Kyle Nissen (CP)

Canada’s Air Force sweeps men’s medals: Dionne finishes 11th.
(The Edmonton Journal)

— Call it a super-ssweep. World Cup aerials and overall leader Kyle Nissen of Calgary led the way as Canada took the top four places in men’s aerials at the Freestyle Grand Prix on Sunday at Mont-Gabriel.

Veteran Jeff Bean of Ottawa was second, Warren Shouldice of Calgary was third and Ryan Blais of Grande Prairie, Alta, missed the podium but took fourth place before a roaring crowd of a few thousand. “I’m not shocked at all — we’ve had this coming for a long time,” said Nissen, after his first World Cup win since 2000. “This is just a premonition of what’s going to happen in Turin.”

Blais was also pleased that the skiers won a bet with aerials coach Dmitry Kavunov, who promised to shave off the moustache he has worn for 30 years if they swept the podium.

Nissen all-but clinched a spot on Canada’s team for the Winter Olympics next month. Steve Omischl of Kelowna, B.C., who missed the final, has already qualified, so that leaves Bean, Shouldice and Blais battling for the two remaining spots on what should be a medal-contending team at the February Games.

The sweep followed Alexandre Bilodeau of Montreal’s first career World Cup win in moguls on Saturday and gave Canada five medals for the weekend. Jennifer Heil of Spruce Grove, Alta, finished second in women’s moguls on Saturday.

It moved Canada into first place in Nations Cup standings after four World Cup meets this season with 1,629 points. The United States is second with 1,511.

Diedra Dionne of Red Deer, Alta, in her first competition since suffering a serious neck injury while training in Australia four months ago, all-but clinched a spot on the Olympic team just by reaching the final.

Dionne missed her landing and crashed into a fence on her second jump to finish 11th, but she only needed to post a result. Amber Peterson of Thunder Bay, Ont., finished seventh and took a long step toward making the Olympic squad. “The only important thing was to get off the jump properly and the landings will come,” said Dionne, who was unhurt from her fall. “I did it today in competition so I’m pretty happy. “It’s four months since the injury, so to be competing in four months, I can’t complain.”

Dionne said she would not take part in any more World Cup meets before the Olympics so she can concentrate on training. “I missed all the fall training,” she added. “As you can see, these girls are ahead of me now and I’m not going to get a lot of training when I’m competing. I’ve been on tour six years. I know how to compete. It’s the training I need.”

Leading into Turin, the team will take part in upcoming World Cups in Deer Valley and Lake Placid, where they will stay on for a training camp.

IMPACT Magazine and the CSCC present the 2006 Olympic Issue.

The Canadian Sport Centre Calgary is proud to be associated with IMPACT Magazine on this exclusive issue featuring Torino-bound athletes.  Canada is becoming a world leader in high performance sport, and it is with great enthusiasm that we at the CSCC continue to support these athletes and coaches in their pursuit of excellence.  These Olympic Games will represent a passing of the torch from Torino to Vancouver, and when the world comes to Canada in 2010, we will be ready.

Impact Cover Story - Canada's Olympic Hopefuls (pdf)

Please feel free to drop by the CSCC office to pick up a free copy of IMPACT Magazine. You won't want to be without the Torino Olympic Guide on page 70 when the Games start!

Duff Gibson (CP)

PROFILE OLYMPIC PASSION; Duff Gibson.
(The Toronto Star)

At 39 one of the world’s oldest Winter Olympians, finds his groove fighting fires in Calgary and racing headfirst down an icy track at breakneck speeds. The tools of Duff Gibson’s trade include fire resistant suits, but they are powerless to prevent him from being singed by his colleagues.

A top medal hope for Canada in the sport of skeleton at next month’s Turin Olympics, Gibson can only sit mute as fellow firefighters put the heat on him at the Calgary fire department’s airport detachment.

With a reporter and photographer from Toronto observing Gibson at work, everybody’s a budding Chris Rock. The 2004 world champion’s roots are among the targets - Gibson was born in Richmond Hill and raised in Willowdale and Scarborough. “Is there a sign when you enter Scarborough that says, ‘Home of Duff Gibson’?” one firefighter asks, tongue planted firmly in cheek.

It’s all in good fun and the 39-year-old Gibson laughs along with everyone else. But the truth is he felt anything but world class four years ago when, finally, he made it to his first Olympics. It was the moment he’d been building toward for more than two decades. He had vivid memories of high jumper Greg Joy winning a silver medal in the rain at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal. “Something about it stirred my passion about being Canadian, I guess,” Gibson says.

He set out to become a Canadian Olympian. He was a competitive wrestler. Not good enough. He began rowing. No good. He took up speed skating. Not fast enough. He tried bobsleigh. No. “I’ve done 20 different sports and always switched to the next sport when I realized it wasn’t very likely I would go to the Olympics,” he says.

Then he discovered skeleton, a sport where athletes hurl themselves headfirst down an icy track on a sled at 130 kilometres an hour. Skeleton had been dropped from the Olympics in 1948, but returned at Salt Lake City four years ago. At last Gibson had found his niche. He was a Canadian Olympian. Dream fulfilled? Well, no. “In Salt Lake City, I realized it wasn’t my goal to participate in the Olympics,” he says. “Walking around Canada House with every hockey player, male or female, having a gold medal, every curler having a medal, many short track speed skaters with a medal. Medal. Medal. Medal. I got 10th.”

His disappointment and incredulity is clear in the way he says “10th.” He sounds like Peanuts’ Charlie Brown saying, “I got a rock” when looking in his bag after trick-or-treating. “I realized then that that really didn’t cut it - I wanted to be a contributor, not (just) a participant. “Not necessarily because I wanted people to remember my name or to be famous, but partially because I’ve always been such a great fan of the Olympics and always watching the medal totals. I thought that I could contribute."

His closely cropped hair dominated by flecks of grey, Gibson does not appear your typical Olympian. Nearing 40, he will be one of the oldest Olympians in Turin, another fact his firefighter colleagues razz him about. But skeleton seems to attract older athletes. Swiss Gregor Staehli won the bronze medal in Salt Lake and turns 38 two days after the Turin Olympics end. Gibson’s Canadian teammate Jeff Pain, the reigning world champion, is 35.

One reason for skeleton’s forgiveness of age is that it is an extremely technical sport where the smallest adjustment can make the biggest difference. Gibson has taken apart his sled over and over in a methodical search for every hundredth of a second. At 6 feet and 220 pounds, he more than holds his own in the all-important start times and is at his best on tough tracks such as the Olympic layout in Cesana, Italy, where he won a World Cup event last winter. It gives him reason to believe that he can be a factor at the Games.

His fire hall buddies, the ones who good-naturedly rib him about his ambitions, have made their own contributions. They trade shifts to help him juggle a schedule that often sees him compete in Europe from November through March. It’s a big transition from skeleton to firefighting. As an athlete, he speeds along on a tiny sled. As a firefighter, he drives an enormous, six-wheel drive Striker truck. The $1.5 million beauty has all the bells and whistles, including an infrared camera and all kinds of buttons labelled Flush, Deluge, Dry Chem and High Attack. “I’m proud to tell people what I do for a living,” Gibson says. “It’s a job that for many reasons is really cool. ... I drive a $1.5 million truck. I love planes, too, and we see jet fighters and Apache helicopters and 747s.”

There’s an unflappability about Gibson, whether he’s absorbing his fellow firefighters’ barbs or standing at the top of an icy run. And he has a sense of decency and fair play forged early by stories such as the one told by Mr. Little, his elementary school volleyball coach, who was a referee at the 1976 Montreal Games. “He told us this story of someone spiking the ball. It went out of bounds. The referee called it a point for the attacking team and the attacker said, ‘Excuse me, the ball went out of bounds.’ And the defence said, ‘That’s okay, I touched it.’ These stories were different from a win-at-all-costs sort of thing.”

It sparked the flame of his Olympic dream. “That was the beginning,” he says. The ending will be written next month in Turin.

Beckie Scott and Sara Renner (CP)

SCOTT, RENNER TO LEAD SKI TEAM.
(The London Free Press)

Beckie Scott of Vermilion and Sara Renner of Canmore, who have combined for six World Cup medals so far this season, will lead the Canadian cross-country ski team at the Torino Olympics next month.

Scott and Renner highlighted the 12-member Canadian squad named Friday. “This is truly one of the most talented Olympic cross-country ski teams I have been a part of, and a testament to the continued strength and growth of our national program,” Scott said. “We were so happy to be able to rise to the occasion at home during the World Cup races in December, and it gives us a great boost of confidence heading into Torino.”

Scott captured two gold and two silver medals at a pair of World Cup events last month in Vernon, B.C., and Canmore while Renner added one bronze medal. The two also combined to win silver in a sprint relay. “This is a unique group of athletes that have been making significant progress, and have demonstrated the ability to put Canada back on the Olympic podium in cross-country skiing,” said head coach Dave Wood. “In Beckie Scott and Sara Renner, our young team has two of the top skiers in the world that will provide leadership and set an example in front of them.”

Scott and Renner will be joined on the women’s side by two-time Olympian Milaine Theriault, of St. Quentin, N.B., and youngsters Amanda Ammar of Onoway, Alta., and Chandra Crawford of Canmore, who will make their Olympic debuts.

George Grey of Rossland, B.C., and Devon Kershaw of Sudbury, Ont., will lead the Canadian men’s squad. The duo combined to finish sixth in the team sprint at the world championships last year. They will be joined in Torino by Chris Jeffries of Chelsea, Que., Dan Roycroft of Port Sydney, Ont., Drew Goldsack of Red Deer, Phil Widmer of Banff and Sean Crooks of Thunder Bay, Ont.

The team will travel to Europe next week for three World Cup stops before heading to Italy for the Games, which begin Feb. 10. 

Dominique Maltais (CP)

Four Canadians find podium pride: Snowboarders win medals despite sickness.
(The Vancouver Sun)

Canadians proved to be tougher than a Baffin Island winter Thursday at a World Cup snowboard cross in Bad Gastein, Austria. Despite battling cold- and flu-like symptoms, Drew Neilson of North Vancouver, Tom Velisek of Vernon, Dominique Maltais of Montreal, and Maelle Ricker of Whistler all found the podium in an evening event watched by 3,000 people in the Alps village.

Neilson and Maltais, who each won a daytime SBX on Wednesday, were both second on Thursday. Velisek captured bronze in the men’s event, while Ricker took bronze in the women’s race. “I was in a little bit of a daze in the start gate all day,” said the veteran Neilson. “My head was full of stuff. I would have liked to have won again, but honestly, with my starts today and my luck in the semi, I’m happy with second.”

Mellie Francon of Switzerland won the women’s four-boarder final, ahead of Maltais and Ricker. Maltais retained her World Cup points lead with 3,240, ahead of second-place Ricker with 3,110. Neilson said Velisek’s third and the podium results for the two Canadian women were good signs with the Olympics just a month away. “I’m really happy for them. Dom was probably the sickest out of everybody today. She was white as a ghost this morning, coughing up a storm.”

Some members of the Canadian team will spend the next week free-riding in Austria before moving to Kronplatz, Italy, and the final SBX World Cup before the Olympics on Jan. 14. Snowboard cross will make its Olympic debut in Turin, where the Canadians will be heavily favoured to grab at least a couple of medals.

Cindy Klassen and Jeremy Wotherspoon (CP)

CANUCK SKATERS HOLDING AN EDGE; OLYMPIC VETERANS ANCHOR STRONG TEAM.
(The Calgary Sun)

Upon the retirement of Canada’s Queen of Speed in 2003, there was a void on the long-track speed skating team. Cindy Klassen moved right in, whether she wanted to or not.

As the entire 20-person team officially assembled yesterday for the first time prior into the Turin Olympics starting Feb. 10, Klassen was front and enter, taking the competitive place of Catriona Le May Doan, who took the job of announcing the skaters yesterday at the Olympic Oval.

With few sure podium finishes expected, like the ones Le May Doan skated to in 2002, Klassen represents the team leader – about as much of a bet to medal as there is among the 20 competitors flying Red and White. “I don’t know if I am,” said Klassen, who was recently named top Canadian female athlete of 2005. “We’re all strong skaters. As a team, we’re strong and have a good support system. We push each other to higher levels.”

While Le May Doan was a champion in the thrilling, 500-metre races, Klassen is an expert in the mid-range distances, holding the world record in the 1,500 and 3,000 events. The Winnipeg native brought home a bronze from Salt Lake and has been on fire since then, winning the overall title at the world championships in 2003 and the World Cup title for the 1,500 in ’03 and ’05, despite a serious arm injury in 2003.

She sets an important example for the youngsters who will be making their first Olympic appearance. Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., has only been on the senior national team for one season and looks to Klassen and fellow veterans Clara Hughes, Kristina Groves, Jeremy Wotherspoon and Mike Ireland for how to behave before a race. “Even if they don’t say anything, they have a way about them that exudes confidence,” said Nesbitt, at 20 the youngest on the team. “They’re really supportive in that way. “I’m going to be very excited going to Turin. Hopefully I’m smart and don’t waste too much energy. The vets have more experience and aren’t distracted by the whole thing as much. “They’re good role models for me to follow.”

If everything comes together, the long-track team could win up to 10 medals, with anywhere from five to nine considered a success.
Wotherspoon will contend in the 500 along with Ireland, who just recently got back on blades after missing a year with a serious concussion. He isn’t entirely 100% and just qualifying was a feat in itself.

Hughes should contend in the 3,000 and 5,000, while Groves has a shot in her four individual events – everything but the 500. Calgary’s Arne Dankers has been on fire in the longer distances, setting Canadian records in the 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 races in recent months.

Both the men’s and women’s teams should have podium chances in the team pursuit – a new event for Turin. Klassen’s coach Neal Marshall hopes a good start with wins in the men’s 5,000 and women’s 3,000 can propel the team to amazing results. “As far as pressure goes, it’s all how they perceive it,” Marshall said. “The key for them is to see that as support.”

Jessica Gregg (Mike Ridewood Photo)

Edmonton’s Jessica Gregg wins bronze medal at world junior short track speed skating championships.
(CSN)

MIERCUREA CIUC, Romania- Jessica Gregg of Edmonton won the bronze medal in the women’s 500-metre on Saturday for the second straight year at the world junior short track speed skating championships.

Eun-Ju Jung of South Korea won the gold medal with Arianna Fontana of Italy second.  Gregg withstood a couple of bumps from her opponents to place third.  With her performance Gregg, also third in the 500 at last year’s world juniors, moved up to fourth in the overall standings after two of four races. ‘’I was happy with my final,’’ said Gregg, 17, whose father is former NHLer Randy Gregg and her mother is former national long track team member Kathy Vogt.  Randy Gregg is the Canadian team doctor. 

‘’I knew it was going to be tough.  I got off the line first and with a couple of laps to go I was bumped by the Korean and Italian skaters which slowed me down.  My strategy was to get in front of the Italian girl early because she has great starts.  I focused on keeping ahead of her.’’

François Hamelin of Ste-Julie, Que., helped Canada to a silver medal in the men’s 2,000-metre relay and added a bronze in the 1,000 metres on Sunday to conclude the world junior short track speed skating championships.

Shannon Kleibrink (CP)

Kleibrink tunes up Yanks in not-so-friendly exhibition.
(By PAUL FRIESEN—Winnipeg Sun)
  
So much for a friendly little exhibition. Team Canada’s Shannon Kleibrink squared off with Team USA’s Cassie Johnson in a pre-Olympic women’s curling tuneup here yesterday, and the result, not to mention some of the post-game talk, had all the cordiality of a hockey game between the two rival nations.

Start with the score, an 11-4 spanking administered by the Canucks. “We talked about it: are we going to use this as an experience to get to know them, or are we going out there to win?” Team Canada lead Christine Keshen would say later. “We went out there to win that game.”

Mission accomplished, and a not-so-subtle message delivered along with it: see you in Turin, Italy—and you’d better bring your A-game. “They missed a lot of basic shots,” a surprisingly candid Keshen said. “Their lead couldn’t put up a guard, their third wrecked on everything. “I don’t think we brought our A-game. This was our A-minus game. They’ll have to bring their A-game and we’ll have to bring our B-game for them to beat us.”

Hey, who filled the water bottles with truth serum? I mean, sure, everything Keshen said was true. The Americans couldn’t draw through a barn door on this day. And of course the Canucks should win this matchup nine times out of 10. But nobody actually says it, at least not within earshot of a media type.

Informed of the Canadian’s comments, Keshen’s counterpart, U.S. lead Maureen Brunt, offered this comeback. “We definitely didn’t bring our A- or B-game today,” Brunt began. “More in the range of C or D. As long as we play our best, we have a shot. If they play their best, too, we’ll do pretty well.”

Sets the stage quite nicely for the Winter Games, don’t you think?Adds a little spice, too, to a game that normally carries about as much conflict as a sewing circle. Which is kind of what the two teams took part in right after Johnson shook hands following the ninth end: an impromptu get-to-know-you session while the men’s semifinals for the Canadian Open continued beside them.

This was before any of the verbal volleys, you understand. “We’re Canadians—we’re friendly,” Keshen explained. Sure, mop the ice with them, then ask how things are back home. Actually, this was as much a case of the Yanks being off the broom as the Canucks being on it.

A slight case of stage fright, perhaps? “It’s our first time with so many fans in the stands,” Jamie Johnson, the U.S. skip’s sister and third, said. “It was hot out there. And when the men’s teams made a great shot, there’d be all that clapping, and we never really hear that.”

Take the fifth end, when Cassie Johnson was attempting a draw while staring at four Canadian counters, only to slide her last rock clear through the house.“We know what we need to work on,” Cassie said. “We know we’re not 100% prepared, yet. But we have a few more weeks to work on it.”

So much for the idea the American system of choosing its Olympic team might be better than ours. The U.S. decided to send its national champion from last year, giving the team 11 months to prepare. Kleibrink and Canadian men’s rep Brad Gushue found out they’re Turin-bound at the Olympic Trials just a month ago.

Sure, they’ve been hurried, with tons of media demands, but they’re not complaining. “We were preparing for (the Trials) like it was the Olympics,” Kleibrink said. “You have from September to December to prepare.” Keshen says a little more time would have been nice, but she likes what she sees from her team right now. “It keeps us on our toes,” she said. “We are tuned up now. I like being tuned up now.” And then one final warning to the States. “We’re going to bring our A-game for the Olympics."

Jan Bidrman

Jan Bidrman named Head Coach of the Canadian Swim Team for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Ottawa, ON – Swimming Canada CEO/National Coach Pierre Lafontaine announced today that World renowned swimming coach Jan Bidrman of Calgary, AB will lead the Canadian Swim Team during the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne Australia.“Jan has demonstrated great leadership skills as head coach of the 2005 Worlds Championships Team.  His expertise as an international coach will be beneficial to Canada’s Commonwealth Games Swim Team” states Pierre Lafontaine, CEO/National Coach of Swimming Canada. 

Selection of the Head Coach for the Canadian Swim Team was based on FINA World Ranking of individual performances at the Commonwealth Games Trials.  Mike Brown, coached by Bidrman, placed with the highest ranking.

Czech-born Jan Bidrman has been one of the most successful Canadian swimming coaches since he joined the National Sports Centre in Calgary in 1996.  He guided the fortunes of the successful 2005 World Championship Team including as well as being personal coach to Mike Brown, World silver medallist in the 200 m breaststroke, triple Olympic medallist Curtis Myden and Joanne Malar.  He is headed to Melbourne with Mike Brown, Lauren Van Oosten and Erin Gammel.
 
Bidrman swam for Czechoslovakia from 1980 to 1985.  He was the head coach of the South African swim team at the 1996 Olympics before moving to Canada. When Bidrman came to Canada he continued to coach South African world record holder and Olympic champion Penny Heyns in Calgary.  He was Swimming Canada’s coach of the year in 1999 and 2000.

Canada is scheduled to compete at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne Australia from March 16 to 21, 2006.

Hayley Wickenheiser with son Noah

(Ewan Nicholson Photography)

The Olympic spotlight shines on plucky prodigies, hard-luck heroes, long-shot dark horses, and swan-song athletes. But consider the parent-Olympian who perspires by day and potty-trains by night.

Parent athletes share a clarity of purpose. One bad race no longer derails a whole training week and injury is no longer cause for self-pity. Child-rearing may be demanding but many athletes find parenthood actually boosts their games, improves their perspectives and sharpens their competitive edges.

One of the most enduring images of the 2002 Salt Lake City Games is hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser holding her toddler Noah, clad in a baby hockey jersey, after defeating Team Canada's American rivals. Wickenheiser was jubilant after playing one of the finest games of her long career.

Today, five-year-old Noah is blasé about his mother's historic win. "He doesn't really know or should I say care," says Wickenheiser. "He'll often say to me, 'Did you win me a gold medal today mom?'"

Wickenheiser entered motherhood suddenly in 2000 when she adopted the three-month-old son of her partner Tomas Pacina. "I wouldn't have had a child at that point, but Tomas and I were planning to spend our lives together so it was natural that I would become Noah's mom," Wickenheiser says in her biography Born to Play.

"I think being a parent makes you realize how lucky we are to be athletes, to be able to do what we love every single day and have health," Wickenheiser says. "The great thing about having kids is that at the end of the day they don't care if you win or lose, they just want to play Tonka trucks and have fun so it gives you some perspective on what I do as well, that it isn't the end of the world."