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Next month, Dec. 7 will mark 40 years since Canadian skier Ken Read shocked the racing establishment by becoming the first non-European man to win a World Cup downhill race.

Read’s win launched the era of the Crazy Canucks, a dynamic group of Canadian skiers who enjoyed great success at a time when Canada often struggled in competition in winter sports.

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In fact, during Winter Olympics of that era Canada would often only win two or three medals. Quite the contrast from recent times.

Photo by Bill Brooks / File/Calgary Herald

At the Vancouver/Whistler Games in 2010 Canada placed third in the medal count with 26 and led all nations with 14 golds. In 2014 at Sochi, Russia, the team finished fourth in medals with 25, including 10 golds.

So what made Canada such a winter sports powerhouse?

A lot of it comes down to money.

Read and his Crazy Canucks teammates had to bounce around Europe on a shoestring budget in a Volkswagen minivan. He and Steve Podborski were only added to the team because of one of the first targeted funding programs in Canadian sport — the Game Plan ’76 program, which was created ahead of the Montreal Olympic Summer Games.