Brandon O'Neill

Canada’s Brandon O’Neill wins gold on floor at gymnastics World Cup.
(Canadian Sport News)

STUTTGART, Germany- Brandon O’Neill of Edmonton earned his second victory this season on the gymnastics World Cup circuit Sunday placing first in the men’s floor final.

O’Neill, also preparing for the world championships next month in Australia, scored 9.562 points to edge Patrick Dominguez of Switzerland second at 9.525. Robert Gal of Hungary was third at 9.362.

The floor has been a consistent event for O’Neill in 2005. He also won his first career World Cup event earlier this season on floor as well as the Pan American Gymnastics Championship floor title.

In the women’s beam final, Olympic champion Catalina Ponor of Romania took the gold at 9.650 with Lili Wang of China second at 9.512 and Marine Debauve of France third at 9.350. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs of Sport Seneca in Toronto was fifth at 8.837.

The next stop on the World Cup is Tuesday and Wednesday in Glasgow, Scotland.

Farnham Glacier Training

CANADA’S SNOW-SPORT ATHLETES GET $2 MILLION SUMMER GLACIER TRAINING CENTRE AT HOME.
(CODA Release)

Calgary - Canada’s top alpine ski racers, freestyle skiers and snowboard athletes will soon have access to a $2 million world leading summer glacier training centre through a unique partnership between Canadian philanthropists Don and Shirley Green, CODA and the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee. The project is being created in partnership with Alpine Canada Alpin, the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association and the Canadian Snowboard Federation.

The training centre, located on Farnham Glacier in southeastern British Columbia, will be named “Camp Green on Farnham Glacier - High Performance Training Facility,” in recognition of the $1 million financial contribution provided by the Green family, from Brockville, Ont. The new facility, designed to boost Canada’s performance at home in 2010, will provide access to summer training facilities on Farnham Glacier. One million dollars in matching capital costs will be contributed by CODA as well as an additional $350,000 for annual operating costs. The environmentally progressive facility, reviewed and approved by B.C. Land and Water Corporation, will open next summer.

“Elite athletes sacrifice day in and day out to represent their country to the best of their abilities,” said Don Green. “With this new training facility it is my sincere hope that Camp Green on Farnham Glacier will help provide our athletes with one of the many pieces needed to help them achieve gold in 2010.”

“This project represents a multi-year effort to give our athletes access to cost-effective, year-round leading-edge training facilities at home, and that is what our country must have if we are to attain the goal of becoming a world-leading winter sports nation by 2010,” said John Mills, President, CODA, the legacy organization of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary.

“It has been a privilege for VANOC, together with Dan O’Neill, to have played a part in bringing this dream to reality,” said John Furlong, Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver 2010, whose organization worked closely with Dan O’Neill to introduce the Green family to the project. “Thanks to the generosity and vision of Don and Shirley Green, and CODA’s commitment to Canadian sport, “Camp Green” will no doubt play a key role in Canada’s success in 2010.

In 2003 CODA, in partnership with the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation, 2010 LegaciesNow, the Canadian Olympic Committee and the national sports organizations, operated a highly successful $1 million pilot project on Farnham Glacier. Snowcats that are traditionally used for winter operations at CODA’s Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, in combination helicopters, were used to for transportation and facilitation of training runs.

CODA will now fund the completion of the project including access roads, and base camp construction. Up to 40 athletes will be accommodated in high-tech tent shelters, with access to quality food and support services. All partnering organizations are fully committed to advanced environmental stewardship of the site.

“Having Camp Green in Canada for snow-sport athletes is long overdue, and I am very appreciative of the efforts that have been made,” said Thomas Grandi, two-time World Cup gold medallist in alpine skiing. “The Europeans have always had the advantage on us because they train on some of the best glaciers in the world. We have one in our backyard, and to be able to make use of it is important for the development of Canadian athletes.”

The Farnham Glacier site (Camp Green) will provide a cost-effective alternative to costly summer training for Canadian athletes, which has typically been in the Southern Hemisphere or on European glaciers. Training at home will allow winter sport organizations to maximize budgets and training opportunities.

Mark Lowry (COC)

Canadian Olympic Committee Mourns Death of Executive Director.

TORONTO, October 22, 2005 – It is with profound sadness that the Canadian Olympic Committee wishes to advise the Canadian sport community and our many partners and friends of the death last night of Mark Lowry, the COC’s Executive Director of Sport. Lowry, 51, passed away in his sleep at his home in Ottawa following a valiant, two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

“We are devastated by the loss of such a passionate and knowledgeable sport leader, and offer our deepest condolences to Mark’s family,” said Chris Rudge, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee. “Right to the end, Mark dedicated his career to advancing the cause of athletes and sport in Canada. His lasting legacy will be the successes of the many Canadian athletes and coaches who benefited from the high performance programs – including the Own the Podium-2010 program – which Mark helped to create.”

Lowry joined the COC in June of 1997 as the Executive Director, Sport with overall responsibility for facilitating and directing Canada’s participation at the Olympic and Pan American Games, athlete and coach programming, and support to National Sport Federations. Prior to joining the COC, he held various positions within the Canadian sport movement, including Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union, Executive Director of the Canadian Amateur Rowing Association, Executive Director of the Canadian Amateur Diving Association and World University Games Coordinator.

Lowry leaves his wife Jennifer and his son, Brendan, 20. He will be sadly missed by his family as well as his many friends and colleagues in the sport community.

The COC, in response to the wishes of the Lowry family, has established “The Mark Lowry Memorial Fund” to benefit Canada’s Olympic athletes and coaches.
Private funeral services and a memorial service are being planned for next week in Ottawa. Details on the memorial service will be available at www.olympic.ca.

Pierre Lueders (CP)

LUEDERS SLIDES TO DOUBLE GOLD AT VISA CANADIAN BOBSLEIGH CHAMPIONSHIPS.
(CODA Release)

Calgary-It was a double-gold performance for Pierre Lueders during the Visa Canadian Bobsleigh Championships after the veteran bobsleigh athlete emerged as the top pilot in the pack during Friday’s four-man competition at Canada Olympic Park.

The victory came one day after the 35-year-old Edmonton native and brakeman Lascelles Brown, of Jamaica, won top honours in the two-man competition.

During Friday’s four-man event, Lueders and his crew of Brown, Ken Kotyk and Florian Linder established the top time in the first heat after clocking in at 54.83 seconds. The quartet capped off the victory after recording 54.95 in their second trip down the track for a combined time of 1:49.78. “The teammates I’ve had have worked very hard this year,” said Lueders, a 1998 Olympic gold medallist who has his sights set on a return to the Olympic podium at the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy. “These races are always a good way to see where we stand.”

Just as in Thursday’s two-man competition, Serge Despres once again provided Lueders with his stiffest competition for the title. Despres, who took second-place honours in Thursday’s two-man event, repeated the feat Friday during the four-man competition. Despres and his crew of Nathan Cunningham, Chris Le Bihan and Cristiano Paes sewed up second place after clocking in at times of 55.06 and 55.28 seconds on their first and second runs, respectively, for a combined two-run total of 1:50.34.

Chasing Lueders for the top spot on two consecutive days suited Despres just fine. “Pierre is a world champion; he’s a good one to shoot for,” said Despres, a native of Cocagne, N.B. “You get close to him, you know you’re doing well.”

From the point of view of Lueders, the fact that younger bobsleigh pilots like Despres and Okotoks, Alta. native Jayson Krause are making their presence felt on the track is a positive overall development for the sliding sport. “It’s good to see some young guys coming up and putting the pressure on,” he said.

For more information on Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, please visit us at www.bobsleigh.ca on the Internet.

Sara Renner (CP)

CANADA’S NORDIC WOMEN CRACK TOP-15 IN TEAM SPRINT RELAY.

Düsseldorf, GER-Canada sent a team that combines veteran leadership with youthful energy to the start line on Sunday when Sara Renner and Chandra Crawford competed in the women’s World Cup team sprint relay in Düsseldorf, Germany.

With 21-year-old World Cup rookie, Crawford, who was competing in her first team sprint relay, setting the pace, and 29-year-old Renner anchoring, the Canadian duo finished in 15th spot out of 24 teams, just missing out on qualifying for the finals. The 6 x 0.8-kilometre relay consists of two athletes who both complete the course three times after tagging each other in the exchange area. There are two heats of 12 teams, with the top-five in each heat advancing to the finals. Canada was seventh in their heat.

“Chandra and I both skied extremely well today, but we had some troubles in the exchange area which cost us a spot in the final,” said Sara Renner. “I think the point of this weekend though was to get one World Cup race in us before we host the World Cup in Canada, and get a feel for the pace. I know I’ve trained hard over the summer, I’m confident, and I’ll be expecting good results.”
While the Canadian squad did not perform as they had expected, the trip to Germany for the opening World Cup of the season will be valuable for their preparation.

“I think today was definitely better than yesterday’s individual sprints,” said Dave Wood, head coach, Canadian Cross-Country Ski Team, where World Cup rookie Chandra Crawford led the Canadian charge with a 28th-place result. “There are a lot of positives we can take out of a trip like this, and now we’ll have some measuring sticks to look at what we need to do to make sure we’re ready for the next World Cup.”

It was the Norwegian women who finished one-two in the women’s sprints. Norway I completed the final heats with a time of 10 minutes 5.7 seconds, while Norway II was four seconds off the pace (10:09.7) in second. Russia I rounded out the top three finishing in the bronze medal position with a time of 10:10.4.
The Canadian men’s team did not compete as George Grey of Rossland, B.C. was ill with the flu.

While the Canadian squad will now head back to Canada in chase of snow for final training preparations before the meat of the World Cup season gets underway, 2005 World Championship bronze medallist, Sara Renner, will meet up with her husband and World Cup gold medallist in alpine skiing, Thomas Grandi in Italy. The two will have a final site review of their Olympic venues.

“I had the same strategy heading into the 2002 Games, and spent a lot of time getting to know the course,” said Renner. “I’ll take this time to really get a feel for it, spend a lot of time on the imagery of the course, and run the trails so that I’m fully prepared.”

Renner and Grandi will return home to hold a joint media conference on Thursday, October 27, 2005 at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary at 11 a.m. It will be the final day the two will be together before the Olympics.

THE ABCs OF TURIN; A primer on the Canadian Olympic team and its chances at the 2006 Winter Olympics, where a top-three overall medal finish is the publicly stated goal.
(Randy Starkman - The Toronto Star)

Consider it Canadian sport’s equivalent of the witness protection program. For a brief period of time every four years, these athletes are more visible than they could ever imagine. Then, poof, they disappear.

Well, this country’s Olympians are ready to resurface from oblivion. Their exploits since the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games have mostly been confined to one-paragraph digest items at the back of the Sports section or a single line on the scoreboard page.

But it’s almost that time again, that long-awaited opportunity when Canada’s Olympic athletes get the chance to vault themselves from obscurity to household name for the 17 days that are the Winter Games.

Don’t worry about laying heavy expectations on the athletes who will don Canada’s colours for the Feb. 10-26 event in Turin, Italy. Their national Olympic body has already taken care of that. the Canadian Olympic Committee has set a goal of a top-three finish in the overall medal count. They reckon it will take 25 medals to achieve the objective, a big jump from the fifth-place finish with 17 medals in Salt Lake City.

But they’re quick to point out that the country ranked third last season in both overall medals and world championship medals. Where Canada has struggled for some time now is turning that potential into Olympic medals. Canada has several athletes who are bona fide stars in their sport and a large group of serious medal contenders - Steve Omischl, Cindy Klassen, Jeff Pain, Jennifer Heil, Mathieu Turcotte, to name a few. You’re probably thinking Who?

That’s the point of this exercise. A busy World Cup season is about to get underway in all the sports and you’re going to need a program to acquaint yourself with the players. Consider this your intial primer for the upcoming Olympics. Let’s call it Turin 101.

A is for Alimzan. Who can forget the behind the scenes star of the Salt Lake Games, Alimzan Tokhtakhounov? The reputed mobster was alleged to have rigged the pairs event to deny Jamie Sale and David Pelletier the gold medal. One can only imagine what kind of skulduggery might be in store for Turin. Stay tuned.

B is for Botterill. One of the highlights for Canada in Salt Lake was the thrilling victory by the women’s hockey team over the U.S. - in spite of some horrid officiating. Most of the same cast is back including sniper Jennifer Botterill, Cassie Campbell and Hayley Wickenheiser (she of the fiery post-game interview in which she accused the Americans of stomping the Canadian flag in their dressing room). You can bet on a gold-medal rematch.

C is for coraggio. The Canadians will need courage and heart to overcome an admittedly poor conversion rate when it comes to turning World Cup and world championship success into Olympic medals. They’re looking at various ways to deal with the problem - including setting up a high performance centre in Turin where athletes can get a good night’s sleep away from the village before their event - but the bottom line is it takes a special athlete to cope with the incredible hype and pressure.

D is for disgrazia. It seems some Canadian tests positive at every Olympics. This could be a very bad thing in Italy, where doping offences are penalized by prison time. Attempts to get the tough laws suspended during the Olympics have so far failed.

E is for extras. The Canadian team is catching up to its chief competition in terms of the resources at its disposal as a result of the Own The Podium created for the 2010 Whistler/Vancouver Olympics. Among the beneficiaries - the bobsled team has new sleds, the alpine ski team has cutting edge video technology, and the speed skating team travels with a full support staff.

F is for firefighter. When he’s not rocketing face-first down an icy skeleton course, Duff Gibson uses his athletic talents with the Calgary Fire Department. Gibson, who tried just about every sport in his drive to become an Olympian, has found his niche. He was the world champion in 2004 and won the World Cup race on the Olympic course in Cesana last season.

G is for Grandi. When Italians are uttering the word grande in Turin during the Games, it may have little to do with the size of their latte, and everything to do with the Italian-born skier who proudly races for Canada. With two World Cup giant slalom wins under his belt last season, Thomas Grandi is a bona fide contender. Cooks a mean bowl of pasta, too.

H is for hip bone. That’s part of what’s holding freestyle aerials skier Deidra Dionne’s neck together after she broke it at a World Cup in Australia in September. Put back together with a titanium plate and a piece of her hip bone, the Olympic bronze medallist from Salt Lake has every intention of jumping for gold in Turin.

I is for IOC. You can bet it will be business as usual in Turin for the International Olympic Committee. They’ll stay in the best hotels, scoff the best chow and generally screw up whatever they can. Count on Dick Pound finding a way to put himself front and centre.

J is for Jasey Jay Anderson, who’s won everything but an Olympic medal in his remarkable snowboard career. The reigning world champion in parallel giant slalom, Anderson has been pouring a lot of energy into technology as he believes that in the end, the boards can make the difference.

K is for kickstart. If anyone can get Canada off to a flying start in Turin, it’s freestyle moguls skier Jennifer Heil, who goes for gold on opening day. An impressive fourth in Salt Lake, she’s coming off winning her second straight World Cup overall moguls title.

L is for luging Lauscher. Regan Lauscher made a breakthrough last season when she recorded Canada’s best finish ever in the 28-year history of the World Cup, capturing a silver medal at a race in Lake Placid. The journalism graduate chronicled the feat herself in a diary she wrote for the CBC website.

M is for meltdown. Expect bobsled pilot Pierre Lueders to have one if speedy brakeman Lascelles Brown doesn’t get his citizenship in time for the Games. The other brakeman with whom he’s had great success, Giulio Zardo, quit because he couldn’t stand the mercurial driver. Lueders is a legitimate threat to win a second Olympic title if he has the right people pushing him.

N is for nervoso. Fans back home get awfully anxious if the medals don’t start rolling in right away. Within three or four days, some journalist will write a scathing piece, labelling the whole team chokers. Relax. Save the judgements until the end of the Games.

O is for Ohno. Apolo Anton Ohno went into Salt Lake with star billing, but was eclipsed by Canada’s Marc Gagnon, who’s since retired. Look for the current group of Canadian short track skaters to once again steal a lot of thunder in Turin, including Mathieu Turcotte, Francois-Louis Tremblay and Charles Hamelin. They’re well coached by former Olympian Guy Thibault.

P is for Pinerolo, home to curling for the Turin Olympics. One wonders that the 35,000 villagers in the town dubbed “the temple of curling” on the official Olympic website will make of a sport they know nothing about. The Canadian teams won’t be decided until the Olympic trials in December, but they’ll be favourites. Only the late Sandra Schmirler has met those heavy expectations since curling entered the Games in 1998.

Q is for quad. Super talented Jeffrey Buttle will need one of these to capture Olympic gold. The technically demanding jump has eluded him so far, but chief rivals like Evgeni Plushenko, Stephane Lambiel and Brian Joubert all have at least one in their arsenal. A silver medallist at last year’s worlds, Buttle is Canada’s lone figure skating hope for the podium in Turin.

R is for redhead. As the first Canadian and only fourth athlete in history to win medals in both the Winter and Summer Games, Clara Hughes knows all about delivering under pressure. She’s dropped cycling in favour of concentrating on long track speed skating. She skates in the gruelling longer distances, and has a pain threshold worthy of a champion.

S is for Simard. With world downhill champion Melanie Turgeon retired due to back woes, the Canadian alpine team is looking for one or more of its women to make a breakthrough this season. Genevieve Simard, ninth in a World Cup GS yesterday in Soelden, Austria, seems poised to do just that and oft-injured Emily Brydon is right behind her.

T is for team pursuit, a new event added to long track speed skating. Canada usually fares well in new Olympic disciplines. And this one - featuring two teams of three skaters start on opposite sides of the track and skate six laps against the clock - should be no different. Watch for a great duel in the women’s event between Canada and powerhouse Germany. The Canadian squad’s one advantage over the combative Germans - they actually like each other.

U is for underdog. One of the exciting things about the Olympics is seeing some unheralded athlete rise to the occasion on the big day - skiers Kathy Kreiner and Kerrin Lee-Gartner come to mind. This time around, watch out for youngsters such as long track speed skater Shannon Rempel and alpine skier Francois Bourque among others.

V is Vermilion, the tiny Albertan hometown of Olympic cross-country skiing gold medalist Beckie Scott, who hung in until she finally got the honour she deserved after the two Russians who finished in front of her in Salt Lake were caught cheating. Scott returned to the sport after a break last season and looks stronger than ever. Teammate Sara Renner, who is married to skier Thomas Grandi, made it a great season for the family by winning a bronze at last year’s worlds.

W is for Wotherspoon. The memory many hold from Salt Lake is pre-race favourite Jeremy Wotherspoon sprawling onto the ice four steps into his speed skating race. Life did go on for Wotherspoon, who won the world championships a year later. He is still among the best long track sprinters in the world, but not the dominant force he was four years ago.

X is for X Games. The Olympics will have that flavour with the new event of snowboard cross, where four boarders race down the hill at the same time, setting up the possibility for all kinds of mayhem. The sections on the course have names like whoops, waves, spine, kickers.

Y is for yes. As in, yes, we know men’s hockey is in the Olympics and all the NHL stars will be there, but the point of this is to help educate you about the rest of the team.

Z is for zona. Canadian athletes are aiming to be in the zona at the Olympics. That’s what they train four hard years to do. In most cases they’ll have to perform on the edge and not be afraid to move beyond their zona di benessere (comfort zone).

AFGHAN ADVENTURE; OLYMPIAN PROUD TO SEE CANADIAN MILITARY’S SUCCESS
(Catriona Le May Doan - The Calgary Sun)

When I got a call two months ago asking me if I would like to join a group heading to Afghanistan to visit the troops, I didn’t hesitate—this was the chance of a lifetime.

I didn’t really know what the plan was—we weren’t told too much for security reasons. All I knew was that I was going to a place I had never been before, my friends thought I was crazy, but I was heading on an adventure.

I had only heard a few names of the people I would be travelling with, so after making my own way to Ottawa, I arrived at the Canada Reception Centre and met the rest of the group—we were to become known as Team Canada.

There were approximately 20 of us heading over. We were a mixture of people from sports, the arts, business, and the international defence community. We had some introductions, a bite to eat, and then the first of MANY briefings. We were flying on a Canadian Forces airbus that was two-thirds full of cargo and the rest was filled with soldiers and ourselves. It was approximately nine hours to Zagreb, Croatia, where we had a two-hour break while they refuelled. The next leg was five hours that would take us to Southwest Asia, where we would spend the night.

It was the first of three military campswhere we would spend the nights. We were taken to get our “outfits”—or I should say combat fatigues. For our own protection they wanted us in the Canadian Forces shirts, pants, boots, and we also received a helmet and protective vests. With all that gear on, you realize how tough it must be to patrol for hours in that heat—a good dieting technique!

We only got a few hours sleep that first night as we had to have an early start to catch the flight to Kandahar. The end of the five-hour flight was approaching and we were to sit down, put seat-belts, protective vests and our helmets on. As we started descending, the pilots were monitoring the skyline for any activity. When we were only a few miles from the airport, they dropped down quickly to only 70 metres off the ground and then the fun started.

They manoeuvred the plane from side to side all the way to the runway in a tactical approach in case anyone wanted to shoot at us. It was quite the experience, but one I could do without again—too bad we still had more flights over the next few days.

At the Kandahar air base we met some men and women with the Canadian Forces. We chatted for a while; had some photos taken, and then we were rushed to a Chinook helicopter that was waiting to take us to the PRT camp (Provincial Reconstruction Team) where we would spend that night.

The ride was only about 20 minutes long and by helicopter we got a great view of the city. We landed right in camp, which is mainly composed of actual buildings, as it used to be a fruit cannery, but what struck me was the size (or lack thereof) and the dust! I don’t suffer from any respiratory issues, but I can imagine that anyone who does would have some problems.

We got settled in our rooms, gathered for a briefing, and then we were going out on a patrol in the city. I was very excited to see the city and the people. Because of the high risk-factor in Kandahar, there was no stopping on this patrol. We were in armoured vehicles and therefore, we felt very safe.

After the patrol, it was off to the mess hall for dinner. Food has always been important to me and one day into the trip, I realized that regardless of the where the soldiers were, how far away they were from their families, they did have access to good food.

That evening was a time to relax, meet the soldiers and it was nice to sit around and talk about all sorts of things—why we were there, what we had seen, how we reacted. Also we had to talk hockey—many were asking about the Flames and we reassured them there was no need to worry.

I was curious about what the toughest thing was for them. It was without a doubt being away from their families—husbands, wives, kids. For many of them at PRT camp, it is tough being enclosed in a small area. You can run the perimeter, which is 700 metres. For those who don’t patrol, well, they never leave. Some were saying that morale was a little low and they were excited about our visit. That sure made me feel good about taking the time to be there.

Physical training is a huge part of the routine at PRT. A ball-hockey game had been set up due to the member of our team that wore No. 10 and played for the Canadiens—Mr. Guy Lafleur. While they played hockey, I went for a little run around the camp and then went and did some weights in the gym they had set up.

After the training, Team Canada proceeded to rotate through four sessions that went through in great detail what is done at the camp. We learned about how the explosives that are discovered (either in the city, hills, or near the camp) are dealt with. We moved Theo—the bomb robot; we put on the almost-100-lb. bomb suit; and we learned all about the equipment used by the engineers, the communications team, and the medics when in the field.

My favourite part was when we were able to go to the range and shoot C8s and C9s.I have only used a .22 out at the ranch, so it was quite the experience shooting these guns, and also seeing demonstrations of the drills and training the soldiers do. All these activities were done in 35C heat and a lot of the time wearing our vests. We were ready for lunch, a briefing, and then it was time to head back to the airfield, board the lovely Hercules, and head to Kabul.

I was sad to leave the camp but excited to see Kabul. Kabul is much different—bigger, busier, more open, and I now understand it has recovered and been rebuilt a lot more. It was a 45-minute drive to the camp and we were able to see the entire city. The camp in Kabul is very big—tent after tent—and all I could think of was M*A*S*H.

It was time for a briefing, dinner, and then a meet-and-greet with the 800 members of the Canadian Forces based at Kabul. It was a great night. I met lots of people, heard many interesting stories, and was thanked often for taking the time to visit.

The next day was my favourite. A few of us had the chance to do a walking patrol where we took armoured vehicles and went into the city, walking the streets. It was so interesting to see the people of the city. The kids were so excited; the men were thanking the troops for being there. We stopped and talked to some locals, some in English, and some with the help of a translator.

We asked them about their work and Ramadan, and they shook our hands, and said thank you. I saw construction happening, we saw schools where not only boys attended, but there were sessions for girls as well. Here was a city that was rebuilding. They were able to have the security, the means and the assurance that they could do this. They were doing it because of the work and commitment by members of the Canadian Forces.

The evening was spent at the Canadian embassy. I saw a hole just outside the wall where a rocket had hit only a few days before. I met many interesting people, but it was a highlight to meet a boxer who had been in Athens for the Olympics. He was one of five members of the Afghanistan team and he told me how under the Taliban five years ago it was so difficult to train, but now even with poor conditions, the ability to train is there.

It was already time to leave and start the long journey home. We had spent time in three different places, met troops at five different camps, been on two patrols, and learned all about the training members of the Forces go through. But most of all, I witnessed what a difference the members of the Canadian Forces have had on the people of Afghanistan. They are helping them take control of their lives. They are helping them to rebuild. They are building schools for boys and girls. They are helping them to build a society that they can raise their kids in.

I learned about the men and women that represent our country. They leave their families, they miss birthdays, they miss Christmas and many of them experience the heartache of divorce, but they make sacrifices for their country. They are committed, they are driven, and they are passionate. I am proud to have met these men and women who represent us, and we as Canadians should be very proud of the impact they have had.

They dare to wear the Maple Leaf because they know that when the people of Afghanistan say “thank you,” they have been a part of making a difference.

Hayley Wickenheiser (CP)

Women’s team in NHL-style environment.
The Evening News (New Glasgow)

This is as close to an NHL environment as a female hockey team can get. It’s the third time players on the Canadian women’s hockey team have centralized in Calgary in the months leading up to the Olympic Games.

What sets this term apart from the last two is the players’ lifestyles are not unlike that of a Joe Sakic, Jason Spezza or Martin Brodeur, with an important distinction. “We are a pro team in every sense of the word outside of being paid like pro players,” forward Hayley Wickenheiser said with a laugh.

On a game day, of which the Canadian team has more than ever before, Wickenheiser arrives an hour before the squad’s pre-game morning skate. She heads home in the afternoon for a nap, then is back at the rink for the team meeting at 5 p.m. prior to a 7 p.m. game.

That’s a schedule an NHL or major junior player would keep. Head coach Melody Davidson’s vision for the leadup to the Olympics was to have a season with regular games, instead of sprinkling the odd exhibition game or two against the U.S., Finland or Sweden into endless days of practice and fitness training.

So the Canadian team is playing a regular schedule against men’s teams from the Alberta AAA Midget Hockey League. Combined with international games, the Canadian team will have played 46 contests heading into Turin, Italy, and that is double the number played heading into the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.

Twenty-two of the games will be against the triple-A players, which give the Canadian women the kind of hard, sustained competition they crave as only the U.S. can provide the same in international women’s hockey.

The players would far rather play than practise and with more games, the coaches can get a better read on which of the 26 players should be on Canada’s 20-player Olympic roster. “It’s good for the team because you have more chances to show what you can do under pressure,” forward Danielle Goyette said.

The games themselves are high tempo, hard fought and fascinating to watch. Without bodychecking, the men must rely on their skills and the women match up as well or better in that department.

But it’s team systems and an improved transition game that Davidson hopes will be forged in these games. “We’re fortunate this year that if the U.S. and us end up in the gold medal game (at the Olympics), we’ll have played 32 games at this level,” Davidson said. “How can you not get good habits and how can you not get better faster?”

Davidson said this scenario would not have been possible with the centralized team four years ago as the women were not fit enough to play consecutive games against the men. The Canadian team did that this week at Father David Bauer Arena and won both games, beating the triple-A Flames 5-3 and Royals 3-2.

Brydon’s ready, positively: Downhiller from Fernie sees season as more than one race.
(The Vancouver Sun)

Emily Brydon is on the phone from Austria brimming with confidence, extolling the benefits of channeling positive memories and talking about seeing the Turin Games in February as just one stop in a long season of ski racing.

The full World Cup circuit is still important, she says. The Olympics is just a “one-off deal. Something could not go in your favour. You can’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

It’s like the sports psychologist she’s been working extra hours with is in the hotel room in Pitzal holding up cue cards. She is Phil Mickelson on skis. But then the Fernie native, who can be delightfully blunt, exceedingly hard on herself and self-deprecatingly funny, is asked about the course at Soelden, where the 2005-06 World Cup season busts out of the start gate this weekend with giant slaloms for the men and women.

The Emily-does-power-of-positive-thinking facade slips quicker than a downhiller who loses an edge at 120 km/h. “It’s the bane of my existence, to be perfectly honest,” says a laughing Brydon of a hill she can’t tame. “It’s the most challenging GS course on the women’s circuit.”

In 2004, Brydon was 49th in the first run and didn’t qualify for the second. In ‘03, she didn’t even finish the first run. But as quickly as she lets her guard down, she finds her optimism equilibrium. Sort of. “On the one hand this is an awesome opportunity,” says Brydon, whose best medal hopes are in downhill and Super G, which don’t get going until early December at Lake Louise, Alta. “I don’t have the pressure here that I have in other events. I had a good end of last season in GS [two top 25 results] and I’ve been skiing well in training. It’s a good chance for me to go well. “On the other hand, I have to start so far back in GS [probably in the 60s] that it makes it really challenging. The course is rough. But then, I don’t really have anything to lose.”

While Soelden is the traditional World Cup season-opener, it’s really just a teaser. A GS for men, one for the women, then no World Cup races for five weeks until the speed events hit Lake Louise, and Beaver Creek and Aspen in Colorado, host races in every discipline.

The Canadian team is coming off a season in which it posted six podium finishes, including a pair of giant slalom wins by Thomas Grandi of Canmore, Alta., the first ever in a technical race by a Canuck male. Canada was seventh in the Nations Ranking on the World Cup circuit.

Brydon and others say the momentum built by some breakout performances last season—Grandi’s win, top-10 slalom results from Patrick Biggs of Ottawa and Whistler’s Michael Janyk, the career-best fifth-place season finish in GS by Genevieve Simard of Val Morin, Que., -- will carry over into this season. “There’s a lot of talent coming out right now and everyone is really starting to believe in themselves,” said Brydon. “Our dryland training this summer was a bit more intense, a lot harder. We’ve had some good on-snow preparation lately and it’s an Olympic year. “There’s lots of anticipation, a real eagerness to get on the slopes.”

Alpine Canada has set a goal of qualifying 22 athletes for Turin, double the number at Salt Lake City in 2002. So far, Grandi, Brydon—who was third at a combined at San Sicario, Italy, last season—Simard, Biggs, Janyk, Nanaimo’s Allison Forsyth—who was third at a GS at Santa Caterina, Italy, last season—and Francois Bourque and Jean-Phillipe Roy, both of Quebec, have qualified for Turin. Canada will have seven women and six men in the giant slaloms at Soelden this weekend. “[It’s] the perfect opportunity for our athletes and coaching staff to measure the progress they’ve made over the summer and how far they have yet to go before the winter gets into full swing,” said Max Gartner, Alpine Canada’s chief athletic officer. “Our goal is to peak at the Olympics in Turin and to get there we have to follow a steady progression.”

Deidra Dionne (CP)

Injured skiers strive for Olympian recovery.
(By JAMES CHRISTIE - Globe and Mail)

Olympians dream of gold, silver and bronze.

And, 111 days before the 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin, Italy, four of the world’s best female athletes dreaming of those medals are being held together by titanium, cadaver parts—and hope.

Nothing daunted the optimism of Deidra Dionne as she stood before 11 classes of students at Toronto’s St. Matthew Catholic School this week. Only five weeks after breaking her neck in a training fall in Australia, the 23-year-old freestyle skiing aerialist from Red Deer, Alta., was launching the Canadian Olympic School Program and sharing her ambition to win at the Olympics.

She was standing tall, if stiffly, because two vertebrae in her neck are fused with a titanium plate and a bone graft taken from her right hip. “I always dreamed of gold, never of bronze,” Ms. Dionne said, her dark eyes flashing and her brow just slightly furrowed.

Bronze was what she brought home from the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. She wants a brighter colour from Turin, and to get that, Ms. Dionne will hurl herself down a ski run at 60 kilometres an hour, launch herself 15 metres in the air off a kicker (ramp), then do a spectacular dance in the sky with three twists and two somersaults. “Will I be afraid the first time I jump again? There’s some fear every time you jump, but you fight that by being as well prepared as you can be.”

Surgeons and psychologists are proving as important as coaches in putting some of the top Olympians back on snow in February. Ms. Dionne, Australian aerialists Alisa Camplin and Lydia Ierodiaconou and American skeleton slider Noelle Pikus-Pace are all seriously injured medal favourites in a battle against time to regain fitness and confidence by February. “The fear is very real . . . even when you’re a healthy athlete. Freestyle certainly takes psychological strength. There’s a possibility of serious injury at any time,” said Penny Werthner, a sports psychologist at the University of Ottawa who works with the Canadian Olympic freestyle skiers.

If doctors give Ms. Dionne the green light to resume training Dec. 8, she can’t bluff herself that the injury never happened. “Denial doesn’t work. It’s a matter of talking yourself though the fear and training yourself for the moment,” she said. “You tell yourself, ‘If I choose to do this, how am I going to be up there—breathing the right way, staying calm enough, alert enough, thinking the right stuff to execute the jump?’ It’s the same skills you’ve always used, but it’s that much harder.”

As Ms. Dionne spoke to the kids this week of her passion to come back and become champion, Ms. Camplin, the Salt Lake aerials gold medalist, was in a Melbourne hospital bed following surgery to replace the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee. The key ligament had ruptured for the second time in two years and was too shredded to repair, so Ms. Camplin’s joint was rebuilt with an allograft—a patella tendon harvested from a donor corpse. It offers her the best chance to recover quickly and defend the gold.

This followed a successful similar allograft on her teammate, Ms. Ierodiaconou, the No. 2-ranked aerialist on the World Cup tour last season. She had the Achilles tendon of a deceased donor transplanted into her knee in June and healed with remarkable speed.
By September, Ms. Ierodiaconou was already practising jumps and landing in water.

On Wednesday, Ms. Pikus-Pace, the World Cup champion in the risky sport of skeleton (in which sliders descend an icy run head first and face down) was in the finish area of the Calgary bobsled run when the U.S. four-man sled ran past the stopping zone and smashed into her, breaking both the tibia and fibula bones of her right leg. Surgeons inserted a titanium rod to support the knitting bones. She will be on crutches for four weeks but she still wants to get into World Cup races before the Olympics.

“Being patient is the hardest thing for me now,” said Ms. Dionne. “We’re waiting to see how the graft from my hip fuses into the neck. I wanted to do physiotherapy and get massage. But the doctors said no. If I’d broken my arm I wouldn’t want someone massaging an area where bones have to knit. “So, I’m just walking to the gym in Calgary, then walking at the gym, then walking home. I can’t push it.”

A former rookie of the year on the World Cup circuit, Ms. Dionne was world championship bronze medalist in both 2001 and 2003, in addition to her Olympic medal. She has flown high and far since taking up the sport at 13. Her parents had put her on skis when she was three years old and sent her to conventional ski lessons, which she found boring. “I’d drop my ski poles on the way up the chairlift, just to skip out of class time,” she recalled. “I wanted to go over to the jumps where the cool kids were hanging out. I wanted to do freestyle [which also includes moguls skiing].

“There was an Alberta Winter Games coming up and I was eager to compete because it would mean a week off school. My mother saw there were no girls signed up for freestyle and she entered me. But she warned me, ‘Whatever you do, don’t go off those jumps.’ Of course, the jumps were the first place I went as soon as I got out of her car.

“My first coach said I was terrible, but he didn’t want to tell a kid to quit,” Ms. Dionne said. “So I stayed with it. I got into some competitions and jumped in the B group, not the A group contending for medals, but B, as in ‘Bad.’ “ At her first World Cup event in Blackcomb, B.C., in December, 1999, Ms. Dionne went out with the early morning B crowd and topped that group. Then, she watched in amazement as skier after skier in the vaunted A group crashed, putting her on the podium in third spot. The next weekend, she took silver at Deer Valley, Utah.

The “terrible” B-flight aerialist was named rookie of the year for the World Cup 1999-2000 “and next thing I knew, I was qualified for the Olympics.” That all was so stunning quick, she said.

Now, the waiting game is tough to play. If the doctors okay her return on Dec. 8, she has a two-month plan for getting into medal contention in Turin. She will spend a week in the gym, toning her idle muscles, then head west to the Apex mountain resort, 35 minutes from Penticton, B.C.

Peter Judge, the chief executive officer of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association and former national coach, will spend about a week with Ms. Dionne while the rest of the team is at a World Cup in China, giving her a frank assessment of her chances. Then she will consult with national coaches Dennis Capicik and Dmitriy Kavunov. “I’ll start back with simple jumps I’ve been doing since I was 13. I’ll only try one of my toughest jumps through the January World Cup. Then I’ll have three more weeks to get ready. By the time of the last World Cup before the Olympics, I’ll have two triple-twisting doubles. “I’m going to be scared. No question, I’ll be scared. It will be nerve-wracking. But nerves—and injuries—are an ongoing thing in our sport. Once I land a jump, I’ll think, ‘Oh, I know how to do this; this is easy.’ “

Notwithstanding Ms. Dionne’s optimism, Ms. Werthner said she won’t put the pressure of high expectations on the skier. “Because of the injury, expectations will be lower in a sense, and that can work in your favour. One of the hardest parts of the Olympics is managing those expectations,” the psychologist said.

You could ask hurdler Perdita Felicien or speed skater Jeremy Wotherspoon about the crushing effect of high expectations. Both favourites tumbled only a few steps off the start line at the Olympics. “We don’t try to hide from anything,” Ms. Werthner said. “We lay out the plan and prepare and prepare and prepare. It’s not all about the psychological side. Sometimes, there’s not enough time to put in the training days for confidence and reknowledge. And even if there is time to train, you have to find snow to jump on.”

Ms. Dionne says she’s past crying over the injury. She’s into the visualization that athletes do to train themselves mentally. “I’ve only got one good cry left, and I want that to be on the podium, in Turin.”