The TELUS Awards of Excellence for Alpine Canada Alpin are designed to honor events, outstanding individuals or clubs who excelled during the previous ski season. The awards have been granted annually since 2002, with more than 100 outstanding recipients honoured for their relentless pursuit of excellence. Denyse Houde received the President’s Award in 2005 and was named Master Athlete of the Year along with Howard Cole in 2006.

This year’s Masters award recipients are Richard Petrone and Kerri-Lynn Houde. The pair of them most improved their combined slalom and giant slalom points total over the previous year, besting over 160 carded athletes who raced in both disciplines of the Canadian Masters national race series throughout the 2008-2009 season.

These winners could not have come from more different backgrounds. Richard is a 39 year-old sports-minded Waterloo University professor who, having played competitive football, soccer and hockey, decided 5 years ago to enroll in the gate-training program offered by Chicopee Ski Club. He also joined their interclub adult team and quickly discovered that he fully enjoyed the physical fitness aspect of ski racing. Richard later registered as a national competitor and mustered the courage to participate in Canadian Masters national points races. His love of the sport and his dogged perseverance paid-off with improved results in Ontario and BC events this past season.

Former Ontario Ski Team member Kerri-Lynn, now 41 and a member of the Georgian Peaks Club is also a parent with young children. Over the last few seasons she has been slowly rekindling the passion of her teens. Although she has performed exceptionally well in several FIS Masters and Junior recreational events she admits that “racing for fun” still gives her starting gate butterflies. Past experience and competitiveness prevailed as she won fastest overall titles at the 2009 Ontario Masters and Canadian Masters Championships in Sun Peaks BC.

For more information about the Canadian Masters program please visit www.acamasters.com
Details on the Telus Awards of Excellence program including past ACA award recipients are available at www.canski.org.