay won the downhill after not finishing the Super G earlier in the week. The win was Guay's first World Championship medal, and the second time a Canadian had won the downhill, after John Kucera in 2009.
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