Ken Read is at the centre of a talented Canadian alpine team that includes Erik Guay, right, and Genevieve Simard. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

As a charter member of the famed Crazy Canucks, Ken Read will forever be linked with the go-for-broke style that endeared him and his teammates to crowds across the alpine skiing circuit and helped him become the first North American to win a World Cup downhill, in 1975.

No surprise, then, that in his current job as CEO of Alpine Canada, Read continues to employ a bold style. He's made it known, for example, that he wants to top the alpine medal standings at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, and has spearheaded efforts to put the Canadian team in a position to do just that.

While many observers scoffed at the initial announcement of such a lofty goal, no one was laughing last season when Canada exceeded even its own high expectations by collecting a record 14 World Cup podium positions and rising to fifth in the Nations Cup race.

With a new season getting underway, Read talked with CBCSports.ca about his goals for 2007-08, the road to 2010, and Canada's home-hill advantage.

CBCSports.ca: How surprised were you by last season?

Ken Read: We were surprised, but not in ways we expected to be surprised. Our goal setting is based on what the coaching staff and athletic staff believe is the capacity of the team. It's actually them making the choice. I push them a little bit, but it's not me setting the bar.

Going into the season, there was a belief that Thomas Grandi would retire, so some people expected a dropoff, but we still moved past the World Cup goal of 12 podiums. We also had some negative surprises when Thomas sustained an early-season calf injury and never got going the entire year, and Gen Simard's knee wasn't what she wanted it to be, so two veterans didn't contribute to the podium total.

The biggest surprise was how the younger athletes rallied and continued their improvement. It wasn't surprising that Erik Guay, who'd been on the podium before, stepped up with his first win and five podiums. He was the anchor of the team.

CBC: The goals for this season are pretty much the same as what the team achieved last year. You're aiming for 14 podiums - the same number the team collected last year - and a fifth-place finish in the Nations Cup standings, which would be just one spot higher. Were you worried about raising the bar too high, too fast?

KR: The feeling was that, with Thomas having retired, we've lost our anchor on the technical side. And Gen Simard will be sitting out at least a good chunk of this season with her knee injury. But on the other side, there's the belief that the younger athletes on the team will continue to mature. The word that came to me was, we don't want to go backwards.

On the Nations Cup side, we're in a very tight battle for the number 4 to number 8 positions. All those nations are quite close. There's a bit of a step up required to catch Sweden, which is right in front of us, but the goal is to keep moving forward while recognizing the rest of the world keeps moving forward as well.

Canada will miss the leadership and performance of the retired Thomas Grandi, says Read. (Luca Bruno/Associated Press)

Now it gets harder. Now it's about devoting that extra attention to try to find out where those elusive hundredths of a second are. That's tougher than those broad brushstrokes of trying to move an athlete from, say, the top 50 into the top 30. Now it's down to the real detail and the minute differences.

CBC: You mentioned the retirement of Thomas Grandi. This will be the first time since 1992 that the Canadian team will head into a World Cup season without him. How much will he be missed?

KR: Thomas was a groundbreaker and a leader. He's someone that, more or less on his own, rose to a level of excellence to step on a podium. Eight of the nine podiums he reached in his career came since 2004. In part, that was because of the support that came in on the tech side, as well as the fact that through his leadership and mentorship of his peers, there actually emerged a true tech team. So he wasn't all by himself at the end - he had people pushing him.

One of my first experiences with Thomas was his asking for additional support so he could do some dry land training with some of the younger athletes up in his hometown of Canmore, Alta. It was a bunch of guys that were nearly 10 years younger than him, but he understood the importance of having a group to work with. That really epitomizes what he did for the team. He was a leader, and he understood what a leader could do for the entire group.

But now he's gone, so that means there's a reliable performer and a strong leader who's no longer with the team. We're now looking to see who can step up. Mike Janyk, who's also a very strong personality, has demonstrated his commitment. He's moved to Calgary to be closer to his teammates and be more focused on dry land training in the off-season.

There's no question we're going to miss Thomas, but the good news is that, in his new role as president of Alberta Alpine, he's still very keen to provide leadership in the system. So we haven't lost him, we just have him in a new role.

CBC: Some observers were skeptical a few years ago when the Own the Podium initiative was announced and Alpine Canada said it intended its team to capture the most medals in Vancouver. How much better are you feeling about that goal now?

KR: The whole genesis of Own the Podium was the different winter sports getting together with our funding partners and saying, "What do we think we can do?" We commissioned an independent study that came back saying, "If you invest now, coming first in 2010 is an achievable goal. But you've got to do it now." To the credit of all the parties who have injected the additional funds, it was done quite quickly.

As far as the goal itself, I have to look to the one sport that everyone in this country knows well: Hockey. I don't think Hockey Canada, or Canadians, expect this country to be aiming for silver in women's or men's hockey. So why should we aim for silver or bronze or fourth in the overall team standings at the Olympics?

CBC: Which skiers are you looking to specifically to lead the team into 2010?

KR: All the athletes currently on our team intend to stick around through the Games. Allison Forsyth is our one question mark at the moment because she's struggling a bit with her recuperation from the knee injury she suffered in Turin in 2006. But she wants to be skiing in 2010.

In the men's speed group there's Erik Guay, Jan Hudec, John Kucera, Manuel Osborne-Paradis and Francois Bourque. That's a pretty strong group of five, and we only get to start four at the Olympics, so we can already see that intense competition to nail down the spots.

Michael Janyk is a key member of Canada's 2007-08 alpine team, the country's largest ever. (Kerstin Joensson/Associated Press)

In men's technical, Mike Janyk carries the mantle of leadership, and Paul Stutz is starting to step up a little further down the ranks. Jean-Phillipe Roy, Ryan Semple and Patrick Biggs have all had good results. Injuries have weakened that group a little bit, so they're trying to get back alongside their speed counterparts.

On the women's side, we have a core of Emily Brydon, Britt Janyk, Kelly VanderBeek, Simard and Forsyth. They're an interesting blend of older athletes and younger athletes.

This is the largest team we've ever had, so the two seasons after this will be about narrowing things down and bringing performance into focus. We'll have a tougher selection criteria. You're going to have to step up to a higher benchmark.

CBC: Last season the only World Cup stops in Canada were at Lake Louise, where the team captured three podium spots between the men and the women. This year, in addition to Lake Louise, stops have been added in Panorama, B.C., and Whistler, B.C., making for a record 10 races on Canadian soil. How much of an impact will that have on the team's podium count?

KR: Lake Louise is a location the team is very familiar with, so we hope they continue to perform well. It's our regular stop on the tour and it's our opportunity to take advantage of it.

At Panorama and Whistler, our women's team has a higher level of familiarity with the hills than our competitors do. I doubt it will have an immediate impact on the podium in the short term, but one always remains optimistic. Our hope is to get Panorama, which will host a women's slalom and giant slalom, on the tour on a regular basis so we can bring the spotlight back to our women's tech side, which is a weak area on our team.

The other thing is to get our officials and volunteers ready. We haven't run a tech event in Canada in 14 years, and we have this big event called the Olympics coming up in 2010. We'd better make sure that those running the event are familiar with the highest level of competition possible.

On the men's side, our athletes have already had numerous runs on the Whistler downhill course that will be used at the Olympics. We held the national championships there last year, and a special training camp that followed them.

Whistler will host only a super-G and giant slalom this year, so there will be no international men's downhills run on the Olympic track until the Olympics. But our athletes will have had 20 to 25 training runs on that course. And each time down is an absolute gold mine of opportunity to seek those elusive extra hundredths of a second.