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CALGARY -- John Kuceras career was shorter than he wanted but he leaves alpine ski racing knowing he achieved two firsts for Canada. The first Canadian man to win a world downhill championship and the Canadian skier to stand atop the World Cup podium in Lake Louise, Alta., announced his retirement from ski racing Thursday. Kucera won the mens downhill title in Val-dIsere, France, in 2009. He earned three career World Cup medals in super-G, including gold in Lake Louise in 2006. "Im just really proud I managed to take a very short career and do big things with it," the 29-year-old Calgarian said at Alpine Canadas headquarters in his hometown. "It was a great ride. It really was. "I did some things in this country that I was the first to do and Im really proud of that." Kuceras first four years on the national team were successful and promising. But a broken leg followed by a frustrating inner ear condition sidelined him for four of the last five seasons and also kept him from competing in two Winter Olympics. Vestibular neuritis -- an inner ear condition causing dizziness and nausea -- struck during a training camp in Chile last September and made it impossible to race through gates at 130 kilometres per hour. Kucera wasnt able to get back on skis to race at the Winter Games in Sochi in February. The symptoms still linger and the uncertainty over how long theyll remain, combined with an opportunity to join the coaching staff of the national development team, steered Kucera towards retirement. "Truth be told, Im not 100 per cent yet," he said. "I think my body just told me it was time to start doing something else. "This vestibular neuritis is tough because there is no time line. I could be good by July, but I could be good by next July and really, nobody can give me that answer. Who wouldve thought the thing that would have finally took me out was waking up dizzy one morning?" Super giant slalom, or super-G, is shorter than downhill but there are more gates on the course. The discipline requires a combination of speed and technical ability. At five foot nine and 185 pounds, Kucera wasnt as beefy as the top downhill racers early in his career, so he excelled in super-G. But on Feb. 7, 2009, he bested such heavyweights as Hermann Maier of Austria, Didier Cuche of Switzerland, Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway and American Bode Miller to win on Val-dIseres difficult slope. "Val-dIsere was a course that obviously played into a lot of my strengths, very technical, very steep," Kucera recalled. "That being said, I felt like every year I was becoming a better and better downhiller. "I just hit the right track, the right conditions and the right time of my career to become a champion there." Kucera was the first Canadian to win in 26 years of World Cup racing at Lake Louise when he captured super-G gold in 2006. He drew the No. 1 start bib, so after crossing the finish line, the 22-year-old stood nervously in front of television cameras watching as skier after skier came down the mountain. "I remember being really cold. I think it was -35 C that day," Kucera said. "Coming down, having that great run, freezing, watching a lot of the people I looked up to growing up and me beating them, it was pretty exciting." Kucera dedicated that victory to his former coach and friend, Jason Lapierre, who was hit by a car while biking and died earlier that year. Kuceras successes coincided with those of teammates Erik Guay, Manny Osborne-Paradis and Jan Hudec. The "Canadian Cowboys" have given the national mens downhill team depth it hasnt had since Steve Podborski and Ken Read headlined the "Crazy Canucks" of the 1980s. Guay won the mens downhill title again for Canada in 2011, while Hudec took silver in 2007. Guay passed Podborski as Canadas most decorated World Cup racer with 22 career medals. Guay also won the overall super-G title in 2010. Osborne-Paradis collected nine World Cup medals, including three gold, between 2006 and 2010. Hudec tied for third and won Olympic bronze in super-G in Sochi. "As a group, now with Jans medal at the Olympics, weve really done it all," Kucera said. "The only thing I guess you could say we havent done is we dont have an Olympic champion yet. "As a group, we pulled off some special things. Weve kind of superceded the Crazy Canuck era and did something great. Weve set the bar pretty high for the next group coming up, but I think thats where it needs to be." Kucera won two World Cup medals at Lake Louise -- he took silver there in 2008 -- but the mountain was disastrous for him in the first race of 2009-10. He badly broke his left leg in the super-G and erased his chance to race in Whistler, B.C., at the 2010 Winter Games. Rehabilitation and subsequent setbacks kept him off his race skis for the next three seasons. "Obviously the last four years hadnt gone exactly gone the way I would have liked them to, but that being said, I felt the time was right to step away now," Kucera said. "Ive had a good run as an athlete. "Im walking away relatively healthy. Thats a good thing. Im excited and passionate about the next group, the guys Im going to be working with because Im going to be working with a pretty exciting group of 17- to 19-year-olds." Kuceras parents, Jan and Zdena, emigrated to Canada from the former Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s before John was born. Jan worked with the ski patrol at nearby Nakiska. John and his brother James began skiing at an early age. Curtis Martin Jersey . With one penalty, Fourcade finished in 24 minutes, 58.2 seconds, just nine-tenths of a second ahead of Timofey Lapshin, who shot clean in the cold. Keyshawn Johnson Jersey . - Maxence Parrot of Bromont, Que. http://www.authenticnyjetspro.com/Jamal-adams-jets-jersey/ . With the Nets winning streak in jeopardy, Williams scored 23 points, 11 in the final six minutes, to lead Brooklyn to a 104-99 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night. Dennis Byrd Jersey . The Thunder earned the Game 1 win with a 100-86 victory Saturday night. Oklahoma City dominated the first half and led by 22 at the break, but saw its lead shrink to just two points in the fourth quarter. Mark Gastineau Jersey . Patrick Sharp scored twice and Patrick Kane, Bryan Bickell and Nick Leddy also connected to lead Chicago to a 5-2 win over the Devils on Monday night.ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Fernando Torres scored a valuable away goal for Chelsea in a 1-1 draw at Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday, but the Premier League side left Istanbul frustrated at its failure to build on its superior start. Torres scored the first goal by an English team in the knockout phase of the Champions League this season when he met Cezar Azpilicuetas cutback in the ninth minute of their first leg match in the last 16. But Chelsea failed to make the most of its counterattacks and the Turkish champions equalized in the second half after gaining in confidence and cutting out their defensive mistakes. Aurelien Chedjou put the ball past goalkeeper Petr Cech in the 64th after connecting with Wesley Sneijders corner. "I wouldnt want to say thats a great result, we all now know what a strong team they are," Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard told British broadcaster Sky Sports. "So (Im a) little bit disappointed today really at halftime it wasnt more than one nil up. I think we played very well first half, we controlled it. "They didnt have any chances and we have about four or five very good counterattacks, and we didnt make more of them." Unlike Chelsea, Real Madrid is virtually certain of a place in the quarterfinals after Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo each scored a brace in a spectacular 6-1 victory at Schalke in the nights other game. By contrast, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was already bracing for his sides second leg match in west London on March 18. "They have very powerful strikers and we are going to have a difficult time at Stamford Bridge -- thats for sure," Mourinho said. The pre-match build-up centred on the Galatasaray striker Didier Drogba facing the team he won the Champions League with in 2012. But it was another former Premier League regular who played a key role as Chelsea took an early lead -- for the wrong reasons. Former Arsenal defender Emmanuel Eboue was dispossessed too easily inside the Chelsea half, allowing Mourinhos side to launch a counterattack down the left flank. Andre Schurrle fed the advancing defender Azpilicueta, who cut the ball back for the unmarked Torres to side-foot into an openn net.dddddddddddd The hosts were leaving themselves too exposed, and unable to cause Chelsea many problems. The closest they came to levelling before the break was Izet Hajrovic sending a shot over the top. The winger, though, was substituted in the 31st, with Yekta Kurtulus coming on as coach Roberto Mancini responded to the poor start. "The game started and we did three of four mistakes," Mancini said. "Maybe in the first half we played too deep, with fear." But Chelsea would pay for not making the most of its confident start, with Ramires volleying over. Galatasarays defence looked as fragile at the start of the second half. Felipe Melos clearance went straight to Eden Hazard, who ran through the centre and released Torres. Although the striker broke through the defence, his shot was saved by goalkeeper Fernando Muslera. "We had too much respect for Chelsea ... we should have played more offensively without problems like in the second," Mancini said. Galatasaray recovered from its shaky start and proved a much tougher opponent after the break. "We had chances to kill the game," Mourinho said. "Im not critical of my strikers because my strikers did a very good game, but overall when we go to counterattack situations we are missing the last pass, the last control, the last choice ... the second goal would have changed the story of the game." It never came. The woodwork did deny Galatasaray. Drogba headed down from Sneijders delivery to Selcuk Inan, who hit the post. But Mancinis side found the target barely a minute later. Sneijder swung in a corner from the left, Chedjou turned the ball in from close range after getting in front of Chelsea captain John Terry. "We probably deserved to score another goal," Mancini said. Indeed, Cech only spared Chelsea from travelling back to London needing to overturn a 2-1 deficit, by tipping over Alex Telles swerving shot after William gave the ball away. "We werent passing it like we was in the first half," Lampard said. "A few things were disappointing. Its one of those results -- you are kind of happy with it, but we have still got a lot of work to do." 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