Cindy Klassen (CP)

Winnipeg’s Cindy Klassen breaks her world record in 1,500 metres at speed skating World Cup team trials.

CALGARY- Cindy Klassen of Winnipeg broke her world record in the women’s 1,500 metres on Friday in a spectacular start to the 2005-2006 season at the long track speed skating World Cup team trials.

“I’m really excited,” said Klassen, an Olympic bronze medalist in the 3,000 in 2002. “During the race I could feel that my laps were fast and I was thinking 1:54 would be great at this point. When I saw the time at the end I was elated. My main focus today was to have a strong second lap."

With the first two World Cups this season in Calgary and Salt Lake City next month, Klassen is confident she can go even faster. “It’s great having the first two World Cups on fast ice. I’ll want to keep that feel for sure.”

Last season, Klassen won two gold medals at the world single distance championships in Inzell, Germany with victories in the 1,500 metres and 3,000 metres. She also won the World Cup title in the 1,500 with three victories in five races and was second overall at the all around world championships.

Kristina Groves of Ottawa was second in Friday’s race, Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., third, Clara Hughes of Winnipeg fourth, also all personal bests- and Kerry Simpson of Melville, Sask., fifth.

“It’s really neat to look at the top-six times and see how fast the women are,” said Hughes. It shows we have a lot of depth. Every year we just keep getting better and better. We wanted to go out in the first races of the year and show that our preparations are going well for the Olympics.”

In the men’s 1,500, Denny Morrison, a world junior champion last year, smashed the previous national mark set by Dustin Molicki of Calgary in 2002. Steven Elm of Red Deer, Alta., was second and Jason Parker of Yorkton, Sask., third. They were personal bests for all three. “My strategy was to open fast and carry my speed through the race,” said Morrison. “I was expecting a good time and I was aiming for a personal best. But I didn’t expect to go that fast. My lap times were great and I felt relaxed.”

On Saturday, in the men’s 3,000, Arne Dankers clocked a new national mark set earlier this year by Steven Elm of Red Deer, Alta. Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., was secondand Elm third, also both under the previous national mark.

“I knew the times would be fast and everyone had great starts,” said Dankers, sixth in the 5,000 at the world championships last season. “So for me I needed to start faster than usual and get use to that speed. It’s a different race from a five kilometres and you have to make some changes to strategy. To see all the guys skating so well is very encouraging and motivating.”

Lindsay Alcock (CP)

ALCOCK, PAIN TOPS ON THE TRACK AT SKELETON CHAMPIONSHIPS.

Calgary-Jeff Pain and Lindsay Alcock captured the men's and women's national skeleton titles, respectively, at the 2005 VISA Canadian Skeleton Championships at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary on Saturday.

Pain sat out last year's Canadian Championships after sustaining a hamstring injury, but later went on capture the overall World Cup skeleton title and claimed gold in record-setting fashion on his home track at the Konica Minolta World Skeleton Championships during the 2004-05 season. "I'm pleased with today's result," said Pain. "The biggest thing today was getting into the right mindset for two weeks from now when the World Cup tour begins."

Coming in second in the men's heat was 39-year-old Toronto native Duff Gibson, the 2004 world champion. Defending national titlist Paul Boehm came in third.

Another overall World Cup champion took the honours in the women's heat, with 28-year-old Calgary native Lindsay Alcock setting the standard for the day. The win gave Alcock her third consecutive Canadian championship. "It's actually a really good feeling," said Alcock. "This competition is the culmination of all the on-ice training the team did over the summer. It's good for gauging where I'm at."

In a battle for second place in the women's competition, Eckville, Alta. native Melissa Hollingsworth-Richards, 25, edged out Michelle Kelly, a 30-year-old native of Fort St. John, B.C.

Sara Renner and Thomas Grandi (CP)

Olympic couple shares golden hopes, dreams: Canmore's Grandi, Renner consider life after Torino.
(The Calgary Herald)

They cuddled on a big, soft leather couch in front of countless television lights.

Sara Renner and Thomas Grandi, two of Canada's top skiers, prepared to dispense with questions about married life to what the future holds after the Torino Winter Olympics. It was an informal send-off for the Canmore couple but it also sounded a lot like a prelude to a retirement party.

Grandi, now 33 and the first Canadian to win gold medals in World Cup technical alpine events last season, is all but certain Torino and his fourth Olympiad will be his last hurrah. Renner, a 29-year-old from Golden, B.C. and Grandi's wife of two years, has yet to decide what path she'll take after her third Olympic Games.

Thoughts of starting a family are very much on their minds. "That's been discussed," admitted Grandi, who had it in his mind to retire after the 2002 Winter Olympics. "If Sara decides she wants to go to Vancouver in 2010, we've talked about starting a family now so she can take a year off and come back to her sport. "Family is important to both of us."

Renner, the first Canadian woman to make the world championship cross-country podium when she nabbed a sprint bronze earlier this year at Oberstdorf, Germany, says she doesn't want to close the door to Vancouver.

"When I make that decision it'll be both feet in or not at all," she said. "I'd say the door is open a couple inches to Vancouver. I know what it takes, I know I'll be capable of it but I'll need to have 100 per cent motivation." "I can have kids after Vancouver, too, but I definitely want to have a family. There's a lot of things in life and ski racing is one of them but I have to love it for the next four years if I want to go to Vancouver."

Grandi, on the other hand, leaves doubt as to his future after Torino. He talked about possibly getting into the ski business at Mount Norquay, where his mom is a part owner. Then again, he was pretty certain he was going to retire after the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics but a 12th place in the giant slalom reignited his desires.

Now he's coming off his best season -- World Cup gold medals in giant slalom at Alta Badia and Flachau, along with a silver at Kitzbuehel. "The doors have been there for us," said Grandi, "it's a question of when we'll decide to walk through them. I was pretty convinced Salt Lake was going to be my last season but after the GS I just knew in my heart I still had things to accomplish. "I think it'll be different this time. I think it'll be my last year but . . . whether or not my desires will be clinched remains to be seen."

Whether it's their swan song or not, both are going to give it their best shot at raising Canada's flag in Italy. "We have really big goals this year and we really have to go for it," said Renner. "We've changed some of our training, worked a lot more with a nutritionist, sports psychologist, the lab at University of Calgary and it's really intensified our training"

Grandi, on the other hand, doesn't feel his training for an Olympic year has changed so much as his attitude. "I go into every season with the intention of winning," he said. "I think the only thing different now is that I feel more focused, more motivated than ever."

Beckie Scott (CP)

Athletes support Italy on doping. IOC, WADA lobby to ease strict laws `Why such care for those who cheat?'
(RANDY STARKMAN – TORONTO STAR)

Cross-country ski hero Beckie Scott is livid at the frantic lobbying by Olympic officials to get strict anti-doping laws in Italy — which can include jail sentences — relaxed for the 2006 Turin Winter Games.

Scott, one of several Canadian athletes who want to see Italian authorities remain resolute, said she is "totally dismayed and disappointed" by the continuing efforts of the International Olympic Committee and World Anti-Doping Agency to get the Italian government to ease the penalties during the Feb. 10-26 event.

"What kind of message are they trying to send?" asks Scott, adding that most people in the sports community don't feel the current two-year suspension for a doping offence is an effective deterrent.

"I think that these laws essentially give athletes a choice — come to the Olympics clean or stay home. What is so wrong with that? And why is there so much concern about the athletes who may stay home, or even run the risk of arrest and breaking Italian law by testing positive at the Games? Why such concern and care for those who dope and cheat?

"Has all perspective about the importance of fair play, respect for the rules of the Games and respect for our fellow competitors been completely abandoned in favour of ensuring that superstars remain superstars and scandal is avoided?"

Scott received her Olympic gold medal more than two years after her race at the 2002 Salt Lake Games, in which the two Russians who finished 1-2 were later caught doping. Her criticisms of the IOC and WADA carry even more weight considering she's a member of WADA's athletes committee.

Like Scott, reigning world freestyle skiing aerials champion Steve Omischl thinks there can only be one reason the IOC is trying so hard to get Italy to waive its harsher penalties.

"It's probably because they know there's a lot of drug use and just imagine if an athlete goes there and gets busted and is criminally charged, what a bad story it's going to be," said the North Bay native. "If I was in their shoes, I'd want them to relax it, too. "

Clara Hughes, the only Canadian to ever win medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, called it "fantastic news" that Italian officials are refusing to budge.

"I am so pleased that Italy is taking this stand and feel that the chance of a level playing field is even greater with these laws," said Hughes.

Italian Health Minister Francesco Storace and the head of Italy's national Olympic committee, Gianni Petrucci, both reiterated this week that the laws won't be changed for the Olympics.

"We can't accept the principle that Italian laws are not valid because there are athletes from somewhere in the world who want to be free to take doping (substances)," Storace said.

The topic heads the agenda this week at the IOC's executive committee meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

"The Olympic rules and the WADA code never contemplated having doped athletes locked up — just get them out of sport," said WADA president Dick Pound.

With the NHL set to send its best to Italy, deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the league is not overly concerned about the issue at this point.

"Obviously, the matter will play itself out between now and February, and NHL athletes will be prepared to live by whatever rules and policies are determined applicable to their participation in the Games," said Daly.

Regan Lauscher (CP)

Organizers of the Winter Olympics in Turin are planning to clear one final hurdle this weekend.
(CBC Radio Transcripts)

DWIGHT SMITH (NEWSCASTER):
Organizers of the Winter Olympics in Turin are planning to clear one final hurdle this weekend. They’re hoping a venue that has had questions about its safety is given the okay. This comes after a rash of accidents last year on the luge run. As Teddy Katz reports, one of Canada’s top athletes was involved in those crashes.

TEDDY KATZ (REPORTER):
Regan Lauscher had the best result ever by a Canadian in her sport, luge. She won a silver medal at a World Cup event last year. But even with her success, she was one of many athletes to crash on the Olympic course during training a short time later. She says it’s been hard for her to get that out of her mind.

REGAN LAUSCHER (LUGE ATHLETE):
I went in the third last curve and smashed the inside wall, the concrete wall on the inside, and then I skyrocketed to the top, hit the boards and it felt like I did a free fall for about five seconds. The only thing that was going through my mind at that second was don’t break your collar bone and hold on to your slide so it doesn’t land on you and break a bone.

TEDDY KATZ (REPORTER):
Olympic organizers have now redesigned the final few curves to make the course safer. The Executive Director of the Canadian Luge Association, Tim Farstad, says he thinks everything is alright now. There’s a test event planned on the course in three weeks. Athletes will get their first chance to see if the course isn’t as dangerous. Teddy Katz, CBC News, Toronto.

DWIGHT SMITH (NEWSCASTER):
And that’s it for this edition of World Report. Don’t forget local news follows in just a few minutes on some of these Radio One stations. For CBC Radio news, I’m Dwight Smith.

Former Secretary of State Paul Devillers

Ottawa Drops Plan for Single Sport Ministry.
( From Wednesday's Globe and Mail - James Christie)

The federal government has dropped the idea of creating a ministry that would have given sport its own budget and a place at the cabinet table.

Paul DeVillers, the former secretary of state for physical activity and sport who was commissioned by Prime Minister Paul Martin in May to write a report laying the groundwork for a sport ministry, has resigned as Martin's parliamentary secretary in frustration over the issue. "I indicated to the Prime Minister I was resigning to be free to speak out on the issue," the Liberal MP from Ontario's Simcoe North riding said in an interview, adding he will not stand for re-election when the next election is called.

DeVillers's mandate had been to outline how a single sport portfolio could be co-ordinated, pulling together fragments of sport and physical activity programs scattered across diverse ministries such as Health and Heritage.

"All I heard was that there had been consultations with the ministries that would have been affected and a decision was made to take no action. I requested a personal meeting with the Prime Minister himself to confirm it, and that's when I handed him my resignation," DeVillers said of an Oct. 5 face-to-face encounter with Martin.

"The Prime Minister indicated he wasn't saying no to the idea, but no action was going to be taken. My personal position was that I wanted to see action taken prior to an election and it wasn't my position to go back to the sport community with just another promise or more consultations. My bottom line was do it now or bust."

The call for a report came last spring after an intense lobbying effort by the sport community, some 140 groups that comprised individual sport bodies, coaches, physical educators, volunteers, Paralympians and groups supporting women's sport and aboriginal sport.

It was an unprecedented effort by the sport community to speak with a single voice. The message that physical activity and sport was important was linked to research that said healthier lifestyles could significantly reduce future health-care costs.

With Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics as a catalyst, the feds raised the funding floor for Sport Canada programs (through Heritage) to $140-million a year. The previous guarantee had been $70-million.

When DeVillers was made parliamentary secretary with the task of finding the best way to co-ordinate government programs for sport, recreation, fitness and active living, the sport community celebrated the move as an indication sport would matter on the government agenda. Currently, sport's junior status in Heritage is viewed by the sport community as restricted, and funding of sport much less a priority than the CBC or the arts. "There was a lot of optimism in the sport community. Now, an opportunity has been missed," DeVillers said.

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister's Office denied there was outright rejection of DeVillers's report. "The Prime Minister said neither yes nor no," she said. "We're still in the process of asking the relevant departments about what was an excellent report. When the results are back, we'll review them seriously."

But sport lobbyists shouldn't hold their breath. "Governments never make big machinery changes just before an election," the spokeswoman said.

Ian Bird, senior leader of the Sport Matters collective, said he's not prepared to give up. "One of the things we're conscious of is that there's still an opportunity have a have a dialogue with the Prime Minister," he said. "We still want to build bridges as best we can."

However, the physical activity community, through the umbrella Coalition for Active Living, said DeVillers's resignation "raised a red flag." "It's our job to hold the government accountable for its commitments on physical activity, and help them avoid the legacy of a generation of children whose life expectancy is less than that of their parents," coalition chairman Rick Bell said. "Any advancement of Mr. DeVillers's recommendations would have been a giant leap in raising the profile of physical activity and the fight against chronic diseases in Canada."

Christine Nordhagen (CP)

Tanya Dubnicoff (CP)

Former wrestler Nordhagen and cyclist Dubnicoff earn coaching apprenticeship.
(CP Wire)

OTTAWA - Former wrestling champion Christine Nordhagen and former world cycling champion Tanya Dubnicoff have been selected for the Coaching Association of Canada's Women in Coaching National Team Apprenticeship Program.

The program provides opportunities for female coaches to work with their national teams leading up to and during major international events such as the Olympics. ``My passion is sport and now that I'm moving into the coaching world, the NTAP gives me opportunities to live a dream and to continue with what I'm passionate about,'' Nordhagen, a six-time world champion, said in a release.

``I've been coaching with the junior national team and now I will have chances to move into the senior level and learn from the best coaches in Canada.'' The former teacher is currently the assistant coach of the University of Calgary's women's wrestling team.

Dubnicoff is currently head coach at the National Cycling Centre at the Olympic Oval in Calgary. ``(The apprenticeship program) will give me financial aid to travel to competitions and to meet other coaches and assist in national team camps and projects,'' she said. ``It will give me the edge I need to further my career as a cycling coach.''

Also selected to the two-year program were artistic gymnastics coach Elena Davydova of Oshawa, Ont., who won an Olympic gold medal competing for the former Soviet Union, softball coach Marie-Claude Lapointe of Greenfield Park, Que., and cross country ski coach Lisa Patterson of Thunder Bay, Ont.

IOC approves new sports for Beijing Olympics.
(CBC Sports)

Women's boxing won't be on the IOC's revamped menu for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but open-water swimming events and women's steeplechase will be. On Thursday, the International Olympic Committee's executive board ratified the recommendations of its program commission for events and disciplines within the 28 existing sports in the Summer Games.

Also approved were increases in women's teams in soccer, field hockey and handball from 10 to 12, and the replacement of doubles with team events in table tennis.

The IOC, which is eager for gender equity in the Olympics, said the changes will bring an increase of 80 women athletes into the games. There will be 302 medal events in Beijing, one more than at the 2004 Athens Games.

Apart from baseball, boxing is the only existing summer Olympic sport without women's events. Boxing has run into problems with the IOC. The IOC froze more than $1 million US in payments to the International Boxing Federation after the 2004 Athens Games because of concerns over judging in the sport.

Mike Brown (CP)

Dairy Farmers Of Canada Deliver On $800,000 Commitment To High Performance Athletes.

TORONTO, October 26, 2005 – The Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC), in partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), announced today the names of the final 20 Canadian high performance athletes who have been awarded a $10,000 bursary from the Pure Determination Fund to help cover their training, competition and equipment costs.

Launched in 2002, the Pure Determination Fund has delivered on its four-year commitment of awarding $800,000 in total grants to Olympic hopefuls across Canada. The annual fund was developed after a DFC study on the under-financing of athletes determined that individuals with the greatest need were those who ranked from sixth to 16th in the world standings.

Recipients of the Pure Determination Fund were chosen by a special selection committee. This year, the committee was comprised of Olympians Veronica Brenner and Nicolas Gill, Nathalie Noël from DFC as well as Caroline Assalian, Mike Christie and Debbie Muir from the COC.

To be eligible to receive a grant, athletes must be ranked between sixth and 15th in the world in individual events or between sixth and 12th in team sports, be in training to represent Canada at the Olympic Games, be members of their national teams’ development programs or training groups, and must earn less than $75,000 in gross income.

Dairy Farmers of Canada 2005 Pure Determination Fund Recipients:

First Name Last Name Age Sport Hometown
Lindsay Alcock 28 Skeleton Calgary, Alta.
Patrick Biggs 22 Alpine Skiing Orléans, Ont.
François Bourque 20 Alpine Skiing New Richmond, Que.
Michael Brown 21 Swimming Perth, Ont.
Craig Buntin 25 Figure Skating St. Léonard, Que.
Jillian D’Alessio 20 Kayak Middle Sackville, N.S.
Dana Ellis 25 Athletics Kitchener, Ont.
George Grey 26 Cross Country Skiing Rossland, B.C.
Mellisa Hollingsworth 25 Skeleton Eckville, Alta.
Devon Kershaw 22 Cross Country Skiing Sudbury, Ont.
Regan Lauscher 25 Luge Red Deer, Alta.
Crispin Lipscomb 26 Snowboarding Whistler, B.C.
Valérie Marcoux 25 Figure Skating St. Léonard, Que.
Mercedes Nicoll 22 Snowboarding Whistler, B.C.
Christine Robinson 21 Water Polo Lachine, Que.
Romina Stefancic 27 Rowing Victoria, B.C.
Warren Shouldice 22 Freestyle Skiing Calgary, Alta.
Stéphanie St-Pierre 20 Freestyle Skiing Victoriaville, Que.
Warren Tanner 25 Freestyle Skiing Grimsby, Ont.
Helen Upperton 25 Bobsleigh Calgary, Alta.
Tom Velisek 24 Snowboarding Vernon, B.C.