With temperatures at Mount Sima climbing this week to bearable, the best of the country's teenage alpine skiers hit the slopes Tuesday for what they call the speed event.

It was on the top third of the mountain when speed suddenly snuck into the equation for Yukon racer Matthew Wolsynuk of Whitehorse.

The 17-year-old had come off one of the initial pitches at a fair pace into a compression, where gravity wants to push into the ground.

Coming through the compression into a pair of gates, Wolsynuk's downhill ski got loose. While compensating with a shift of weight, his uphill ski caught a rut awkwardly.

'It popped me up and spun me around,' he explains in an interview at the conclusion of the first day of Canada Winter Games alpine racing.

For Wolsynuk, as for most of his teammates, the Super G event akin to the downhill on the World Cup circuit is a speed event while they prefer the more technical races like the giant slalom scheduled for today and the slalom scheduled for Thursday.

Yesterday's gold medal winner in the women's category, Andrea Bliss of Alberta, hit a top speed of 78.3 kilometres per hour, while the men were travelling even slightly faster.

Bliss recorded a time of 51.42 seconds, just ahead of the 51.55 recorded for silver by Krystyn Peterson of Ontario and the 51.91 for bronze by Catherine Morel of Quebec.

Cam Brewington of Alberta won gold in the men's category with a time of 49.70, also a hair ahead of the 49.89 recorded by Chris Scheele of Alberta for the silver and the 50.39 by Cameron Wickman of Ontario for bronze.

Mila Major of Team Newfoundland-Labrador was taken off the hill on a stretcher and to Whitehorse General Hospital by ambulance after suffering a mid concussion in the spill near the top.

Major was released from hospital last night, but will not ski for the rest of the week, a race official confirmed this morning.

Wolsynuk says he prefers the slalom and giant slalom events because as a local racer, they don't get to practice the Super G much.

Jessica Young of the Team Yukon attended the National Sport School in Calgary where she trains for the alpine circuit.

Like Wolsynuk, she too prefers the slalom and giant slalom.

Young, who placed eighth in the Super G less than a second behind the winner, has been focused on the technical races for most of the season.

Skiing the speed events and the more technical events is like two different sports, But switching between the two is something they work on constantly.

'So I am excited about how a ski tomorrow.'

Sammy Kent of Whitehorse, who was in a cast up until a week and a half ago after a Super G spill in December, also attends the National Sport School. He says the long layoff and lack of conditioning were probably a factor yesterday.

But his leg felt good, and he felt good.

'It was a good day, it was fun,' says Kent, who finished 24th out of 52 skiers, with a time of 52.39.