Canadian Reece Howden's successes, failures helped him find his way back to the top

Reece Howden is sure this is the best he's ever skied.

The 24-year-old sits atop the overall men's ski cross World Cup standings after capturing five straight podium finishes in seven races, winning two gold and three silver medals.

That stint sounds like a natural progression for someone who is no stranger to the men's ski cross Crystal Globe, awarded to the athlete with the most points in a World Cup season.

But, in reality, the disappointing 2022 campaign that followed Howden's title in 2021 might just be the key behind his recent level.

"It was just the perfect storm in the bad sense, but the nice thing is that we learned so much from that," Howden told CBC Sports about last year's struggles from his place near Adams Lake, B.C.

The Olympian managed just one win and three podium finishes in 11 races in the 2022 World Cup season — a far cry from his first full campaign in the circuit in 2021.

That season, Howden captured four gold medals and two silver while also securing International Ski Federation (FIS) Rookie of the Year honours and the Crystal Globe.

It turns out the result dip presented him with more of an opportunity to grow than his breakthrough year.

"You don't really learn much when you're skiing well and you're doing things well. It's when you fail, when you make mistakes that you actually learn."

WATCH l Howden races to gold in Italy in December for 1st win of season:

Howden, who switched from Alpine skiing to ski cross at 17, sums it all up with a simple phrase: now, he "knows what's going on."

"[In the 2021 season] I was just skiing fast and I was happy, and that was basically it. [Now], I have a lot more foundation to the reason I was skiing fast and what I'm doing to be fast," said the athlete born in Chilliwack, B.C. and raised in Cultus Lake, B.C.

"Physically, I'm at the top as I've ever been. I'm hitting personal bests at the daily, it seems like. Mentally, I'm aware of what my expectations are, of what I want to do at races and how I want to act. And I also know, tactically, the things I need to do and the things I need to think about when I'm racing so that I can be in the right head space to be successful."

'He came back this year hungry'

Howden "was almost unstoppable" when he won the Crystal Globe, said Stanley Hayer, Canada's ski cross team head coach and a former freestyle skier who represented Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Then came the low point in the following season when Howden only finished 12th in the standings and trailed champion Ryan Regez of Switzerland by 292 points (559 vs. 267).

"I think that usually happens when you have success. It's hard to repeat," said Hayer. "He came back this year hungry. He really wanted to win. You can see it from the summer work that he put in. With his physical strength, skills and attitude he's hard to beat right now."

More than a one-time Crystal Globe winner possibly heading to clinching his second honour, Howden is the "full package", said Hayer.

"He does a lot of things really well. He doesn't do anything unbelievable. There are people who do things better than him, but when you put the whole package together with his strength and his ability to turn and ski fast, that makes him unbeatable."

Knowing more about equipment preparations and going back to visualizing his races beforehand also helped, Howden said. Such as it did to adjust his expectations.

"When I was younger, I always thought that if you won the Crystal Globe or a World Cup [race], your life would change. And it took me a while to understand that that wasn't the case and to accept that and to find the real reason why I was doing what I was doing."

Howden's streak of five-straight podium finishes is good for 481 points and a 153-point gap to Mathias Graf of Austria, currently second in the standings.

Brady Leman is the second-best ranked Canadian in 12th place. Kris Mahler (18th) and Kevin Drury (19th), who became the first Canadian to win the Crystal Globe in the sport in the 2020 season, are also in the top-20.

The next World Cup stop is set for Reiteralm, Austria, on Feb. 15-17. The circuit will then head to Germany and Switzerland before the final event of the season at the Craigleith Ski Club in Collingwood, Ont., in Mar. 16-18.

"It would be a super special place to get awarded the Crystal Globe. My family will all be there, being on home soil. It's going to feel good and hopefully it happens. At this point, it's just about consistency and being healthy," said Howden.

His first World Cup victory came in Canada, at the Nakiska Ski Area in Kananaskis Country, Alta., in Jan. 2020.

Big Rig Radio

Howden hosts the 'Big Rig Radio' podcast, launched in November and currently with four episodes, where he is joined by fellow athletes to cover the mental and physical aspects of athletics along with other subjects.

"It's more just for self-improvement and hopefully once I can kind of get the ball rolling, it can inspire some people and get a bit more traction," said Howden, who's using the project to refine his speech and video and audio editing skills.

"At this point we're just trying to say the things that a lot of people don't get to hear and promote ski cross and that lifestyle. Just trying to get out there and share our stories."

Olympic memories

Howden finished ninth in his Olympic debut in Beijing 2022, having been ousted in the quarterfinals.

The only Canadian to do better was then 35-year-old Leman, who had won the event in Pyeongchang 2018 and finished sixth in the Chinese capital.

"There was a lot of things that I could have done to improve my performance [at the Games]. I learned a lot from that and there is when I realized I wasn't doing enough visualization of the track.

"I wanted to come back with a medal, but it just wasn't meant to be," said Howden, who won the Youth Winter Olympic Games men's ski cross gold in 2016.

Even with Milano Cortina 2026 nowhere in the near future, Howden looks forward to a better experience in terms of logistics and atmosphere.

"Being at the Olympics before, it's going to make things a lot easier… It's going to be so much easier in Italy without COVID, without the trip… It alone took us 36 hours door to door, travelling, to get to Canada house in China. It was very difficult on the body. There were four different flights. It was unfortunate not to be able to have any of your family there too."

WATCH l CBC Sports' Anastasia Bucsis spoke to Howden after 1st Crystal Globe success: