Shewfelt and Peticlerc (CP)

Petitclerc, Shewfelt win Canadian Sport Awards
(CBC Sports)

Chantal Petitclerc of Montreal, who won gold in every race she entered at the Athens Paralympics, was named the female athlete of the year for 2004 at the Canadian Sport Awards on Tuesday.

Calgary's Kyle Shewfelt, who earned Canada's first Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics in Athens, earned male athlete of the year honours. Petitclerc, 35, dominated women's wheelchair racing in Athens, collecting five gold medals and setting three world records.

Petitclerc lost the use of her legs at age 13 when a heavy barn door she and a friend were using to build a bicycle ramp fell on her, breaking her spine. The wheelchair racer is also a finalist for the prestigious Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disa

Shewfelt, who was named The Canadian Press male athlete of the year for 2004, won gold in the floor exercise with a flawless performance in Athens. The following night, he showed class under trying conditions when some questionable judging cost him a bronze medal in the vault.

Shewfelt has undergone a coaching a change since Athens (his longtime coach Kelly Manjak left for a job in Mississauga, Ont.), forcing Shewfelt to switch from the Altadore Gymnastics Club to the University of Calgary and coach Tony Smith.

In other awards presented in the annual ceremony held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, long-track speed skater Shannon Rempel of Winnipeg, bronze medallist at the world junior championships and a World Cup silver medallist, was named the junior female athlete of the year.

High jumper Michael Mason of Nanoose Bay, B.C., gold medallist at the world junior championships, won the male junior award.

Dale Henwood, President of the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary won for Leadership in Sport.

The men's wheelchair basketball team and women's goalball team, both gold medallists at the Athens Paralympics, earned male and female team of the year honours, respectively.

Canada's men's rowing fours team of Cam Baerg of Saskatoon, Tom Herschmiller of Comox, B.C., Saskatoon's Jake Wetzel and Barney Williams from Salt Spring Island, B.C., won the partners of the year award. The squad captured the silver medal in Athens. On Sunday, Williams was a member of the Oxford squad that beat Cambridge by two lengths in the 151st Boat Race, the world's oldest and most famous rowing event.

Peter Eriksson, who coaches Petitclerc, won the coach of the year award.

The Canadian Sport Awards are presented annually by the True Sport Foundation, a charitable organization that works to ensure sport makes a positive contribution to Canadian society.

Canada and U.S. in a league of their own at Women's World Hockey Championships.
(The Globe and Mail)

LINKOPING, SWEDEN -- First, a brief history lesson: The women's world hockey championship has been held eight times, and eight times Canada won. It wasn't always easy and it wasn't always pretty, but in the end, Canada always found a way to win.

So here Canada is again, with seven other teams in the field for the women's world hockey championship, which opens in Sweden tomorrow. But really there's only one opponent that can give Canada a run -- the United States. A Canada-U.S. final would be a rematch of the 2001 final, which was a rematch of the 2000 final and so on, right back to the start, in 1990. In short, every single final featured the same two teams.

This, then, is the essential conundrum of women's hockey -- that while the rest of the world may be improving, so, too, are the Canadian and American teams. Women's hockey crept its way into the sporting consciousness in 1998, the year it became an Olympic sport. Canada did not win the competition that time -- the United States did -- but ever since, the two countries have been butting heads internationally, trying to get ahead of each other.

As Sweden and Finland gradually inched forward, so, too, did Canada -- and based on recent results, the gap between the best and the rest is as wide as ever. "Everyone's been optimistic that the gap would start closing, and I'm sure that it eventually will," forward Jennifer Botterill said, "but it definitely hasn't closed as much as people were hoping it would. Other teams are getting better, but so are we. There are more girls playing in our country, so it pushes our game to the next level, too."

Botterill is a prime example of that progression. She made Canada's 1998 Olympic team as an 18-year-old, after switching to hockey from ringette. After the Olympics, she went to Harvard, twice won the Patty Kazmaier award as the top player in U.S. college hockey and currently is the National Collegiate Athletic Association career scoring leader (319 points in four years). After graduating, Botterill put her career on hold to join the Toronto Aeros of the National Women's Hockey League.

Last year, she led Canada in scoring at the world tournament (11 points in five games) and was selected as the tournament's most valuable player. The overall level of women's play has gone up noticeably since Botterill's debut in 1998 and she is the poster child for this improvement.

Once upon a time, only a handful of women could muster a reasonably potent slap shot. Now, virtually every national team member can. They are fitter, faster, smarter and, most important, far better athletes than the players of old.
"That's the evolution of the sport," said Melody Davidson, Canada's head coach. "First, the younger players are starting their careers earlier. They're not joining the sport at age 12, 13 and 14 -- or 17 like Jen Botterill or Judy Diduck did. Secondly, there is the evolution of the athletes already in the game, improvements that are the result of their training and exposure to high-level competition."

To Botterill, the single biggest change in her overall game is that she is a "noticeably better overall athlete" now than she was when she joined the national program. "That's totally as a result of our trainers [led by the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary's Jason Poole, the national team's strength and conditioning coach]," she said. "We have full-time trainers working with us every single day, doing hockey specific drills, working on quickness, strength and power. They are all sport-specific -- and it makes such a difference in terms of elevating your game.

"So you do notice that the pace is getting quicker. The girls are getting faster and stronger and better. It's just so much better for the game." Eventually, the rest of the world may catch up, but for now, the 2005 world championship remains a two-team competition.

For proof, consider that at last year's world championship in Halifax, Canada won its first two games by a combined score of 24-0. The United States won its first two games by a combined score of 17-1. The 2003 tournament was cancelled because of the scare over severe acute respiratory syndrome and there was no 2002 tournament because of the Olympics, but back in 2001, Canada won its first three games by a combined score of 29-1 and the United States by 35-0.

Oddly enough, many of the Canadian players share the view that the women's game desperately needs to pick up in countries such as Finland and Sweden so that future competitions are not such foregone conclusions. To that end, they come to these events partly as competitors and partly as missionaries -- competitors because they want to win, and missionaries because they want to spread the gospel of women's hockey.

Hockey Canada vice-president Johnny Misley believes his organization has an obligation to share information with the competition to make their programs better. "We're working closely with other countries, unselfishly giving access to programs and lending expertise in order to grow the sport," Misley said. "Why do we want to help other teams get better? Because it makes us get better."

Five to watch

1. Kim St. Pierre: A four-time world champion and the primary difference in Canada's 2002 Olympic gold-medal triumph, St. Pierre won the 2004 world championship award as the tournament's top goaltender.

2. Sarah Vaillancourt: The 19-year-old is the youngest member of the Canadian team. The freshman at Harvard University scored three goals last weekend in her school's semi-final win at the Frozen Four championship.

3. Hayley Wickenheiser: She won the Western Women's Hockey League scoring championship and is a five-time world champion. She was the most valuable player of the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002.

4. Caroline Ouellette: A runner-up for the 2005 Patty Kazmaier award as the top college player in the United States, Ouellette scored 78 points in 32 games as a junior at the University of Minnesota (Duluth).

5. Carla MacLeod: Only 22, MacLeod is making her world championship debut. Part of Canada's youth movement on defence, MacLeod was a senior at the University of Wisconsin, where she was the team captain for a second consecutive year.

Martha Dale (CP)

Canada's Martha Dale posts career best fifth at diving Grand Prix.
(Canadian Sport News)

ZHUHAI, China- Martha Dale of Victoria (originally Edmonton) produced another clean performance on Sunday to post her best ever international result with a fifth place finish on women’s three-metre springboard to conclude the fourth stop on the Grand Prix diving circuit.

The Chinese won all the events this weekend with Olympic champion Wi Mionxia taking the women’s three-metre gold. Her compatriot Li Ting was second and Nancilea Underwood earned her second bronze this weekend finishing third.

Dale, 22, who won the Canadian three-metre title last Sunday in Quebec City, took fifth spot. She barely made the semis after placing 12th in the preliminaries and was third in one of two semifinal heats. But she saved her best in the final.

“Every dive still could have been a bit better in the final,” said Dale. “But in past Grand Prix finals I have always made a major blunder. This time all five dives were solid. The consistency is what I’m looking for right now and to do that two meets in a row is something to build on.”

Mandy Moran of Calgary was eliminated in the semifinals and placed 11th.

On men’s 10-metre tower, it was another 1-2 Chinese finish with Zhang Chen taking the gold and Hu Jia the silver. Robert Newbery of Australia was third. Nicolas Leblanc of Montreal was eliminated in the semifinals (final placing not available) and Kevin Geyson of Winnipeg was ousted in the prelims placing 17th.

On Saturday, Arturo Miranda of Pointe-Claire, Que., was sixth on men’s three-metre and Erik Petursson of Calgary was 19th. Myriam Boileau of Pointe-Claire, Que., was seventh on women’s tower.

On Friday, Nicolas Leblanc of Montreal and Kevin Geyson of Winnipeg were ninth on men’s synchro 10-metre tower fnishing ninth in their first competition together.


“This was a tough field and Arturo was very steady and dove extremely well,” said Canadian coach Jim Lambie of Winnipeg. “He was quite pleased with his showing.”

Miranda, Petursson and the six other Canadian team members didn’t get much time to rest and get acclimatized to the time change. The Winter Nationals were held last weekend and the team left for China on Monday from Quebec City.

The competition features five Olympic champions from Athens and divers from 13 countries overall including the sport’s powerhouses, China, Canada, Russia, Germany, Mexico and the U.S.

Randy Ferbey(CP)

Canada hammers Sweden at curling worlds.
(CBC Sports)

It was the type of dominating performance Randy Ferbey expects and demands from his team at the world curling championships. After being shocked by Germany in the opening draw on Saturday, Ferbey and his Edmonton rink showed why it's considered one of the best curling teams in the world, hammering Sweden 9-1 in Draw 4 action at Victoria.

Ferbey, representing Canada for the fourth time at the worlds, took advantage of a poor-shooting Swedish team to end the game after six ends. Team Canada third David Nedohin, who throws skip stones, looked like he's regained his touch after a terrible game against Germany. He consistently put pressure on Swedish skip Eric Carlsen, making 96 per cent of his shots. "I liked the way we played," said Ferbey, whose squad made 95 per cent of its shots overall. "I don't remember anybody missing a shot. "That was probably the highest percentage game we've played in our five years together as a team. Hopefully that continues."

With the win, Canada is now tied with four other teams with a 2-1 record. Next up is undefeated U.S. skip Pete Fenson (3-0) in Draw 6 action on Monday (noon ET, CBC).

Fenson is tied with Scottish skip David Murdoch (3-0) for top spot in the overall standings. Fenson scored one in the ninth to squeeze past Denmark 7-6, while Scotland hammered Italy 10-2 in late-night action in Victoria.

In other games on Sunday night, Switzerland edged Australia (6-5) and Norway beat Finland 8-5. Germany skip Andy Kapp (2-1) saw his small-undefeated streak come to an end. After beating Canada and Sweden on opening day, Kapp watched New Zealand (2-1) score two in the final end for an upset 5-4 victory in the afternoon draw.

Cassie Campbell (CP)

Cassie Campbell named team captain for women's hockey team.
(Hockey Canada Release)

LINKOPING, SWEDEN – Canada’s National Women’s Team announced its captain and assistant captains for the 2005 IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championship in Sweden, April 2-9, 2005. Cassie Campbell of Brampton, ON will wear the “C” for Team Canada, while Vicky Sunohara (Scarborough, ON) and Hayley Wickenheiser (Shaunavon, SK) will serve as Canada’s alternate captains.

Campbell has been Canada’s National Women’s Team captain in every international event she has played in since the 2001-2002 season. She served as an alternate captain for Team Canada from 1997 to 2001. Campbell has won six World Championship gold medals, as well a gold medal 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where she was team captain, and won silver at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan when she was alternate captain. She has been captain of her club team, the WWHL’s Calgary Oval X-Treme for the past three seasons.

“It is always an honour to wear the ‘C’ on a team filled with so many leaders, “said Campbell. “A lot of these players wear a letter for their college or club team, and I feel that we are fortunate to have a team with such great depth in leadership.”

Both Sunohara and Wickenheiser have been alternate captains with Canada’s National Women’s team since 2001. Sunohara serves as captain of her club team, the NWHL’s Brampton Thunder, and is a veteran of Team Canada, winning six World Championships as well as Olympic gold (2002) and silver (1998). Wickenheiser has played in five World Championships for Canada, and was named MVP of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

Team Canada played a ‘pre-Championship’ game on Thursday, March 31 in Norrkoping, Sweden. Despite falling behind early in the game, Canada rallied back for a convincing 9-2 victory over Finland.

The 2005 IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championship begins on Saturday, April 2 with a game between the host team, Sweden against Russia. Canada will play its first game of the Championship on Sunday, April 3 against Kazakhstan (2pm ET / 11am PT). All of Team Canada’s games will be shown live on TSN / RDS, the official broadcaster of Hockey Canada (check your local listings).

Canada has won all eight previous World Women’s Championships, and is hoping to tie the IIHF record for nine consecutive World Championships with the Soviet Union Men’s Team. For more information on the National Women’s Team and the 2005 IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championship, please visit Hockey Canada’s official web site of at www.hockeycanada.ca

Beckie Scott

Skier Scott named to anti-doping committee
(By ALLAN MAKI The Globe and Mail)

CALGARY -- Beckie Scott's fight for drug-free sports has landed her a new position -- and some interesting co-fighters.

The cross-country skier from Vermilion, Alta., has been named to the World Anti-Doping Agency's new athlete committee. Joining Scott, 30, are current and former Olympians such as U.S. swimmer Janet Evans, Chinese short-track speed skater Yang Yang, New Zealand cyclist Sarah Ulmer and Russian hockey player Viacheslav Fetisov, who is the chairman of the 13-member committee.

Even more interesting is the fact Scott, who won a gold medal for Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, has joined forces with her one-time nemesis, WADA president Richard Pound. Scott and Pound exchanged public barbs during and after the 2002 Winter Olympics, when the Canadian Olympic official said those Games were the cleanest ever, with 99 per cent of the athletes competing drug-free.

Scott said the cross-country ski community "laughed out loud" when they heard of Pound's claim. Pound responded in turn by saying Scott should be careful "shooting her mouth off without knowing what she is talking about."

Eventually, the two Russian skiers who finished ahead of Scott in the five-kilometre pursuit event at Salt Lake were found guilty of doping violations and stripped of their medals. That gave Scott the gold and helped end her feud with Pound, who said yesterday that the appointment of athlete committee gives WADA another weapon in the war against performance-enhancing drugs.

"Clean athletes are the most powerful force against doping in sports," Pound said. "This committee, through their experience and expertise, will assist us greatly. . . . I am confident that it will help us develop our important task of educating athletes worldwide about the consequences of doping."

The members of the athlete committee were selected from the 35 recommendations WADA received from various sports authorities and governments last November. Other committee members include: Paralympic cross-country skier Tanja Kari of Finland, freestyle skier Jacqui Cooper of Australia and marathon champion Rosa Mota of Portugal.
The committee will hold its first meeting in Montreal later this year.

Peirre Lueders and Dave MacEachern(CP)

Olympic athletes aren't getting their due.
(The Packet & Times (Orillia)

Go ahead. Go ahead and name one potential Canadian athlete that doesn't play hockey who might represent our country at the 2010 Winter Olympic games in Vancouver.

Keep guessing ... I'll wait. Dum dee dumm dee dumm dee dumm. Can't do it? Either could I until I worked the Internet for about half an hour and, believe me, it wasn't easy even after that. Sure, 2010 seems like a long way away but wouldn't this be the perfect time to catch a ride with some other sports rather than our beleaguered hockey?

To find out about other Canadians who work day and night without fanfare or sponsorship trying to improve in their chosen sport so they can represent our country in Vancouver. Don't they deserve some acknowledgment?

How about our national skeleton team which currently has four of the world's best on this year's team alone. Stop rolling your eyes. Skeleton rocks. If you've never tried it, the next time you're in Lake Placid or Calgary sign up for an introductory skeleton course and see how long it takes to wipe the grin off your face. That's the exact same feeling that Calgary resident Deanne Panting gets every time she crosses the finish line on her sled.

The 40-year-old mother rockets down the run of speeds in excess of 120 kilometres per hour. How is that for inspiration for all of those mom's out there looking for something more exciting than finding a slick new floor cleaner. Canada currently has eight team members who are currently kicking the world's butt in skeleton but they aren't household names.

And that is just one sport. Don't forget bobsled. Remember Pierre Lueders? Oh, you don't? Oh...well, umm, all he did was win a gold medal for Canada at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games. He's still piloting his bobsled on the world circuit to little Canadian fanfare, and is the favourite for a gold medal next year.

Of course, you must remember Becky Scott, the Vermillion, Alta., native who originally won bronze at the last Winter Olympics and slowly worked her way up to gold after the Russians who placed in front of her were caught cheating with steroids. Of course, if there hadn't been a scandal she would have withered into obscurity, trying her guts out representing Canada on ski trails around the world until the 2006 Turin, Italy, games arrived.

There are dozens of Canadian athletes out there. Figure skaters, biathloners, ski jumpers, alpine and nordic skiers, lugists, aerialists, and more. They've all got Vancouver on their minds.

Sadly, all that Canada has on its mind is NHL hockey, or the lack thereof. Countless inches in newspapers, countless time on sports news broadcasts, endless discussions in Tim Hortons, all for a sport that currently doesn't exist.

Is there blame for this? You bet. They're called sports editors and they are a crusty, grumpy lot who live for the Big Four: Basketball, hockey, football and, oh, what's that other one? Oh yeah, baseball. These guys bombard you with details about ... nothing. We know everything there is to know about something that isn't happening when we could be setting our attentions to people like Panting and Lueders who are actually doing something, like preparing to represent our country.

As Gord Downey of the Tragically Hip laments in Wheat Kings, "Nobody is interested in something you didn't do." Canada wants a better Olympic medal count at the Vancouver Olympic Games? Why don't we start with showing our athletes that we care as much about them as they care about our country.

Canadians invited to "Imagine 2010 - Canada's Olympic journey begins"

Vancouver - On Saturday, April 23rd, Canadians are invited to start the journey towards the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver with a nationally televised celebration of Canada followed by the unveiling of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games emblem. The live broadcast from General Motors Place - for which free tickets become available to the public tomorrow - marks Canada's first major 2010 Winter Games event since Vancouver was named Host City on July 2, 2003.

The program - titled "Imagine 2010 - Canada's Olympic journey begins" - will air from coast to coast on the CTV network on Saturday, April 23 (7:00 p.m. PT; 10:00 p.m. ET). It will feature hundreds of performers and surprise special guests as the stage is set for the dramatic unveiling of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic emblem. Complimentary tickets (limit of four per person) are available through Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.ca 604.280.4400) as of 10 a.m. (PT) tomorrow (March 31). Further details about the event can be found at www.vancouver2010.com.

The emblem will be the primary identifier of the 2010 Winter Games and will become one of the most highly recognized logos in Canada and around the world for the next five years. The logo was selected by an international judging panel following a nation-wide Olympic Emblem Design Competition that drew more than 1,600 submissions from throughout Canada.

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Emblem Design Competition began with a two-day Olympic Design Conference attended by more than 400 delegates in June 2004. As with previous Olympic Games competitions to replace bid logos, the delegates were briefed on the history of Olympic design and the Look of the Games programs from previous Summer and Winter Games. The Vancouver 2010 winning emblem design earns a prize of $25,000 and two tickets to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony. Please see the attached backgrounder for more information including a colourful look at logos from previous bid committees and Games organizing committees.