Clara Hughes (CP)

BLADES OF GOLD; CANADIANS WIN 6 SPEED SKATING MEDALS AT WORLD CUP.
(The Toronto Sun)

Canada had a golden day on ice yesterday as Clara Hughes won a gold medal in the women's 5,000 metres world cup speed skating event in the Netherlands and Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon took ice dance gold in the NHK Trophy event in Japan.

Hughes, from Winnipeg, took the gold, just one second off the track record and her fastest time by five seconds at the indoor oval. Olympic champion Claudia Pechstein of Germany was second, while Cindy Klassen of Winnipeg finished third. "Technically it was the best 5,000 race of my career" said Hughes, the bronze medallist in the event at the 2002 Olympics.

"It was really motivating to have that race today because it confirms that all the things I'm doing to improve are working. I felt like every time I had a stride that was a little bit off, I was totally aware of it and that I could change and make it better. "I've never had a race like that."

"When the race started, there was not a lot of cheering. But when we got to the last lap, it was incredibly loud, I remember thinking, 'This is what it's going to be like at the Olympics.' "That really gave me a lot of fire. It was awesome. It's what sport should be like when you're racing."

Hughes won bronze in the 5,000 at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Her early results this season suggest she'll be a contender again in Torino, Italy, in two months.

Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., Arne Dankers of Calgary and Justin Warsylewicz of Regina won Canada's third medal, a silver in the men's 3,200-metre team pursuit race.

The Canadian women added to their medal haul Sunday bringing the total to 6 medals overall for the team. In the 1,500m race, Cindy Klassen captured silver, just six hundredths of a second behind winner Anni Friesinger of Germany. Kristina Groves of Winnipeg won the bronze. Calgary's Christine Nesbitt finished 16th, while Winnipeg's Clara Hughes was 18th.

Groves was happy to bounce back from a sub-par performance in Saturday's 5,000. "It was great to come back and skate very well," said Groves. "Today I was a little more relaxed and consistent in my pacing and technique. And I was aggressive too."

Friesinger leads the overall World Cup standings in the 1,500 with 280 points, followed by Klassen (260) and Groves (176).

In Sunday's women's team pursuit, Klassen, Groves and Nesbitt won silver with the second team of Michele D'Amours, Brittany Schussler and Kerry Simpson finished 12th. The men's and women's pursuits will be new events at the 2006 Olympics. Canada won gold in world record time in the first World Cup pursuit race this season.

Kelly Vanderbeek (CP)

Women's ski team heading downhill. Women struggling overall on slopes.
(RANDY STARKMAN - Toronto Star)

LAKE LOUISE, Alta.—Of all the theories floated yesterday for the Canadian women's ski team's grim start to this Olympic campaign, Kelly VanderBeek's reasoning may have been the most insightful. "It's just that cockiness, we've just got to be a little bit more cocky and just go in there believing we own that course," said the Kitchener native.

The only problem is the Canadians have nothing to be cocky about.

The team had a dismal showing overall in three women's World Cup races as their best result was yesterday's 11th-place by Genevieve Simard in a super-giant slalom — matching Erik Guay's top result for the men's team in two races here last weekend.

VanderBeek's comment has a ring of truth because in order to succeed at this level you have to have a certain edge about you. You need self-belief to propel yourself out of the start gate searching for more speed even when you're plunging downhill at more than 110 km/h.

The Canadians entered these races talking confidently — Emily Brydon said she felt ready to win on a course she knew so well — but one wondered if they really believed what they were saying.

Granted, the season is still young, but the medal prospects for the women's team in Turin should be tempered by a good dose of reality. There is a tendency in Canada to over inflate our medal chances heading into a Games — an uneducated media often being a main culprit.

The current Canadian women's team has accounted for a total of nine World Cup podiums in their careers, only one gold. While great strides have been made within the organization under the leadership of Ken Read and Max Gartner, there is not much depth when it comes to legitimate medal candidates on either the women's or men's sides.

The Austrians swept the medals yesterday and the winner, Alexandra Meissnitzer, now has 40 World Cup podiums (including 14 wins). Yet she talked of still having to push hard to make the Austria team for Turin. A Canadian skier needs two top-12 finishes to make it to the Games. That shows you the great divide between Canada and the powerhouse alpine nation they hope to challenge by 2010 in Vancouver.

Canada's strongest event for the women is giant slalom with Simard, Allison Forsyth, Brigitte Acton and Britt Janyk.

Brydon is considered the team's only hope in downhill and, given her performance (or lack thereof) here, one has to hope it won't set her back for the rest of the season. She raced like a scared skier all week, her best result in three races a 35th yesterday in the super-G.

Forsyth, too, talked about confidence being the missing ingredient on the team presently, which will likely mean a lot of overtime for their sports psychologist, Terry Orlick.

It remains to be seen if Brydon can develop the emotional maturity to deal with the challenges ahead. "I'm exhausted," she said. "It's not physically, it's emotionally, because when you're struggling, that's where all your energy goes into being positive."

The only bright spot for Brydon is Olympic downhill layout in Sestriere, Italy, is much easier and she came fifth there last year, though Read was saying yesterday he hopes the Italians don't ice the course down too much.

Brydon never quite took ownership of her poor performance. "It's happened to everyone," she said. "It's not like I'm the only one who's ever choked. ... It's happened to the winners. Did (former World Cup champion Renate) Goetschel have a great couple of days? No." Just as Brydon said this at the bottom of the hill, Goetschel was on the course and crashed into the fence. "It's because I have all this bad karma," she said. "That's why."

If only it were that simple.

Erik Guay (Getty)

Erik Guay takes silver in World Cup super-G.
(Alpine Canada)

Skiing through brisk winds and heavy snow, the 24-year-old Guay made it down the 1,969-metre Birds of Prey course in one minute, 17.37 seconds.

Guay finished just four hundredths of a second behind winner Hannes Reichelt of Austria, who took advantage of an early start position to win the first World Cup race of his career. Fellow Austrian Matthias Lanzinger finished third. "The conditions weren't just tough, they were stormy," Reichelt said. "Coming out of the start hut I could see the first gate but not the second. I just had to put my heart in my hand and go."

Guay's silver medal was the second of his career. He also finished second in the downhill during a World Cup event in Lake Louise, Alta., in 2003. "I'm surprised to finish second but not too surprised because I've been training well in the super-G," said Guay. "Finishing second is nice because I'm really not used to doing so well."

Starting 17th, Guay faced more snow on the course than earlier starters and had to contend with gusts of wind that some coaches estimated reached 80km/h. "It was so windy up there. It was snowing like crazy and blowing even more," Guay said. "When I went there was a lot of snow and I couldn't see the other racers but I took advantage of the start number I had and I attacked."

Francois Bourque of New-Richmond, Que., also posted a strong result Thursday, finishing 11th. Calgary's John Kucera tied for 27th. Jeff Hume and Manuel Osborne-Paradis, both of Whislter, B.C., did not finish.

In the Slalom event, Patrick Biggs of Orleans, Ont., was the top Canadian, finishing 14th. Michael Janyk of Whistler, B.C., the fastest Canadian in the day's opening leg, did not finish the second run. Ryan Semple of St. Faustin-Lac Carré, Que., and Jean-Philippe Roy of St. Flavie, Que., finished the first run but failed to make it into the 30-skier field for the second. Julien Cousineau of Lachute, Que., Paul Stutz of Banf, Alb., and Thomas Grandi of Canmore, Alb., did not finish the first leg.

Charlotte Labonte (CP)

CANADA’S WOMEN’S OLYMPIC CENTRALIZED TEAM DEFEATS USA 3-1 FOR SPLIT IN TWO-GAME SERIES.
(Hockey Canada)

CHICAGO, IL – Canada’s Women’s Olympic centralized team defeated Team USA 3-1 on Thursday night at the United Center in Chicago, IL to split a two game series with USA.

Canada now has a 7-1 record over the USA this season, and the two teams will face off two more times prior to the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, on December 30th in St. Paul, MN at the Xcel Energy Center, and January 1st in Winnipeg, MB at the MTS Centre (Tickets available at www.ticketmaster.ca for the Winnipeg game).

Canada’s players will leave Chicago and fly to their various hometowns as they will enjoy three days off before returning to Calgary to resume training on Tuesday, December 6th. Game summaries and stats for all of Canada's games are available at Hockey Canada’s official website at www.hockeycanada.ca

Beckie Scott (CP)

A moment of relaxation before chasing Olympic gold. Interview with Beckie Scott.
(Snowsport)

Snowsport welcomes Olympic cross-country skiing gold medallist Beckie Scott as a guest columnist. She will have a busy winter preparing to defend her title, but she promises to find time to periodically hit the keyboard.

Today is Nov. 22 and I’m writing the first of this series of columns leading up to the Turin Olympics from a very unusual place – my home! That’s right, we are nearing the end of the first real month of winter, where the snowflakes are flying (in some parts of the world anyway), the temperature is dropping, the skis are slowly being escorted out of the garage and brought back to life, and I’m perched up here in my loft (in Bend, Ore.), writing away at the computer.

To be fair, I just got home last night from a two-week training camp and I’m only home for six days. But still, it’s a rare and welcome opportunity and I owe it all to the fact that, for the first time in 11 years, the World Cup cross-country ski circuit is coming back to Canada.

Starting Dec. 10-11 in Sovereign Lakes near Vernon, B.C., and then making its way to Canmore Dec. 15-18, the World Cup circuit hits Canada and we Canadians will have the opportunity to do battle with all those wily European racers on our home turf.

European cross-country ski racers are a bit of a special variety, generally speaking. Though I don’t care to generalize too much, it is safe to say that they don’t like to travel, spend too much time away from home, eat things that aren’t boiled beyond recognition (Nordic countries only) and have a particular propensity for wearing lycra at all hours of the day. Oooooooh-weeee this is going to be fun!

The very first World Cup race I ever did was in Canada, at Thunder Bay, Ont. I was 19 years old, and in what proved to be a rather humiliating introduction to the world of international racing, I found myself lined up and sent out to compete against the real-life versions of women I had only ever seen on posters and videos.

Crushed, trampled, utterly trounced ... there are more than a few ways to describe those early races. But somewhere inside I managed to scrape together a lesson or two from each terrible defeat and kept sending myself back to the course to keep on fighting. For the next eight years, the battles were fought on everyone else’s soil but my own. And then came the Salt Lake City Olympics. OK, Utah isn’t quite home soil, but it’s close enough. I figure if you can tune in to Oprah and call home without involving a string of operators and 25-digit numbers, you’re doing well.

So, the Olympics were in our backyard and we did pretty well. Some might say great. It was a golden opportunity to capitalize on all things familiar, and we did.
Now, the World Cup circuit is coming to town and the very same possibilities are emerging. This winter, leading to the 2006 Olympics, we will be looking for every opportunity and potential place to shine in the search for perfect and impeccable Olympic preparation. What better place to start than at home?

Speed skating, curling hot tickets for Olympics.
(The Record)

Speed skating is sold out at the Turin Olympics and curling could be the hit of the games with an unexpected demand for tickets.

The Turin Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (TOROC) gave a percentage breakdown of tickets yesterday at the general assembly of the European Olympic Committees meetings in Dublin.

Speed skating is the only sport to be sold out for games, which run February 10-26. Curling is nearly 95 per cent sold out. Luge and skeleton are the two least-popular sports, both with 79 per cent of their tickets yet to sell. As of September, 75 per cent of all tickets sold have been to non-Italians.

Luciano Barra, the chief operating officer of TOROC, said the unsold tickets were mainly in the preliminary rounds, with finals in nearly all sports sold out.

Barra said the Dutch had fuelled the speed skating sellout by buying 38,000 tickets. Short track speed skating has 17.3 per cent of tickets left.

However, Barra was surprised at the popularity of curling, which has 16 days of competition in a 3,000-seat arena. "This is in the village, and many are coming from Switzerland and Britain here,'' Barra said.

Figure skating is the other most-popular sport, with only 3.3 per cent of tickets left.

Thomas Grandi (CP)

Athlete Diaries - Thomas Grandi, Alpine Skiing. The White Circus kicks off.
(www.cbc.ca)

The past few weeks have been great, training on world-class conditions and sleeping in my own bed. Knowing that for the next four and half months I would be travelling and living with my teammates and coaches was all the encouragement I needed to make that extra bit of effort to get into my own space every night.

While we trained at Nakiska my teammates stayed in the Lodge at Kananaskis. I travelled back to my home in Canmore. Then, while we trained in Panorama, I stayed at our little cabin in the woods. After a long day on the slopes a cold cabin was a small price to pay for an evening relaxing with a nice fire and great music.

Last Saturday, after catching the Flames fall to the Oilers in OT, we boarded a plane and kissed beautiful Alberta goodbye. The next time I would return was still to be determined; it could be as early as Christmas or as late as the end of March. The White Circus was about to kick off and we were excited to leave the training season behind and get in the start gate.

Today as I write we are in Keystone, Colo., to race in some Nor-Am races. Today as a matter of fact was our first race. It wasn't what we had planned for.
Stefan Guay (Erik's little brother) and I tied for 15th as our team's best result. For Stef this was a great race and he was the top junior. For the rest of us, however, it was disappointing. Tomorrow is another chance and after analyzing the video from today we feel we know the changes that must be made to have a successful day tomorrow.

For example, I need to keep moving with the speed of the course and in no circumstance should I ever feather (pivot my skis) going into a new turn. Our coach Dusan Grasic advised us he'd rather see us in the fence than ski slow. I would rather avoid the fence and ski fast.

Dusan also vowed not to drink any beer until one of us reaches the podium. A little early in the season to be making these kinds of ultimatums, but until we do we know that by skiing slow we're keeping our coach a little healthier.

Next weekend we'll race the World Cup events in Beaver Creek, both a giant slalom and slalom. Those are the races that I am looking forward to. Tomorrow and the next couple of days are warm-ups to the main event, but a race is a race and I don't like to lose.

Wish me luck, even though I believe that luck is just preparation meeting opportunity.

Regan Lauscher (CP)

Lauscher wins sixth Canadian luge title.
(CBC.CA News)

Regan Lauscher slid to her sixth national women's crown Sunday at the Canadian luge championships in Calgary. Meaghan Simister of Regina finished second, and Calgary's Alex Gough was third.

Lauscher's victory came one year to the day after she earned the best result ever by a Canadian at a World Cup luge event, winning silver in Lake Placid, N.Y.
"It was a good day last year at this time, so I was thinking that hopefully it was going to be a good day again this year," said Lauscher, who regained the Canadian women's title from defending champion Madison Dupuis. "The training went really good all week and I felt confident going in."

In men's singles, Jorgen Krause of Didsbury, Alta., won his first national title with Calgary's Sam Edney finishing second, while Vancouver native Jeff Christie, last year's winner, was third. "I really wanted to set up some good times leading into next week, and really show what Canadian athletes can do," the 23-year-old Krause said. ""It was definitely a good, close race."

The doubles title went to Calgary's Chris and Mike Moffat. The brothers, who recently clinched a berth in the 2006 Olympics after a three-year hiatus from the sport, slid ahead of defending doubles champions Grant Albrecht and Eric Pothier, who finished second, while Marshall Savill and Aaron Christensen claimed the bronze. "It felt really good to win today," said Chris Moffat, at 26 the elder of the brothers. "It's nice to be able to use this race to our advantage with the World Cup coming up on our home track."

The Canadian luge team will resume its World Cup schedule Dec. 9 at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary.