Kristina Groves (CP)

Results of Speed Skating World Cup Qualifier, Team to Represent Canada Overseas.
(Canadian Sport News)

Olympic Oval, Calgary - - Olympic Oval speed skater Kristina Groves surprised herself this morning by setting a personal best and qualifying for the World Cup 1,000 metres at the Olympic Oval Long Track Invitational II.

“I did shockingly well,” said Groves, the World Single Distances Championships 3,000 metres bronze medalist. “For some reason my top end speed has exploded. I am not even a 1,000 metres skater. Usually I am not able to get good speed at the start of the race and carry it all the way through, but I was able to do that today.”

Kerry Simpson of Melville, Sask. skated the 1,000 metres, coming in fourth and taking the fifth and final qualifying spot for the World Cup. Shannon Rempel, Cindy Klassen and Christine Nesbitt were all prequalified for the World Cup and did not skate the 1,000 metres races today.

In the men’s 1,000 metres Red Deer’s Jeremy Wotherspoon did not skate. He is already prequalified to skate at the World Cup in the 1,000 metres along with Brock Miron of Brockville, Ont. and Steven Elm of Red Deer. Twenty year-old Denny Morrison of Fort St. John skated the race setting a personal best, coming in first and qualifying for the World Cup.

Francios-Olivier Roberge of Quebec also set a personal best in the 1,000 metres and took the final qualifying spot for the men’s World Cup.

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Olympic gold medalist, three time World All Round Champion and five time European All Round Champion speed skater Anni Friesinger eclipsed the 1,500 metres world record set by Winnipeg’s Cindy Klassen at the Olympic Oval.

“Thanks to the ice makers at the Olympic Oval for the great ice,” said Friesinger who set the new 1,500 metres world record with a time of 1:53:22 this morning. Friesinger beat Klassen’s time of 1:53:77, set at last weekend’s Olympic Oval Long Track Invitational I which was used as the Canadian World Cup trials. The two skaters will get the chance to try and break Friesinger’s record at the Essent ISU World Cup next weekend.

“The competition will not be just between Cindy Klassen and me, it will be between all the girls,” said Friesinger who will be training at the Olympic Oval this week. “It is better for me to look at myself and not focus on another skater. Plus, next weekend will be different for me and for Cindy – we will have more media, more pressure and more expectations to deal with.”

Caroline Oullette (CP)

Canada beats Swedes again in women's hockey.
(WebPosted CBC Sports)

The Canadian Olympic women's hockey team may not see Sweden as much of a threat to their gold medal aspirations for the upcoming 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy.

The Canadians shut out the Swedes 4-0 on Friday in exhibition play in Tyringe, Sweden. A day earlier, Canada pummeled Sweden 11-0 with the Swede's best goaltender, Kim Martin, in net.

Caroline Ouellette notched a couple of power-play goals after being held scoreless through her team's schedule of international and men's midget triple-A games in preparation for the Games. The power forward from Montreal turned things around with her offensive outburst. "She had done everything but score," Canadian head coach Melody Davidson. "I think I was the second-happiest person in the arena behind her."

Canada also got even-strength markers from Gillian Apps of Unionville, Ont., and Kelly Bechard of Sedley, Sask. The Canadians showed real dominance in out-shooting Sweden 34-15 as Sami Jo Small earned the shutout.

Mike Ireland (CP)

Winnipeg’s Mike Ireland takes giant step in comeback bid at speed skating World Cup trials.
(Canadian Sport News)

CALGARY-Former world champion Mike Ireland of Winnipeg, who missed all of last season with a serious concussion, took first place in the men’s 500-metre on Friday to qualify for this fall’s World Cup competitions at the long track speed skating Canadian team trials.

Mark Nielsen of Calgary was second and Vincent Labrie of Ste-Foy, Que., third. “I had a race last week but this was my first big test and I’m pleasantly surprised with the time and my performance,” said Ireland, 31, a two-time Olympian who won the world sprint title in 2001. “I had some good laps and good speed but my starts are a bit rusty.”

In September 2004, Ireland suffered his injury when he crashed while mountain biking in California. He was off the ice until this September and has had his share of tough days as he deals with headaches and dizziness.

“It was nice to get back to racing, I was really unsure whether I would continue,” said Ireland. “But I knew I had to get back now to have a chance to go to the Olympics. I have had a few setbacks since I started training again, it feels a lot like cramming for an exam. I still wake up in the mornings dizzy but once I start warming up I feel better.”

In the women’s 500, Shannon Rempel of Winnipeg took first spot while Kerry Simpson of Melville, Sask., was second and Brittany Schussler of Winnipeg third.

Regan Lauscher (CP)

CANADA'S REGAN LAUSCHER CRACKS TOP-15 AT OPENING EVENT ON LUGE WORLD CUP.
(CODA Release)

Sigulda, LAT-Canada's Regan Lauscher kicked off the Olympic season by sliding into 15th spot in women's action at the Luge World Cup on Saturday. Lauscher, who put on more than three kilograms of body mass over the summer to improve on her critical start times, witnessed immediate results as she was the fourth fastest athlete out of the gate in both runs. Lauscher's starts were nearly half a second faster than last year.

"There were a lot of exciting things that came out of today for me - making this actually a very satisfying and exciting top-15 finish," said Lauscher, who made history last year becoming the first Canadian to win a silver medal at a luge World Cup. "My downfall was always my slow start and I worked hard over the summer to improve that - today I am seeing the results. I am maintaining pace with the top women in the world, the only thing pushing me back is a couple of small mistakes that I know I can correct. I am now really excited to get on the Olympic Track in Torino next week."

Calgary teenagers Madison Dupuis, 18, and Meaghan Simister, 19, were the only other female Canucks to suit up. They are both completing their second seasons on the World Cup and finished 19th and 20th respectively out of 23 sleds.

On Sunday, due to poor weather conditions, the competition jury cancelled the first run of the men's singles event where Canada's Jeff Christie slid into 17th spot. "Jeff had his first run in the morning and the ice was well off international standards," said Water Corey, head coach of the Canadian Luge Team.

"It was really cold here for a while and then the weather got warm the last couple of days, so there were issues with maintaining the quality of the ice on the track," said Christie.

The Canadian Luge team now heads to Torino, Italy for pre-Olympic events.

2010 reasons for a federal sport ministry.
(Globe and Mail)

Prime Minister Paul Martin should take another look at the recent proposal to integrate federal sport and physical activity programs and put them into one ministry. Championed by Paul DeVillers, the Ontario Liberal MP and former secretary of state for physical activity and sport, it's an idea whose time has come.

The bronze-medal reason is that the 2006 Turin Olympic Winter Games are just around the corner in February and, by March, the world's eyes will begin to turn to Vancouver for 2010. What better way to launch the government's host-nation program than with a full-fledged minister of sport?

The silver reason is the fact that it would be an appropriate follow-up to the doubling of funding (a Sport Canada increase from $70-million to $140-million) announced in the aftermath of our disappointing 12-medal performance at the Athens Olympics last year. Most experts agree it's not just what you spend, but how you spend it. A single ministry could increase efficiency and effectiveness.
Yet, the gold-medal reason is that such a move would allow the government to strike while the flame is hot.

The DeVillers report was the result of something rare in Canada: the highly fragmented sport and fitness community spoke with virtually one voice. More than 140 groups representing sport federations, athletes, coaches and physical educators agreed that sport and the promotion of healthy lifestyles should be linked under one umbrella with funding for both high-performance and recreational sport.

For too many years, our sport advocates have focused on increased funding for Canada's Olympic sports elite. Last spring, they created a common front with the recreational sport advocates and made their case for the role that sport and active living can make as part of a long-term strategy of true "health care."
The approach is to champion high-performance sport and participation. It's about 1,500 nationally carded high-performance athletes and millions of others from coast to coast who will lead healthier, more productive and rewarding lives if they grow up in a Canada that develops a true national sport culture. It's about formally engaging Olympians in ParticipAction-style programs, promoting these athlete role models to inspire children and adults to live actively. All of that would be facilitated by the creation of a stand-alone ministry encompassing sport and physical activity.

We live in a country with one of the world's highest standards of living and highest life expectancy -- but don't let those United Nations surveys give you a false sense of security. Summer Olympic podium performance is not the only area in which we, as a nation, are falling behind. Not only are we having difficulty keeping up with the current costs of disease treatment in Canada, it could get considerably worse because we're beginning to see the warning signs of declining youth fitness and increasing child obesity.

There will continue to be challenges posed by Canada's fragmented political and sports systems, but the prospects for creating transformational change will only improve if sport, high-performance athletes and participation programs are linked together on the same strategic podium. Ending the scattered approach at the federal level could dovetail with the synchronization of sport and physical activity programs by our provincial governments and reduce the fragmentation among national, provincial and local sports groups that has so limited our development as a sporting nation. If the federal government aligns its sport and physical activity programs under one roof in Ottawa, the prospects could also improve for properly aligning other institutions such as schools, colleges, universities and the media that can help shape a country's will and a nation's culture.

It's clear that a country of 33 million people does not spontaneously create a national sport culture. Leadership is required to first sell the benefits to Canadian society of the role of sport and active living, to explain the merits of high-performance athletes as positive role models for the next generation of young Canadians and to bring together the various societal vehicles that, over the long term, can help shape a national sport culture. For the Prime Minister, the time is right for action so that an integrated sport and physical activity ministry could begin to provide the focus required for Canada and Canadians to move forward higher, faster and stronger.

Tom Mayenknecht, a marketing consultant based in Vancouver, has held executive positions in professional tennis, NBA basketball, soccer and lacrosse.

Italy rewarding medalists.
(Prince George Citizen)

ROME (AP) -- The Italian Olympic Committee is offering its athletes 130,000 euros ($183,000 Cdn) if they win a gold medal during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

Silver medallists will get 65,000 euros ($92,000 Cdn) while bronze winners will receive 40,000 euros ($56,000 Cdn), the committee announced Thursday, the same as the prizes Italian athletes were given at the 2004 Athens Games.

At the last Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Italy won four golds, four silvers and five bronzes.

Catriona Le May Doan, George Gross and Curt Hartnett (CP)

LE MAY DOAN INDUCTED INTO CANADA'S SPORTS HALL OF FAME.
(The Calgary Sun)

Catriona Le May Doan is enjoying the fact she's not in the final throes of preparing for an Olympic Games.

The two-time Olympic speed skating gold medallist recalled yesterday how she felt just weeks out from the most important competition of her life and she is relieved to be retired as the 2006 Games approach. "It feels so good," Le May Doan said prior to her induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. "I think now as each year is passing and now that we're four months from a Games, I'm realizing how much stress there is."

Le May Doan became the first Canadian to successfully defend her Olympic gold medal when she won the 500 metres in Salt Lake City in 2002, following her gold in Nagano, Japan, in 1998. "In Salt Lake City, there was an extreme amount of pressure because I was carrying the flag, nobody had defended before, so now it's hitting me, how much pressure there was," she said. "I don't think I was aware of it then. "I'm just, in a way, so thankful I don't have to deal with it."

She held the Olympic, world and World Cup titles in 2002 and her world record in the 500 metres still stands. Le May Doan was the lone woman inducted in Canada's Sports Hall of Fame yesterday in a class that included cyclists Steve Bauer and Curt Harnett, former major league pitcher Claude Raymond, former Toronto Blue Jays president Paul Beeston, the 1972 Canadian team that won the Summit Series against the Soviet Union and veteran journalist George Gross.

Doan, who was named The Canadian Press female athlete of the year three times during her career, retired from speed skating in 2003. She and her husband Bart had their first child, a daughter named Greta, the following year.

The 34-year-old from Saskatoon will be going to the Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, but not with her skates as she'll be part of CBC's broadcast team providing commentary for both long and short track speed skating.

Bursary Recipients with Catriona Le May Doan.

Bursary Fund big boost to young athletes.
(CanWest News Service)

CALGARY - As Catriona Le May Doan was carving his niche as one of the finest athletes ever to strap on speed skates, she was also selling vacuum cleaners and waitressing, all the while counting on mom and dad to help with monthly rent bills.

No wonder, then, that the Olympic gold-medallist is such an ardent backer of the Olympic Oval Athlete Bursary Fund, which on Monday doled out its first batch of six $1,000 stipends to help young athletes who train at the Oval in Calgary. ``It was tough,'' recalled Le May Doan after Monday's official presentations. ``It's not the easiest thing when you're ranked at the top of the world and your mom and dad pay your rent. But that's the reality. I was fortunate in that my parents could help me that way. Not all the athletes here have that opportunity.

The six athletes who were awarded the bursaries Monday 31 athletes at the Oval applied can identify with Le May Doan, who contributed financially to the bursary fund. The awards were based on financial need and commitment and dedication to their sport, and for the athletes, the bursary couldn't have come at a better time.

Other recipients were: Matt MacLean, 19, of Winnipeg, Alison Treote, a cyclist, 22, from Abbotsford, Cailean Duggan, 25, of Ottawa; Neal Zaluski, 26, of Moose Jaw, Sask.; Ricki Krieck, 21, of Mission, B.C., and Tyler Johnston, 24, of Moose Jaw.

Federal Liberals gearing up to exploit Olympic athletes.
(Vancouver Courier)

If all goes according to Prime Minister Paul Martin's script, he'll call an election on the heels of the Winter Olympics in February, exploiting whatever gold medals Canada wins in Torino, Italy. National pride will be at a fever pitch, images of maple leaf flags will be all over the CBC for three weeks and the countdown to the 2010 Games in Vancouver will accelerate.

A politician wouldn't take credit for the achievements of others, would he? Especially the Right Hon. PM-squared.

C'mon! Say it ain't so.

Canada's greatest athletes will become mere pawns in a power grab by the Montreal shipping tycoon and his cronies.

Martin has already promised to call a federal election within 30 days of the tabling of Judge John Gomery's final report into the tawdry Quebec adscam. The Torino Games end Feb. 24 and the closing ceremonies will feature a preview of the Vancouver Olympics, which are touted as "Canada's Games."

Unless the minority Liberal government falls sooner, you'll see this cheap political spectacle unfold before your eyes.

One of the architects of this strategy is hall of fame Hab Ken Dryden, whose talent is being wasted as a member of parliament on Martin's team. If the lords of the puck were really more passionate about hockey than money, Dryden would already be National Hockey League commissioner.

Maybe Gomery thinks Martin deserves no blame for the misdeeds of predecessor Jean Chretien. But you'd have to be as dumb as Gomer Pyle to believe that Martin--then-finance minister--knew absolutely nothing about spending improprieties in his home province. Especially when a constant stream of newspaper headlines in both official languages were pointing toward the theft of millions of taxpayer dollars. It appears Martin did nothing to stop the injustice while it was happening.