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FIS GMC Cup Series FINALS Take Nakiska by Storm

Nakiska Ski Resort, AB – For the highest calibre alpine ski racers in the province, it all came down to last week’s FIS GMC Cup Series FINALS at Nakiska to determine who would claim the overall title for the 2025/26 season. Over 250 athletes took part, coming from club, provincial and even national teams, so competition was fierce and it was a solid opportunity for all athletes to see how they stacked up after a winter of training and racing throughout North America.

Slated to start with 2 days of Super-G as of Tuesday, Mother Nature had other ideas and the first event day was scrapped due to mild and unsafe conditions for a speed event, but come Wednesday, the weather cleared, the surface was firm and race organizers pulled off an amazing double header, running two 1-run Super G races per gender. In the morning race, Ontario’s Emma James narrowly beat the field with a 1:08:90, less than a tenth of a second recorded between Estelle Martin (1:08:96) and Rachel Tiviluk (1:08:98). Top Albertan in the women’s race was Mikayla Wunsch in 4th place.  Canmore’s Jeffrey Read (CAST) topped the podium in the Men’s first race with a 1:05:00 ahead of BC’s Sasha Gilbert (1:05:37) and Colton Bartholomew (1:05:73) . In the afternoon, James again claimed first for the women (1:08:48) just ahead of Gabby Wall, top Albertan with a 1:08:57 and, again, Rachel Tiviluk (1:08:59) from Georgian Peaks. In the 2nd Men’s Super-G race, the US athletes crept on to the podium with Abraham Musty (team?) in first (1:03:82) and just ahead of Sasha Gilbert again in second (1:03:86), with Everett Dooley (team) trailing by only one-hundredth of a second in third…and incredibly close race. Top Albertan was Caleb Brooks in 4th place, missing the podium by 3 one-hundredths of a second.

The sun came out in full force for both days of Giant Slalom (GS) and athletes shone too, seeing a Canadian National Team sweep of the podium in the 1st Men’s GS Thursday led again by Jeffrey Read with 1:48:15 combined, ahead of teammate Jake Kertesz-Knight (1:49:02) and brother Erik (1:49:11). Alberta weas well represented on the women’s podium led by CAST member Kendra Giesbrecht (1:51:10), with Gabby Wall (U of C Dinos) trailing by :14 (1:51:24) and Rebecca Pelkey (BAR) in third with 1:52:06. Friday’s race Saw Jeffrey Read (1:46:41) own the podium once again, followed by Colton Bartholomew (1:46:80) in second and Jesse Kertesz-Knight (1:46:93) in third place. The Women’s podium just shuffled the same three athletes from the previous day, this time Gabby Wall (1:55:40) taking the win ahead of Pelkey (1:55:70) and Giesbrecht (1:55:97).

The two, final Slalom events took place over the weekend and, while the snowy weather returned for Sunday, it did not dampen the mood as racers battled some tough courses to come out on top. On Saturday, Jesse Kertesz-Knight had a commanding lead by more than  a second over silver winner Thomas Carnahan and third place Erik Read.  Kendra Giesbrecht earned the gold ahead of Dinos’ Mikayla Wunsch and Gabby Wall in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Day two of the slalom got off to an unusual start…that was restarted after a gate was incorrectly replaced after being knocked out and two athletes’ times were recorded before the error was rectified. After a few more athletes ran the original line, and it was determined that the mis-set gate marked an unfairly fast line, the race was scrapped and restarted. According to TD Rob Tupper, and 3 other TD-accredited officials on course that day, it was something not seen before; however, being the independent authority on fairness and safety, the call was made to restart the men’s race. At the end of the day, Jesse Kertesz-Knight took yet another win for the series, trailed by Alberta Ski Team athlete Caleb Brooks and Dinos’ Taras Dets in third. On the women’s side, U of C’s Gabby Wall claimed gold, ahead of Estelle Martin by .24 of a second, and Kendra Giesbrecht in third place. Sunday’s race also marked the retirement for a few athletes, a bittersweet milestone marked by lots of cheers and the occasional costume, and congratulatory hugs in the finish corral.

The overall FIS GMC Cup was determined on a points system combining results from 22 separate race starts over six race series (including this series) during the 2025/26 season:

December:

  • Panorama 3XGS & 1XSL
  • Mt. Norquay 2XSL

January:

  • Nakiska 2GS & 1SL

February:

  • Mt. Norquay 2XGS & 2XSL

March:

  • Lake Louise, 4XSL (in 2 days!)

The overall top three for each gender were awarded FIS GMC Cup plaques, and the winners’ names will be added to the prestigious GMC Cup trophies, in circulation among the Alberta ski racing elite since the 1970’s.

Congratulations to this year’s FIS GMC Cup champions:

WOMEN

  1. Gabby WALL, U of C Dinos
  2. Nikola BUCHAR, Windermere Ski Club
  3. Elena DEDA, Windermere Ski Club

MEN

  1. Caleb BROOKS, Alberta Ski Team/Lake Louise Ski Club
  2. Jake KERTESZ-KNIGHT, Canadian Alpine Ski Team/Banff Alpine Racers
  3. Jesse KERTESZ-KNIGHT, Canadian Alpine Ski Team/Banff Alpine Racers

Official results for the entire FIS GMC Cup Series at Nakiska can be found here >>

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