Sport Performance Weekly

July 31st, 2006

No off-season for lady leapers.
ALLAN MAKI Globe and Mail

CALGARY -- On a sun-baked Alberta afternoon, Katie Willis dons her competitive ski suit, puts on a helmet and hurls herself off a towering jump onto a plastic mat, all in the pursuit of an Olympic dream that isn't quite there. Not that Willis is without hope.

Up until two months ago, ski jumping was the only winter sport where women were considered too -- what's the word? -- womanly to compete at a high level. Yes, they could slide headfirst in skeleton, feet-first in luge and pilot a bobsleigh at breakneck speeds. But fly off a ski jump? That was the line in the snow.

Then the Fédération Internationale de Ski voted in favour of adding a women's individual event to the 2009 world ski jumping championships and suddenly everything seemed possible, even the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

For that to officially happen, the International Olympic Committee as well as the Vancouver organizing committee (VANOC) must agree to manage a new event that could see as many as 60 athletes from 14 nations vie for Olympic history. Making that decision a little easier for VANOC is the fact Canada has two lady leapers who won gold medals on the Continental Cup circuit last year. Atsuko Tanaka was one; Willis the other.

"I was at home [in Calgary]," said Willis, recalling where she was when she'd heard FIS had accepted women's ski jumping as a full-fledged discipline, a prelude to Olympic acceptance. "You know how hard you've worked and to get a chance to represent your country at the Olympics, especially one in Canada, I was really enthused."

Willis turned 15 two months ago but has already made her mark in the sport. When she was 13, she competed in Europe for the first time and fell during a jump in Klingenthal, Germany. The next year, she returned to Germany and finished first making her the youngest athlete to win a women's Continental Cup event and also the first Canadian to do so. It was an impressive performance by someone who first tried ski jumping at a Canada Olympic Park summer camp when she was eight.

"My mom signed me up for it," Willis said.

And now?

"She doesn't usually like to watch me jumping."

Women's ski jumping has been around since Countess Paula Lamberg of Austria landed a record jump of 22 metres in 1911 -- while wearing a hat and a most stylish long dress. To give you an idea of just how far things have advanced, eight-year-old girls now do 22 metres at COP without their parents fainting in fear.

Still, to get to an elite level, women's ski jumping had to overcome the stereotypical concerns that it was too dangerous; that repeated landings at high speeds would jar the less-muscled female anatomy and expose it to serious injuries.

When the women proved they could jump as efficiently as men, FIS argued there were other factors involved.

"They were concerned about the numbers," said Brent Morrice, the chairman of Ski Jumping Canada. "They wanted to make sure it was a very qualified field with enough countries and enough jumpers. Last year on the Continental Cup circuit, seven different countries won gold medals and Canada was one."

That helped convince FIS there were female jumpers who could put Eddie (The Eagle) Edwards to shame. It was also agreed that having women's ski jumping in the Olympics would nurture the sport, especially since athletes can now train and compete year round on jump sites with simulated ice and plastic landing areas.

"We've got the facilities, the officials and the volunteers," Morrice said. "It's just a matter of adding the girls."

Canada's six female jumpers competed in yesterday's opening round of Calgary's Continental Cup and are so stoked by the possibility of competing at a home Olympics they can barely keep their feet on the ground. For Willis, who tried alpine skiing and luge before settling on ski jumping, this is more than she imagined when she took her first little leap for womankind seven years ago.

"I went to a camp and we went off a pretty small jump," she said. "It was so much fun. I loved it. From there, I went to club events and then we'd compete against jumpers from Park City, Utah, where we train a lot. Then there was the women's Continental Cup [founded] in 2004. That's when we started to get serious."

Seriously good, too. Now all they have to do is get their sport up and flying at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

"I've talked to people with VANOC," Morrice said. "It's probably a no-brainer."

Hartley and Heymans fourth on women’s synchro three-metre at FINA World Cup.

CHANGSHU, China- Blythe Hartley of North Vancouver and Emilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., came within four points of a medal finishing fourth on women’s synchronized three-metre to conclude the 15th FINA World Cup diving competition.
Canada ends the competition with three bronze medals. They were earned by Hartley on one-metre, Heymans on 10-metre tower and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal and Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., on women’s synchro 10-metres.

China won all 10 gold medals this week and have now collected 102 gold in World Cup diving overall. Heymans and Hartley, bronze medallists in 10-metre synchro at the Olympics in 2004, stayed in the medal hunt until the end and took fourth. They were second after the preliminaries.

On men’s synchronized 10-metre, Huo Liang and Lin Yue of China earned perfect 10’s on their first four dives in the final for the gold. Wegadesk Gorup-Paul of Victoria and Eric Sehn of Edmonton were 11th.

Blythe Hartley of North Vancouver, B.C., placed fourth on women’s three-metre while China’s Zhou Luxin earned perfect marks on five of his six dives in the final to win the men’s 10-metre tower on Saturday at the 15th FINA World Cup diving competition.

Hartley arrived in China early this week with a virus that kept her bed-ridden. She won a bronze medal on Wednesday on one-metre, the first of three Canadian medals so far at the competition.‘’I felt a lot better today and my diving was pretty solid,’’ said Hartley, a two-time Olympian and double gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games this past March. ‘’I didn’t set any goals for myself in terms of results. I knew the top-three would be tough to crack. I still need to fine-tune my dives and this year has been a bit erratic for me with regards to training.’’

It’s been a busy year for Hartley in and out of the pool with the Commonwealth Games and NCAA championships along with graduating at the University of Southern California in communications. She also moved to Calgary.

On men’s tower, Luxin gave an incredible performance to win the gold with 567.65 points. He earned 10’s from all seven judges on his first dive and received more perfect marks on his second, third fourth and sixth dives.

Canada’s National Team finishes 6th at the Women’s World Water Polo League.

Ottawa – In the FINA World League Super Final in Cosenza, Italy, Canada fell a bit short to the Netherlands 9-7 and finishes in 6th place.  Canada appeared to have trouble from the beginning and although they closed the gap a few times, it wasn`t enough to take the lead over the Netherlands.

Head Coach Patrick Oaten remarked:  "These games are important for us.  We have played primarily teams from North America and Oceania leading up to this event.  When the core set of officials are from Europe it is important to adapt to their style of play and officiating.  I believe the more we play in these types of games the more the team will be able to adapt to the style of officiating.  Some other teams have that extra experience and that makes a huge difference."  

Two time Olympian Susan Gardiner of Vancouver, BC said:  "Yes, we struggled with the fouls and didn't adapt quick enough to the European style of officiating but I think we can do much better with our offensive attack.  We were there all the time however just made a few mistakes. Unfortunately at this level you pay dearly for mistakes.  We continue to have some growing pains but this is our first major event as a team.  We have dozens more to come and I am confident like we always have in the past, we will adapt and perform."

Two time Olympian and Team Captain Valerie Dionne of Ste-Foy, Quebec said:  "This is a great warm up event for the World Cup next week.  We had some bumps in the road and we are working on them.  We are improving every game. A few days of much needed rest then we will regroup and come out strong in China.  On any given day, any one of the teams here can finish first or sixth. 

Canada will return home for three days before leaving for Tianjing, China for the FINA World Cup taking place from Aug. 8-13.

Ilana Just adds silver to Canada's count at UCI BMX world championship.
CP Wire

SAO PAULO, Brazil _ Canada's Ilana Just of Red Deer, Alta., won the silver medal in the 10 girls category on Sunday at the final Challenge class event of the 2006 UCI BMX World Championships.

Just qualified from motos straight to the finals and finished behind Domenica Azuero of Ecuador, who took gold.

The medal follows the two won Saturday by Samantha Cools of Airdrie, Alta., and Maple Ridge, B.C.'s Peter Jensen. ``Congratulations go in particular to Samantha Cools, Peter Jensen and Ilana Just for the medal winning performances,'' said Sean O'Donnell, manager of high performance at the Canadian Cycling Association, in a statement.

``We are very happy with the progression that has been made by our athletes this year and this will pay dividends for them next year in Victoria when Canada hosts Worlds and for qualifications to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.''

Canadian swimmers make waves at Pan-Pacific trials.
The Vancouver Sun

MONTREAL -- Four days of fast times in the pool have produced a 60-member Canadian team for the Pan-Pacific championships Aug. 17-21 in Victoria. "It's a huge team," breaststroke ace Mike Brown of Perth, Ont., as the national championships and Pan-Pacs trials ended Sunday night at Jean Drapeau Park.

"It's the biggest team I've ever been on, but it'll be good because there'll be a lot of fresh faces coming up. They'll get to swim with people like myself and Brent Hayden and hopefully, they look up to us. It'll be fun."

The Pan-Pacs event is Canada's top competition this year, bringing most of the top swimmers from the United States, Australia, Japan and even non-Pacific countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe and Brazil. Team leaders like Brown, Mission's Hayden, and Rick Say and Brittany Reimer of Victoria all made the squad, but there are many newcomers to the national team.

A new qualifying system saw the top two in each event, plus the best 18-and-under swimmer, make the team, which Canada hopes will give the youngsters valuable experience while building toward the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

In some surprise cases, junior-aged swimmers finished in the top two, such as 17-year-old Stephanie Horner of Beaconsfield, Que., who placed second to Julia Wikinson of North York, Ont., in the 200-metre individual medley on Sunday night.

Another, 14-year-old Savannah King of Vernon, beat Reimer in the 1,500-metre freestyle and placed second to Chanelle Charron-Watson of Gatineau, Que., in the 800 free. "It's a team of a lot of really neat, character kids," said national coach Pierre Lafontaine. "A lot of young kids made the team.

"Last year at the world championships, we had one kid under 18 on the team. We have a lot this time who made it as a top two. You saw Joel Greenshields [of Calgary] went 49.8 seconds [over 100 metres]. The work done on the junior development program in the last three or four years is paying off."

Lafontaine was especially pleased with the freestyle, which has been Canada's weak spot for decades. Five men -- Hayden, Say, Yannick Lupien of Quebec City, Matt Rose of Lindsay, Ont., and Greenshields all swam the 100-metre free in under 50 seconds, a first for Canada at any one meet. "I don't know if there's a country the world that has five kids under 50 in the 100 free," said Lafontaine.

The final day of the trials saw four new faces added to the team -- Kathleen Stoody of North Vancouver and Chelsey Salli of Langley, in the breaststroke, Melanie Dodds of Langley in the individual medley and Bogdan Knezevic of Toronto in the men's breaststroke.

The team will stay together until the Pac-Pacs. They train today and Tuesday in Montreal, then head to Vancouver before moving on to Victoria on Aug. 13.

After being shut out of the medals at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Swimming Canada hired Lafontaine, the Montreal native who formerly coached Australia. The team responded with five medals at the 2005 worlds and another 16 at the Commonwealth games in March in Melbourne.

Nattrass traps a gold medal.
Sun Wire Services

Susan Nattrass of Medicine Hat, Alta., won gold Saturday in the women's trap at the world shooting championships in Zagreb, Croatia.

Nattrass, 55, scored 90 targets, one more than Li Chen of China, who finished second. Hye Gyong Chae of North Korea won bronze with 88 points. Cynthia Meyer of Bowen Island, B.C., finished eighth.

Elena Tkach of Russia entered the finals as the favourite, scoring 70 of 75 targets. But then she failed in the finals, hitting only 16 of 25 targets, and finished sixth.

Olympic medallists Suzanne Balogh of Australia, Maria Quintanal of Spain and Bo Na Lee of South Korea did not qualify for the final.

China won the team competition, scoring 201 points in the 75-target event. Britain also had 201 points, but won silver as Chinese team members were better in the last of the series. Russia took bronze with 196 points, while Canada placed ninth with 191.

Silver for Joy was all about timing: 30 years ago. A special moment near end of Games.
The Gazette (Montreal)

Monday marks the 30th anniversary of Vancouver's Greg Joy winning the silver medal in the high jump, the final track-and-field event at Montreal's 1976 Olympic Games. Jacek Wszola, a 19-year-old from Poland, won the gold medal with a leap of 2.25 metres (7 feet, 41/2 inches), while Joy's jump of 2.23 metres (7 feet, 33/4 inches) was good enough to beat American world-record holder Dwight Stones, who cleared 2.21 metres (7 feet, 3 inches).

The battle between Joy and Stones for the silver remains Canada's most memorable sporting moment at the 1976 Games. Rain didn't dampen the enthusiasm of fans at Olympic Stadium, who were cheering for Joy. Afterward, Joy explained to The Gazette's Doug Gilbert how the wet conditions hurt Stones. "Once he is in the air, Stones has the best technique of any high-jumper in the world," Joy said. "He has great speed on the run-up and the ability to plant his foot and convert the speed into upward lift. "On wet footing, there was no way he could approach as fast or be sure of his foot plant. The wet track gave the advantage to jumpers with a slower run-up and greater strength in the takeoff."

Joy is obviously proud of his accomplishment, but says the importance of that one jump that gave him the silver medal has been overemphasized. In a book published a few years ago titled Canada, Our Century in Sports, Joy put it this way: "I happened to be in the right place at the right time. I'm proud of winning an Olympic medal, but the reaction to going over the bar in Montreal was disproportional to the accomplishment. "Every day of my life, someone mentions that jump - and I finished second."

Joy, 50, retains those sentiments today. He and his wife, Sue Holloway, who represented Canada at both the summer and winter Olympics, live in Ottawa and own Raising The Bar, a company that makes presentations and provides workshops for the business community. They are both popular motivational speakers. "We go to a meeting and people ask me about the jump in Montreal and my one Olympic medal," Joy said. "They don't know what Sue has done. She was on four Olympic teams, was the first woman to compete in both summer (kayak) and winter (cross-country skiing) Olympics. She won two Olympic medals (silver in K2 and bronze in K4 in kayak events at the Los Angeles Games in 1984)."

Joy understands, to a degree, why more people remember his accomplishment, but ... "I agree my jump was an electrifying moment for Canada, but really it was all about the timing. It was the last day of the Games. Canada had not won a gold medal, and because I beat the overwhelming favourite (Stones), it was special. If it had been the first day of the Games, it would have been remembered as a good performance by a Canadian. Nothing more."

Those Games marked the first time an Olympic host country failed to win a gold medal, a dubious record that still stands. Joy understands the fascination with special moments in sports, and now, as a fan, that's what he seeks. "I enjoy watching the best be the best," he said. "I always watched (basketball superstar) Michael Jordan because you never knew when he was going to turn it on and do something phenomenal. I enjoy watching Tiger Woods. I can watch four days of golf and be satisfied just to see that one special moment, that one nearly perfect shot. "I guess that's why my jump stands out. It was a special moment."

Joy is an administrative judge in the Ontario judicial system, has written a book and designed and built his waterfront home in Ottawa. The Joys have two children - Sarah, 16, and Alexandra, 12. Both are active and successful in sports. "Sarah is doing well in high jumping and I'm able to help," Joy said. "Alexandra has taken to paddling and cross-country skiing, and her mother is there to show her the way."

Born in Portland, Ore., to Canadian parents, Joy lived in Vancouver from age 9 to 17. He lived and trained in El Paso, Tex., for a few years, spent three years in Miami and two in Los Angeles, before calling Toronto home. He graduated from the University of Toronto and earned post-graduate papers in financial analysis from the University of Western Ontario. He has been a sport and fitness consultant for the Ontario government and a teacher. He has also coached national and international champion athletes.

Struggling Sports Hall of Fame to put collection on Web.
JAMES CHRISTIE Globe and Mail Update

Canada's Sports Hall of Fame is getting a new home — on your nearest computer screen. The federal government is granting almost $400,000 from the ministries of Heritage and Sport to allow Hall officials to digitize their historic collection and make it accessible to all Canadians.

The project, The Spirit of Success-Heroes in Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, will give Canadians access to the Hall's collection on the Internet. “They're being given the money they sought to put their entire collection on the Internet. It will pay for a new website that will allow them to highlight the individuals who have been inducted and give archival access to all the significant artifacts and generally provide a history of sport in Canada,” Sport Minister Michael Chong said in an interview.

“It indicates the government thinks it's an important institution and should continue to exist.”

In addition to the cataloguing and digitizing of the collection, there is also an educational component of this grant that will include a focus on the life skills learned from participating in sport featuring many of the Honoured Members of the Hall. The Hall will also begin its program of capturing its Honoured Members on video.

The Hall's home at Toronto's Exhibition Place closed last year after 50 years. At the end it was in a sad state of neglect after plans for a move to Ottawa were scotched by the former Liberal government.

“I realize in recent years it's been forgotten about by the general public but it's an institution in transition. The Hall was subject to circumstances outside its control, the changing nature of Exhibition Park and the move by the Hockey Hall of Fame that used to share the same building,” Chong said.

“This money is the best way to go about rebuilding the presence of the institution. The project will make it possible for all Canadians to learn the [athletes'] compelling stories and how they contributed to the development of sport in Canada.”

Hall officials will eventually want to re-establish a physical presence as well. “We're willing to consider that. I encourage them to put together a proposal,” Chong said. “Half the battle is raising awareness with Canadians. Governments aren't going to support institutions that don't have the numbers or the traffic.”

The feds are providing $140-million in 2006-2007 to support initiatives for high-performance athletes and to increase Canadians' participation in sport. The exact grant for the cyber hall is $395,673, given through Minister Beverley Oda's Department of Canadian Heritage through the Partnerships Fund of the Canadian Culture Online program.

Ice makers for 2010 aim to beat personal bests: All four specialists from Western Canada.
The Vancouver Province

Kameron Kiland takes pride in the fast ice at Calgary's Olympic Oval.

He'll tell you about the 36,000 personal-best times and the 120 world records that speed skaters have set in what's now been two decades of life in the world's fastest lanes.

Not one to rest on his laurels, he's looking forward to his next project. Kiland will oversee ice making for the Pacific Coliseum, site of figure skating and short track speed skating at the 2010 Olympics, and his colleague Mark Messer will do the same at the Olympic Oval in Richmond. They will be out to build an even faster track for 2010.

"We'd love that," Kiland, director of operations at Calgary's Oval, said Tuesday. "If we can make better ice [in Richmond] it's just better for the sport and we'll get more people skating and more people involved. "That's our goal, to make it Calgary-or-better ice. If we don't do that, we'll be disappointed."

Calgary, 2002 Olympic host Salt Lake City and Heerenveen, Holland, are considered to be the fastest tracks. Kiland said they have a rivalry, but it's good- natured and information is shared to make the ice faster and safer. "We're competitive, but we get together to share ideas about what's working," he said. "It's in our best interest to have the best facilities."

Ice making is serious business. It's not just dad out in the yard with the garden hose. Last month VANOC invited the world's best ice makers to Vancouver to talk shop at the Ice Makers Summit.

Ice makers from hockey, speed skating, curling and figure skating were on hand. Afterwards VANOC agreed to have Kiland oversee ice making for figure skating and short track speed skating. Messer, the facility supervisor in Calgary, will oversee the Richmond ice, while Hans Wuthrich, of Gimli, Man., will oversee curling and NHL ice guru Dan Craig of Edmonton will oversee the ice for hockey. None will move here.

"They're not giving up their day jobs," said Tim Gayda, VANOC's managing director of sport. "These guys are world-renowned for their background with ice. There's no reason why we wouldn't have them involved. They've provided some great input into our design. Calgary has some things going for it in terms of the humidity and the altitude that are hard to compete with. But they all know how to make great ice under all kinds of conditions."

Kiland said the biggest challenge here will be making sure that humidity and temperature are right. The building should be about 60 degrees so athletes will be warm. Relative humidity of 40 per cent would keep frost down and make the ice faster. Ice needs to be kept at the right thickness -- 1.5-to-two inches thick for short track, hockey and figure skating, and 1.5 inches or less for long track.

"The key is to have time to experiment with the ice after it's been built," said Kiland. "Mark did the ice for Turin [2006 Olympics] and he didn't get to put the ice in until December. We only had two months to experiment with what makes the ice fast. In Richmond we want to have it open in 2008 so we'll have at least 12 months to experiment."