Building on Canada's first victory in Deer Valley since 2001, Alexandre Duchaine has been busy since that first career World Cup title.

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Duchaine achieved his first World Cup victory last Saturday. He is the first Canadian to reach the top of the podium at Deer Valley since Nicolas Fontaine in 2001 and only the second in history to achieve the feat. The World Championships have been held in Deer Valley since 1999, a few years before the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Fontaine was very happy about his former protégé's successes. “It doesn’t hurt me at all to no longer be the only Canadian gold medalist in Deer Valley,” said the head coach of Canada’s NextGen team. It is our job to train good jumpers. Alex's win shows that the team is maturing and we have depth.

Coincidentally, Fontaine was joined on the podium in 2001 by his teammate and current head coach of Team Canada Jeff Bean, who had won silver.

Did Duchaine celebrate his first triumph in style? “There was excitement all evening because we didn’t go to bed,” he said. The test took place in the evening and we left the hotel at 3am to return to Quebec. It was a surprise that I won.”

A new popularity

Since his return, Duchaine has had no time to be idle. “There has been a lot of media attention since we returned to Quebec,” he said. I'm not the one who usually speaks at team media activities. It's cool. It doesn’t add any extra pressure, it’s just a bonus.”

Best Canadian in the cumulative World Cup ranking with a 4th place^e Can Duchaine get back on the podium at the end of the week instead? “The goal is to reach the super final [top 6] and to create my new jump, he emphasized. I haven't done my triple somersault with four turns in competition since the World Championships in Georgia last year. I missed it and scared myself.”

The 19-year-old jumper achieved success in training on Wednesday, which he wants to achieve in the final in order to qualify for the grand final.

Duchaine narrowly finished on the podium in one of the relay's two legs last year. He doesn't want to repeat last year's mistake when he scored 10 points^e Place in the second leg at home.

“After my first jump, I talked to everyone in the finish area,” he remembers. I don't know if that's the reason, but I finished tenth^e place in the final and therefore missed the super final. My coach told me to stay in my bubble and I didn't listen to him. This time I’m going straight up to prepare for the next jump.”