Jenn Heil (CP)

Jenn Heil wins dual moguls World Championships, Team Canada dominates.
(Freestyle Release)

RUKA, Finland -- Call it an early, but huge birthday present. Jennifer Heil of Spruce Grove, Alta., who turns 22 next month, wasn't sure if she could find the energy to challenge for a medal in dual moguls, but she did so in winning fashion at the 2005 Ruka FIS Freestyle World Championships Saturday.

In a battle of superstars, Heil defeated Kari Traa of Norway in the women's final to give Canada its sixth medal -- and third gold medal -- of the Championships.
Heil wasn't sure if she was going to hang on after a huge first jump in the final, but she did to cap off a season in which she also won her second straight crystal globe as World Cup overall women's moguls champion. "It's definitely up there, but winning the two crystal globes is still on the top shelf,” admitted Heil, who trains out of Montreal.

A teary-eyed Heil was clearly pleased she had turned around her game after disappointing herself with a fifth-place finish in Saturday's individual moguls. Her form was fine Saturday, but her speed was off. "I'm so excited I was able to dig deep. I had to work really hard to turn the pace around,” explained Heil.

Calling Saturday's disappointment good motivation, she admitted, “It's been a really tough weekend. I'm a little tired and I've pushed hard all year. I think I've gone pretty hard and I have nothing left in the tank.”

Heil won the final to leave Traa with the silver medal and Aiko Uemura of Japan with the bronze. Heil's victory also lead the Canadian moguls’ team to its second straight day of six top-10 finishes.

Sylvia Kerfoot of Vancouver defeated highly-touted Margarita Marbler of Austria in the round of 16, but lost her quarter-final dual to Uemura en route to a sixth-place finish. Stéphanie St-Pierre of Victoriaville, Que., and Elisa Kurylowicz of Manotick, Ont., were among eight skiers tied for ninth.

On Saturday, Marc-André Moreau of Chambly, Que., got mad and it helped him capture a silver medal in the men's event. "To finish second at the Worlds in my first major event makes me super happy,” said Moreau. "It's my first big event. It's the biggest thing I've ever done in my life.” "When I got to the bottom I knew I had a good run, but only when I saw the score did I know it was really good,” said Moreau. “But I still didn't think I could win a medal.”

Dale Begg-Smith, who used to train out of Whistler, B.C., was third in 26.75. Warren Tanner of Grimsby, Ont., finished sixth, Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau of Drummondville, Que., seventh and Stéphane Agnard of Quebec City 32 nd.

Aerialist Steve Omischl of North Bay shook off the tag that he wasn't really a big-event jumper by capturing the gold medal at the World Freestyle Ski Championships Friday. He and Jeff Bean of Ottawa went 1-2 to duplicate their showing from Thursday's qualification round. “I've never jumped better,” said Omischl, 25, who had finished a disappointed 11th at the 2002 Olympic Games and third at the last World Championships two years ago.

“I don't know what to say. You're not going to get many quotes out of me today,” said an ecstatic Omischl, while being congratulated by team-mates. He did admit: “It's the most calm I've ever been for any event. I knew if I competed the way I train, then I'd come through.”

“We have a good team. We're one of the best teams in the world and it's about time we start winning the major events,” said Omischl. "Last year, when I was winning a lot of World Cup events, there wasn't a lot of pressure,” said Omischl of winning the overall World Cup title, and following that with second this season behind Jeret Peterson of the U.S.

Bean was also beaming after capturing the silver medal with a score of 253.61, to leave Alexei Grishin of Belarus third in 246.19. "It couldn't have worked out any better,” said Bean, who now calls his fourth place at the 2002 Olympics a close second highlight of his freestyle ski career. "I'm surprised in a way... but this is what I came to do,” added Bean, who said the last two weeks he rounded into form during a season that began with a broken neck several months ago in Australia, and continued with a roller-coaster of highs and lows. “This is, hopefully, a foreshadowing,” said Bean of his silver-medal performance and results at next year's Olympics.

Bean called the experience of being on the podium with his victorious team-mate ‘absolutely unbelievable.’ “It's a perfect way to end the season. Now we can go home to the Nationals and have some fun.”

Another Belarussian, Dmitri Dashinski, was fourth and Kyle Nissen of Calgary placed fifth. Warren Shouldice of Calgary was ninth and Peterson, who missed his attempt at a quintuplet-twisting triple, emerged 12th in the 12-skier final.

Veronika Bauer of Toronto was 11th after qualifying seventh for the final. Amber Peterson of Thunder Bay was 15 th, defending bronze medallist Deidra Dionne of Red Deer, Alta., 17th, and Melissa Prefontaine of Grande Prairie, Alta., 19th from their scores in Thursday's qualification round.

For Complete Results Visit: http://www.freestyleski.com/

Biathlon World Championships (CP)

CANADIAN MEN TAKE THE BRONZE MEDAL IN RELAY AT BIATHLON JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS.
(CODA Release)

Kontiolahti, FIN-The Canadian men muscled their way onto the podium, taking home the bronze medal in the relay event at the biathlon junior world championships in Kontiolahti, Finland on Sunday.

The Canadian quartet, consisting of Jaime Robb, Edmonton, Patrick Côté, Grand Falls, N.B., Nathan Smith, Calgary, and Jean-Philippe LeGuellec, Shannon, Que., crossed the finish line a minute 45.3 seconds off the leading country for a combined time of one hour 27 minutes 30.3 seconds and taking 10 extra bullets to down all their targets.

Today's bronze medal win marks Canada's second consecutive relay medal at the junior and youth world championships. On Saturday Canada's youth men grabbed the silver medal after executing an explosive performance on the cross-country ski course.

The German quartet took home the gold. France's teram slid into second place for the silver medal despite suffering two penalty loops. There were 20 teams competing for gold in Sunday's race.

Canada finished the day in 16th spot in the women's 3 x 6 kilometre relay. Joanie Haché, Stoke, Que., Nicole Pacas, Canmore, Alta., and Lindsey Bolivar, Yellowknife, N.W.T., crossed the finish line with a time of 1:10:22.0, using eight spare bullets and suffering one penalty loop.

In the mixed relay, the Canadian quartet, which consisted of Sandra Keith, Calgary, Zina Kocher, Red Deer, Alta., Robin Clegg, Ottawa and David Leoni, of Camrose, Alta., executed the best shooting score of the day to cross the finish line in the 4 x 6 kilometre relay with a combined time of one hour 17 minutes 31.2 seconds. The Canadian team used only eight extra bullets to hit down their targets with no shooting errors.

In relay events, each athlete is allowed six spare rounds to hit their 10 targets, and if a target remains after the six spares are used then a penalty loop is required.

Russia took top honours in Sunday's race, securing both the gold and silver medals. There were 22 teams who competed in Sunday's mixed relay race. This is the first season that Canada has sent a team to compete in a relay event since 2001. Both the Canadian women's and men's relay teams finished in the top-15 at the 2005 Biathlon World Championships last weekend.

FOR COMPLETE RESULTS: http://www.biathlonworld.com/eng/news/default.htm

Beckie Scott (CP)

BECKIE SCOTT GRABS THIRD STRAIGHT SEVENTH PLACE RESULT IN FINAL WORLD CUP RACE OF SEASON

Falun, SWE-Canada's Beckie Scott skied to her third consecutive seventh place finish in a World Cup pursuit race in Falun, Sweden on Saturday, marking then end of the 2004-05 season.

The Olympic gold medallist completed the 7.5 kilometre pursuit course with a time of 41 minutes 13.6 seconds. The pursuit combines 7.5 kilometres of classic skiing with an additional 7.5 kilomtres of skate skiing. Athletes enter a transition area between legs to change equipment while the clock still running. "It was a really good day today for me. I was in medal contention the whole race, but just faded in the end so I'm really happy," said Scott.

The seventh-place result caps off a successful season for Scott, who hails from Vermilion, Alta. Scott took the first half of the year off to prepare for the world championships in February, and to gain more rest heading into the Olympic year. "I'm really happy with my season overall and I feel I surpassed any expectations I had," said Scott. "I wasn't sure how I would be after taking time off, but I was competitive throughout, and the break proved to be good to me. I'll take some time off and then prepare again as normal for the Olympic year."

The highlight of the season and world championships for Canada belonged to Scott's longtime teammate, Sara Renner, who captured the nation's first ever cross-country skiing medal at the world championships - a bronze in the women's sprint. The Canmore, Alta. native also suited up on Saturday and finished 19th with a time of 42:24.5.

"I made up a lot of ground in the sprint today so I was happy that I was tough out there all day," said Renner, who along with her husband and alpine skier Thomas Grandi, enjoyed breakout seasons. "It (getting on the podium) gives you such extreme motivation for training to know that you have achieved something you worked so hard for. Now it is about being able to do it over and over again."

Meanwhile, Marit Bjoergen of Norway locked up the women's overall World Cup title with another victory in Sweden. The international speedster claimed the gold medal with a time of 40:51.7. Joining her on the podium was the Czech Republic's Katerina Neumannova in second at 41:04.0, while Russia's Julija Tchepalova was third at 41:05.4.

Two Canadian men also competed in a 15-kilometre pursuit race on Saturday. World Cup rookie, Devon Kershaw of Sudbury, Ont., led the Canadian duo, finishing in the middle of the pack in 40th spot with a time of 1:16:55.2. George Grey of Rossland, B.C. was the only other Canadian to enter and finished in 61st spot with a time of 1:18:50.9.

Eugeni Dementiev of Russia won the men's race in a photo finish with a time of 1:14.02.5. Germany's Tobias Angerer claimed the silver medal with a time of 1:14:02.5; while Slovakia's Martin Bajcicak rounded out the top-three at 1:14:03.2.

Jeff Buttle (CP)

Buttle captures silver at figure skating worlds.
(CBC Sports)

Canadian champion Jeffrey Buttle fell twice but still managed to claim a silver medal at the world figure skating championships in Moscow on Thursday.

Buttle, 22, finished on the medal podium with winner Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland and bronze medallist Evan Lysacek of the United States. It's the first world championship medal of Buttle's career. "It wasn't the [free-skating performance] I had at Canadians but, overall, I competed better than I did at Canadians so I think that's an improvement," said Buttle. "I'd rather have consistently decent skates than one good skate. "You can't afford that at worlds. Overall, I'm pleased."

Three-time Canadian champion Emanuel Sandhu of Richmond Hill, Ont., placed fourth in the free skate and seventh overall. Defending champion Evgeni Plushenko of Russia withdrew from the event earlier in the day due to a groin injury. He was in third place before he pulled out.

Buttle was the first athlete to perform in the final group. The skater from Smooth Rock Falls, Ont., didn't attempt a quad jump but managed to stick five triples. He did enough to take the lead but still had to wait for the rest of the field to hit the ice.

Swiss teenager Lambiel was the only skater to pass Buttle. Lambiel, 19, was the class of the field, landing two clean quad jumps. He entered the day in first place after winning the short program earlier in the week. Lambiel became the first Swiss man to win a world figure skating title since 1948.

Lysacek, 19, was the final skater of the night, but he also had flaws on three jumps and couldn't overtake Buttle. Lambiel finished with 262.46 points overall, while Buttle compiled 245.69 and Lysacek had 242.98. Sandhu finished with 231.16.

Buttle's silver marks a giant leap forward for a skater who didn't even qualify for the Canadian team last year. His best previous showing at the world championships was an eighth-place result three years ago. He's also the first Canadian to win a world championship medal since Elvis Stojko earned a silver five years ago in Nice, France.

Buttle and Sandhu's top-seven performances in Moscow allow Canada to send a third male skater to the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Brian McKeever (CP)

CANADA RACKS UP TWO MORE MEDALS AT DISABLED NORDIC SKIING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS.
(CODA Release)

Fort Kent, Maine-Canada's Brian McKeever struck gold for the second straight day after climbing to the top of the podium at the Disabled Nordic Skiing World Championships in Fort Kent, Maine on Thursday.

McKeever joined teammate Colette Bourgonje, who sprinted her way to a silver medal in the sit ski discipline, pushing Canada's overall medal count to four at the prestigious international event. The 25-year-old Canmore, Alta. native dominated the five-kilometre classic race, crossing the finish line 48 seconds ahead of his closest competitor with a time of 13 minutes 05 seconds.

"We started fairly hard and just hammered it out to get a big lead" said McKeever, whose guide, and brother Robin, accompanied him through today's race. "We definitely didn't want to hit the finish line and feel like we could have done more. We had incredibly fast skis and we worked hard. It was a just great day."

The silver medal in the men's competition went to Frank Höfle of Germany, with guide Johannes Wachlin, who crossed the line with a time of 13:53.0. Russia's Irek Mannanov and guide Rostislav Pavlov rounded out the podium, taking the bronze medal at 13:53.7.

Saskatoon's Colette Bourgonje made her first podium appearance of the week after skiing her way into second place for the silver medal in the women's 2.5-kilometre sit-ski short distance race, crossing the finish line with a time of 8:44.4. "I worked the hills hard and had a technically sound race," said the 43-year-old. "My strategy was to go as hard as I could, because it is an incredibly short race. The track was in excellent condition today and I had a lot of fun."

Shauna Maria Whyte of Hinton, Alta. was the only other Canadian athlete to compete in the women's race. Whyte, who took home a bronze medal at the disabled world championships earlier in the week, ended the day in fifth place after posting a time of 8:58.5.

Ukraine's Lyudmyla Pavlenko picked up her second gold medal of the week, skiing into first with a time of 8:29.6, while teammate Svitlana Tryfonova rounded out third at 8:46.2.

Two other athletes skied for Canada on Thursday. Jean-Thomas Boily of Orford, Que. finished the men's five-kilometre sit-ski race in 25th place with a time of 18:09.0, while Jimmy Pelettier of Quebec City, skied into 26th spot at 19:28.9.

The Disabled Nordic Skiing World Championships will continue throughout the week in Fort Kent, Maine with the long distance freestyle and relay events.

Complete results when available: http://www.ipcnordicski2005.org/

Emily Brydon (CP)

Brydon wins third Canadian ski title.
(CBC Sports)

Emily Brydon completed the hat trick Saturday after capturing a surprise women's slalom title at the Canadian alpine skiing championships.

Brydon, from Fernie, B.C., beat defending champion Britt Janyk of Whistler, B.C., to claim her third national title after winning the downhill and super G earlier this week.

Brydon, a speed specialist, won both slalom runs Saturday in a combined time of one minute 39.87 seconds, becoming the first Canadian female skier to win three titles in the same year since the first official Canadian nationals were held in 1967. "As I entered the course this morning, I knew I could win, I wanted to win," said Brydon. "Although I don't participate in too many slalom events, it really is my passion. I don't train as much in technical disciplines because my program is more speed-oriented. But to win today is definitively incredible.

"I had a lot to prove in slalom and I didn't expect a third title today. It's really is a dream come true since I succeeded in a very strong technical field today."

Janyk was second with a combined time of 1:40.45 while Brigitte Acton of Mont-Tremblant, Que., was third in 1:42.95.

Passion, Teamwork, Innovation

Ever wonder just what it takes to transform a company into a world-class performer? Or how to stimulate yourself and those around you to achieve outstanding results?

The Business of Performance

You are invited to attend an exclusive seminar focused on achieving world-class business performance. You will hear from the experts that carefully guide Canada’s teams and athletes towards the Olympic podium.

By learning just what it takes to train and develop world-class athletes into Olympic medal winners, participants begin to see parallels of what is required of them and their teams to become elite performers.

Who is the seminar for?

• It is for people who are dealing with business opportunities or projects for which their workforce or team needs to be inspired and stimulated.
• Business people who are interested in knowing more about what it takes to lead a world-class team.
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Presenters:
Dr. Stephen Norris – Director, Sport Physiology & Strategic Planning
Joanne Malar – Three-time Olympian, Swimming
Andre Mol – Director, CSCC’s Business of Performance

When: 05 April 2005
Where: Chamber of Commerce
Timing: 7:30am – 1:00
Fees: $149. for Chamber Members, $199 for non-members

To register go to: www.calgarychamber.com/

For more information please call Colin at the Canadian Sport Centre 403-210-5403

Pierre Lafontaine

Lafontaine leaves Australia for head coaching job in Canada
( Agence France Presse English )

SYDNEY, March 21 (AFP) - Pierre Lafontaine will leave his position as head swimming coach of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) to become Canada's new head coach, Swimming Australia said Monday.

Lafontaine, who has been in the national capital Canberra for two years, told his swimmers on Saturday and is expected to return to Canada next month. His departure is a huge loss to Swimming Australia, with chief executive Glenn Tasker saying the team would miss Lafontaine's enthusiasm and expertise.

"Pierre was a great asset to us and he did a fantastic job at the AIS," Tasker said Monday. "Their program last year went from strength to strength and they had an enormous national world championship trials (last week).

"One of the great things about Pierre is he is such a great motivator, not just to the athletes but the people around him."

Lafontaine, who moved to Australia in 2002 from the United States, had signed an extension to his sports institute contract just before last year's Athens Olympic Games.
But he will leave the institute to take up his post in his native Canada, leaving behind an elite squad containing Australian Olympians Jodie Henry and Alice Mills.

His reign at the AIS has seen unprecedented results including Petria Thomas's triple gold medal efforts at Athens and nine athletes making the world championship team.

Clara Hughes (CP)

Doping affects the body and the brain.
The Vancouver Sun

MONTREAL - A week ago Wednesday, speed skater Clara Hughes flew to Calgary from Inzell, Germany, after winning silver and bronze medals at the world championships. That Friday evening at the Calgary oval, she completed the 10,000 metres in 14 minutes, 19.73 seconds, breaking German skater Gunda Niemann's 11-year-old world record by nearly three seconds.

The 10,000 is not an officially recognized distance for women, but it looms as a kind of ultimate challenge, the Mount Everest of speed skating. More remarkable still is the fact there is absolutely no doubt Hughes, the only Canadian to win medals at both the Winter and Summer Olympics, did it without doping.

Four days later, jet-lagged but happy to be home, Hughes spoke with her usual eloquence about doping in her sport and the world-wide effort to put an end to cheating. In her own career, which encompasses bronze medals in cycling in Atlanta in 1996 and speed skating in Salt Lake City in 2002, Hughes has seen first-hand the damage doping can do.

"In cycling, it started around 1995," she said. "The speed of the races changed, the way the athletes looked changed. All of a sudden you'd see someone who looked totally different and had turned into a different racer in a couple of months, and you know that's just not possible. I changed my goals and decided that it might only be possible to win the one-day races.

"I saw what doping can do to your body and your brain. I saw people destroyed by that. For me that was the eye-opener. To see what I saw was just horrifying, shattering. You'd see someone with five per cent body fat and then in the off-season they were bloated because they went off the drugs.

"That led to depression and all these psychological side effects. One day you're suddenly amazing and then nothing and everyone else, all those people around you who were urging you to cheat, they've moved on and you're left to deal with the repercussions. It's really sad."

Hughes insists she was never tempted to cheat. "No way," she said. "I was fortunate never to have people around me who tried to make me think that way. When you compete in endurance sports, it's such a grueling thing to do. There are so many devastating results and disappointments. For me, I've always realized how important it was to do it the right way. I've seen what good people went through when they didn't."

One of the hardest things for a highly competitive athlete to do is to stay clean while losing to athletes who are obviously doping. "I've known for a fact," said Hughes, "that in some of the biggest races in my life I lost to people who were cheating. What can you do? I know the truth, so for me that's enough. If I lose, I blame myself. I'm human. I don't always eat the right food. Sometimes I'm lazy and I don't train hard enough. Sometimes I overtrain."

- - -

If there is an ultimate goal for the World Anti-Doping Agency, this is it: to make it possible for clean athletes such as Hughes to win, and to prevent young people from destroying their lives and their bodies with risky, sometimes utterly untested drugs.

In its brief existence, WADA has made remarkable progress by any standard. WADA chairman Richard Pound, not a notoriously patient man, puts it this way: "Five years ago, if I had said that in five years we will have an international anti-doping code that will be obligatory for the Olympic Games, that we'll have the same rules applying to all sports, all countries, all athletes, that we'll have a single dispute resolution system, that we'll have an international convention under UNESCO and that we will have put in $20 million worth of research into anti-doping, no one would would have believed it possible. It's been very encouraging."

The difficulties of enforcing a uniform international doping code are obvious. Only this week, Greek sprinters Katerina Thanou and Costas Kenteris were cleared by an arbitration panel within their own federation of charges that they intentionally refused to take a doping test by leading testers on a merry chase over three continents. The IAAF may refuse to accept the finding of the arbiters, but the difficulty is there.

WADA clearly needs greater support and understanding from within the political and judicial systems worldwide. In the early 1990s, Christiane Ayotte, working at the Doping Control Laboratory in Pointe Claire, Quebec, became suspicious of the drug clenbuterol, which was being used to build muscle in cattle and horses. Ayotte developed a test for the drug; German sprinter Katrin Krabbe tested positive for clenbuterol and was suspended for three years. She went to court in Germany and was awarded $690,000 US when a German judge ruled that the suspension was too long by two years.

Still, said Pound, "the gap is narrowing. The perpetrator is always ahead of the enforcer. Always, because the perp makes the first move and determines when and how, so there's that advantage, but the gap is a lot closer now."

Of necessity, closing the gap involves a three-pronged political, educational and scientific effort -- with the latter the most important. "The science of anti-doping is a very young science," said Dr. Olivier Rabin, WADA's director of science, "but good science can only help. The important thing is to bring in the best science to point to a scientific solution. Now you've got an agency such as WADA whose role is to think about anti-doping strategies 24 hours a day and to work with national anti-doping organizations, national Olympic committees, the international federations. We say, 'OK, let's be smart, let's work together, let's have expert discussions on what to do and how to do it.

"It makes a difference. It can only improve."

Despite WADA's international effort at education, despite the suicides of young athletes depressed when they go off steroids, despite the explosive doping scandal in Major League Baseball, there are still those who argue that athletes should simply be allowed to dope themselves anyway they please.

"That's ridiculous," said Hughes. "You're looking at human lives. You're not even giving a kid a chance to do a sport the right way. If you allow cheating, you're forcing her to destroy herself physically and emotionally in order to compete."

Ayotte sees it much the same way: "What do I say to this? Some athletes stop using dope. Sometimes that means they have to quit the sport because they can't compete. This is where we have an obligation to act. How many young sprinters were forced to quit because Ben Johnson and the other cheaters were taking their place? Is this fair? How many young athletes will abandon skiing or swimming or hockey because they refuse to dope? If we stop cheating, we do this for your sons and our daughters."
Montreal Gazette

Welcome to the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Newsletter!

PODIUM is a monthly electronic newsletter aimed at keeping athletes, the sport community, our members and our partners informed about our activities and initiatives.

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VANOC announces Two New Premier Sponsors and commits to clothing supplier for 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012 Canadian Olympic Team

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Olympians Canada Holds First National Board Meeting. On January 31, 2005, Olympians Canada board members assembled in Vancouver to discuss the history, future direction, and development strategies of ...

Joanne Malar, Making a Comeback: An Athlete's Story about Coming Out of Retirement
Making a 'comeback' to swim in my fourth Olympic Games...

Canadian Chef and Assistant Chef Join NOCs from Around World for 2006 Chefs de Mission Seminar. The COC joined more than 70 National Olympic Committees from all over the world, represented by almost 200 delegates, in Turin March 1-5 for the "Chefs...

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