It’s remarkably sweet when an athletic career ends on a grace note: Ted Williams lofting a home run in his final game at Fenway, say, or John Elway passing his Broncos to a Super Bowl victory.
Or, earlier today, Alex Harvey taking second in front of a levitating crowd of supporters on the Plains of Abraham in the middle of Quebec City.
Harvey’s career has been winding slowly down from its world championship apex, but the affection of his local supporters has if anything been growing—an affection, remember, that builds on the love for his father Pierre, Canada’s ski hero of an earlier age. Today his fans lined the sinuous World Cup course, four and five deep on the hills and along the stretched-out stadium finish—some waved placards with his face, others stood bare chest to bare chest to spell out “Go Alex!”
And an omen that he had a shot—or at least that things would not automatically default to the season’s normal standings—came in the women’s race that sprung from the line shortly after 9 a.m. Yesterday’s slushy track had turned rock solid today, and the speeds were withering: Therese Johaug was out in front but only by a smidge, since the flying descents shot skiers halfway up the next climbs, reducing the advantage that her peerless motor had provided all year long. When they dropped on to the long flat that hooked to the line, it seemed certain Stina Nilsson would sweep past, and indeed she did.
That left people thinking that Alexander Bolshunov, too, might not be the lock that the season’s results would indicate. As the men began their 15k course, he surged to the lead with Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, but neither could begin to shake the pack of at least a dozen skiers that hovered nearby. And by the third of four laps, as Harvey solidified his place in that frontrunning corps, a buzz began to build around the course. Spectators dashed across the infield to see the next climb, the next drop—as Harvey moved into third on the steep uphill near the start of the final lap, a kind of hope-against-hope excitement began to build.
