A coup for the elders

The 35-year-old Buechel withstood the pain of a broken rib and the challenge from Manuel Osborne Paradis, edging the Canadian by a wafer-thin .05 seconds to capture the season's opening downhill and put his name in the World Cup record books on Saturday.

At 35 years and 21 days, Buechel assumed the mantle of oldest World Cup downhill winner by replacing Austrian Stephan Eberharter, who rocketed to victory in Kitzbuehel when he was 34 years, 10 months old.

"The older I get the harder it is," Buechel told reporters. "I must say training is boring, I don't like it anymore. But every training session, every drop of sweat I had I was thinking about Lake Louise.

"My biggest goal all summer was to come here and win this race.

"Then two weeks ago I crashed, broke my rib and laid in bed for eight days.

"The goal drifted away from me, I knew winning here was impossible with the pain I had.

"But thanks to painkillers I was able to do the race and winning here today was like a dream."

Two of Buechel's three career wins have come in the last 12 months and his is not the only veteran hoping to make a statement at Lake Louise.

Hermann Maier turns 34-year-old himself in two weeks and finished sixth in Saturday's downhill.

The two-time Olympic champion from Nagano and silver medallist in the super-G from February's Turin Games will get the honour of racing 30th out of the world's top 30 in Sunday's super-G.

The Austrian legend could easily make it a World Cup senior double at Lake Louise on Sunday.

Buechel, meanwhile, will look for his own double up at Lake Louise, skiing 24th and hoping to earn his fourth career World Cup victory and second in the super-G.

Still, there were recognisable signs of age for last year's world number ten during Saturday's victory.

"Visibility was good which is very important to me because if I can't see the ground I can't ski fast, maybe it's the age I cannot attack as fast as I want," said Buechel. "I have to say I've not so young anymore, I'm one of the oldest in the World Cup."

Having competed in four Olympics, Buechel will take part in his seventh world championships next year in Are, Sweden and is hoping for a few more podium finishes before he eventually retires.

"Days like this keep me going, I want to experience this feeling so many times," said Buechel. "I love this job so much."