An ecstatic Erik Guay rode a risk-taking run to an enormous achievement at the World Cup Finals on Thursday (March 11): By winning the final super G race of the season, Guay captured the overall Crystal Globe for the discipline, fulfilling a childhood dream held by the skier from Mont-Tremblant, Que.

Winning a Crystal Globe signals sustained excellence throughout the long and challenging season, and it's a landmark achievement for Canadians. With his victory, Guay became the first Canadian man to win an overall World Cup discipline title since Steve Podborski, who captured the downhill crown in 1982. Podborski and Guay are the only two Canadian male racers to have hoisted Crystal Globes.

“I'm completely ecstatic,” Guay told Canadian reporters after his triumph, adding, “We couldn't have written a better screenplay.”

He won Thursday's race with a time of one minute, 26.36 seconds, giving him his third World Cup medal in the past five days, his third career victory, and the overall super G title with 331 points to runner-up Michael Walchhofer's 316.

It was a remarkable steal by the Canadian skier, who thought he had only an “outside chance” at the Crystal Globe heading into the race, though hope had bloomed in his heart after he won a bronze medal in Wednesday's (March 10) downhill final and struck gold in Sunday's (March 7) super G race in Norway.

It was also an emotional end to the season for a skier who fought long and hard to bring himself back up to top form, after a slow start to the season, and he commended his coaches and the team that surrounds him for helping him get there.

During a moment with his ski serviceman after the stunning victory, Guay said he was “brushing away tears. It was tough for me to take in. I've been dreaming about this moment for a long time.”

Canadian men's team head coach Paul Kristofic said Guay delivered a “massive accomplishment.”

“Obviously it's an incredible day for us. Erik was at the top of his game, he skied a great race… He really took every chance he could to be No. 1 today,” Kristofic said.

As the underdog challenger coming into Thursday's race, sitting some 70 points behind leader Walchhofer of Austria, Guay said he felt like he had the easier role. He needed simply to ski his heart out, and to “absolutely win,” he said.

“I needed to go as hard as I could and take as many chances as I could, and I did that,” Guay said.

Watching Walchhofer's run, Guay said he could see the leader was a little slower than he could have been. Finishing 15th in the race, he ended up surrendering the mistakes that Guay needed to grab the overall Crystal Globe.

“I don't know what happened… I just didn't ski well enough on this run. I blew it in several turns,” Walchhofer told Reuters. “It wasn't quite just enough for the title. Obviously I'm really disappointed, but now everything is behind me.”

Canadian coaches commended Whistler Mountain Ski Club alumnus Manuel Osborne-Paradis for his strong skiing on Thursday and in the past week, as he sped into a tie for 11th place in the super G race to accompany his seventh-place result from Wednesday's downhill.

Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic won the silver medal in Thursday’s super G race with a time of 1:26.75. Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal, the Olympic super G champion, snagged the bronze with his time of 1:26.99, and wound up third in the overall super G standings with 314 points.