Sport Performance Weekly

August 8th , 2006

National coach Les Gramantik throws out five-medal promise: Canada’s not known for its track stars, but new boss has bold goal for success.
The Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - Les Gramantik spent the weekend at a track meet in Ottawa and didn’t spy even one iceberg.“I am not standing on the Titanic,” he laughed over the phone.“I am quite excited.”

After signing his new contract Sunday, the Calgary-based coach stands at the helm of Athletics Canada’s entries for the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The perch apparently offers an optimistic view of the sport’s future in this country. “We are committed to winning two medals in Osaka and three in Beijing,” he said.

“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure these athletes have the chance to achieve. I think it’s possible. We have some people we have identified and said, ‘Yes, we can walk out of Osaka with two medals and three in Beijing.’ It’s ambitious. But if I say to you, ‘Oh, I don’t know how we’re going to do, we’ll see.’ Well, then we won’t see. If I tell you, ‘I won’t be able to do it,’ then I’m sure I won’t do it. I say to the athletes, ‘You can do it.’"

Canada’s winter sports put that in-your-face approach to the test at the 2006 Olympics in Turin by openly predicting 25 medals and came away a roaring success with 24. Canada isn’t exactly a track and field nation and you have to go back to Atlanta in 1996 to unearth the last Olympic medals, which were delivered by 100-metre man Donovan Bailey and the 4x100-m relay team he anchored. After shutouts in Sydney and Athens, the odds of three medals in Beijing are long, but I applaud Gramantik for stepping up to the plate. Or is that out on the gang plank?

Whatever the case, he’s their new head coach and has made his first few steps bold enough. Gramantik was a fine choice to replace former head coach Alex Gardiner, who joined the Canadian Olympic Committee in the lead-up to Turin. Athletics has been a lifelong passion and Gramantik’s depth of knowledge, media savvy and people skills make him perfect for the position.

But the position he’s in, having to live up to those promises of performance, isn’t exactly as comfortable a fit. Ultimately, if the athletes don’t meet the projections, there will be repercussions for the entire organization. “Our funding depends on it,” said Gramantik. “If we don’t have what we promised, our funding will be cut severely.”

That reality is going to apply some pressure to his new post, but Gramantik isn’t exactly a shrinking violet. He faces challenges with a heady mix of realism and optimism, and he knows the sport so well that his predictions probably aren’t as far-fetched as one would think.

The athletes who will fill out those teams in Osaka and Beijing were alongside Gramantik in Ottawa for the Canadian track and field championships this weekend. Over three days of perfect weather, not one of them set a new national record. The meet exposed holes in the national program but Gramantik knew they were there. And he can point with pride and confidence at strong events like the men’s 200 and 400 metres and high jump and the women’s 100-m hurdles, 1,500 metres and long distance races. That’s where medals will be mined.

“The good thing is the people we count on, our old stars, are still performing quite well. And we have some young kids coming. (Edmonton’s) Brian Barnett ran better than I thought he would, 20.70 to win the 200 metres. That’s a superb performance and it’s a very bright future for him. In Edmonton, you have Tyler Christopher, Brian Barnett, Angela Whyte, superb athletes, almost all of them capable of medalling.”

Beijing claims success in cleaning air, but more needs to be done.
Agence France Presse English

BEIJING, Aug 3, 2006 (AFP) - China pledged Thursday to do more to clean up Beijing’s air ahead of the 2008 Olympics, while claiming much progress had already been made despite the city continuing to be plagued by pollution woes.

The central and Beijing governments had invested nearly 100 billion yuan (12.5 billion dollars) to fix the city’s air pollution problems, the State Environmental Protection Administration said. “The prevention and control of air pollution in Beijing has yielded remarkable results,” the administration’s pollution control department said in a report.

The department’s deputy director general, Li Xinmin, outlined at a press briefing for foreign journalists measures implemented by authorities as part of the anti-pollution campaign.

Beijing has replaced hundreds of coal-burning boilers with gas-based ones, improved the city’s vehicle emission standards and upgraded the quality of fuel for automobiles, Li said. The city has also phased out 28,000 old taxies and 3,900 old diesel-powered buses.

In addition, Li said Beijing had started moving the capital’s worst polluter, state-owned steel giant Shougang Group, out of its western suburbs and suspended operation of Beijing Chemical Works.

Nevertheless, with the start of the Games exactly two years away on Tuesday, Li conceded more needed to be done, particularly in regards to heavily polluting cars.
“By 2008, Beijing has to phase out 300,000 yellow label cars, this is an effective approach to reduce particulate matter,” Li said. Currently, Beijing vehicles are issued green or yellow labels according to their emission level. Particulate matter is a mixture of harmful solid and liquid particles that include carbon, sulfates, nitrates, metals, acids and are suspended in air.

After it won the Olympic bid, China promised to make Beijing an “ecological city” with “green hills, clear water, grass-covered ground, and blue sky.” But the capital remains one of the worst polluted cities in the world, primarily due to industry, sandstorms from the Gobi desert and the fast-rising number of cars on the city’s roads.

State press reported in May that Beijing’s efforts to reduce air pollution by the Olympics were faltering, with the city unlikely to meet its goal of 238 “blue sky days” set for this year. There were just 51 such days from January to April, 16 less than the same period last year. There are more than 2.6 million motor vehicles in Beijing and the number is increasing by more than 1,000 a day, the city’s environmental bureau said earlier this year.

Canada Wins Two Gold on the Final Day of the Commonwealth Regatta.

The men’s eight and lightweight women’s single took gold today at the Commonwealth Regatta in Strathclyde, Scotland.

The men’s eight was first to cross the line followed by England and Australia. Members of this eight are James Brotherhood of Edmonton, Alta., Dave Lamb of Berwick, N.S, Jeff McGuffin of London, Ont., Rob Thomson of Ottawa, Ont., Pete McClelland of King City, Ont., Todd Keesey of Saskatoon, Sask., Ben Dove of Dryden, Ont., Aubrey Oldham of Hamilton, Ont., and  Mark Laidlaw of Mississauga, Ont. (cox).

Coxswain Mark Laidlaw also helped the Under-23 Canadian eight win at the recent World Championships in Belgium.

In the lightweight women’s single, Lindsay Jennerich of Victoria, B.C. won gold, followed by Northern Ireland and England. Jennerich also took a silver medal, with Christine Bennet of Edmonton, Alta., in the lightweight women’s double.

Kerry Trainor of London, Ont., Janine Hanson of Winnipeg, Man., Courtney MacIntosh of St. John’s, Nfld., and Sandra Kisil of Hamilton, Ont. were second in the women’s quad, not far behind the English boat.

The lightweight men’s four of Brandon Boyd of Brockville, Ont., Trevor Young of Toronto, Ont., Tim Myers of Penticton, BC. and Paul Amesbury of Ottawa, Ont. was second to South Africa, with England finishing third in this event.

The lightweight men’s pair Trevor Young of Toronto, Ont, and Tim Myers of Penticton, BC. were fourth today, and the lightweight men’s single of Paul Amesbury was sixth.

This group - led by coaches Chuck McDiarmid and Allison Dobb - will now head to the World University Rowing Championship (FISU) that will take place in Trakai, Lithuania (August 11 to 13).

Wrestler keeps his promise: Olympic gold medal winner to open school in Nigeria later this month.
The Edmonton Journal

VANCOUVER - On Aug. 19, Daniel (Baraladei) Igali, who won gold wrestling for Canada at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, will be able to hold his head high in the village of his birth. Six years and $600,000 later, his 11-room brick school will be officially opened in Eniwari, Nigeria.

There have been lots of challenges beyond the fundraising for the facility. All of the materials had to be brought in by boat and the one carrying the first load of concrete sank. Solar panels and a gas generator will power the computers being shipped this week from Seattle by another donor.

The inaugural class will have 60 boys and girls from various regions of the country. Through the Igali Foundation, Igali is working out the curriculum with the Nigerian government, and CUSO is recruiting teachers. The school will have a gymnasium because Igali wants to promote athletic activities and emphasize wrestling. And there’s a library, although the shelves don’t have enough books yet.

Once he’s back home in Canada, Igali will raise money for books and scholarships so kids whose families can’t afford the nominal tuition fees or the price of school uniforms will be able to attend. Eniwari is one of the poorest villages in Nigeria.

It shouldn’t be. The Niger Delta is oil rich and Nigeria is the world’s eighth-largest oil exporter. What fuels the poverty is greed, corruption and political turmoil. And poverty has ignited an increasingly militant movement backed by villagers demanding a share of the wealth. Rebel attacks on pipelines and hostage-takings have cut production by a third this year. Just last week, two groups promised to step up attacks by mid-August.

What sets Eniwari apart from other far off places that suffer from poverty, AIDS and civil unrest is Igali’s vision. Canadians know him as Daniel and what they know of the small but mighty fighter is not so much for how he won Olympic gold in 2000, but how he celebrated his win.

He wrapped himself in a Canadian flag, then placed it reverentially on the mat, danced around it and finally knelt to kiss it. He cried as he sang O Canada and thought of the children in Eniwari. And as the anthem played, he vowed to build them a school. “It became almost an obsession,” he says. “School should be one of the safest environments for kids. They should be excited about going to school. And I wanted to give people hope.”

Igali wrestled his way out of the village even though there never seemed to be enough food for him, his 20 siblings or any of the other village kids. The scrawny boy loved to wrestle, grappling first with his friends in the dust and getting caned for getting his clothes ripped. Eventually he began winning competitions. He went north to train and in 1990 won the national championship. But for athletes in Nigeria, there were no scholarships to universities.

Igali wanted more than a wrestling career. He knew the importance of education. Both his parents had scholarships to attend university in Britain, leaving him and his sisters behind for six years. His mother, Grace, earned a master’s degree in education and his father, Leimokumo, got a degree in accounting. So when Igali arrived at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria as captain of the wrestling team, he had lots of questions for volunteer driver Tom Murphy. By the end of the week, Igali asked Murphy one final question: Could I come and live with you? Murphy said yes. Igali applied for and got refugee status.

Three years after winning gold at the Sydney Olympics, he was disheartened. He cut short his Christmas vacation in Eniwari, embarrassed his promise of a school remained unfulfilled. While being Olympic champion means riches in some countries, it doesn’t in Canada. Igali had a few sponsors. Much of the money he earned went into the school project. Yet in 2003, he still hadn’t raised even half of the $500,000 he thought he needed. And he needed at least half before the Canadian International Development Agency would help and before CUSO got involved.

Paul Nemeth, who made his fortune with Nike and gave scholarships to young athletes, read about Igali’s fundraising struggle and handed him a cheque for $50,000.

Igali’s mother, Grace, will be at the Aug. 19 opening, along with his five sisters, many of his half-brothers and half-sisters, officials from the Bayelsa state government and the national government and Kevin Matheny, a teacher from Mission, B.C., whom Igali calls his “Canadian brother.”

The school will be named Maureen Matheny Academy after the woman Igali calls his “Canadian mom.” They met during his difficult first year in Canada, when nothing seemed to be going right. The principal of a school in Richmond, Matheny fed him, taught him, encouraged him and loved him. A few days after Igali came home from Turkey in 1999 as world champion—a feat no other Canadian had managed—Matheny died of a rare form of cancer called leiomyosarcoma.

Canadians Want to Own the Podium 2010

July 2006 - A recent survey by NRG Research Group has revealed that 73% of Canadians approve of the Own the Podium 2010 goal to make Canada the top medal finisher at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and to place in the top three nations at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

In addition, 69% of Canadians say that it is important for Canada to be the top medal earner at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

“These results are very significant in terms of demonstrating Canadian support for high-performance sport,” says Roger Jackson, CEO of Own the Podium 2010. “With Canada’s strong showing at the recent Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Torino, and the increased financial and technical support provided to winter sports, we are well on our way to achieving the goals of the Own the Podium 2010 initiative.”

“It is wonderful to see so much support among Canadians for our athletes and for the Own the Podium initiative,” says Michael Chong, federal Minister for Sport.

The results of the survey also show that Canadians see important benefits to achieving a first-place medal performance at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The benefits cited most often relate to international recognition for Canada and an increase in Canadians’ pride in their nation.

Mementoes priceless: Thieves make off with Olympic, World Cup memorabilia.
The Calgary Herald

When Tyler Seitz’s mother was dying of cancer in 2000, he put on a brave face as he chased his Olympic dreams on the World Cup circuit. “It’s what she wanted most for me,” he says of the mom who raised him and his two older brothers on her own after their father died of a heart attack when Seitz was just 10.

So no one was more surprised than the native Calgarian on Monday, when he broke down during a press conference at the RCMP headquarters in Strathmore. Three days earlier, the former Canadian Olympic team member—who in 2002 became the first Canadian male slider to reach the podium in the-then 26-year history of World Cup luge—returned from work to discover he’d been the victim of a break-and-enter, although there were no signs of forced entry. In the two-storey country house he shares with his new wife, Krista, the big-screen TV, collection of DVDs and stereo system were left untouched. But a large chest sitting on the couple’s bedroom dresser had been ransacked.

The items stolen included some of Krista’s jewelry, along with mementoes from his late mother. But the thieves stumbled upon another stash of riches: one-of-a-kind rings, participation medals and pins collected over more than a decade of competition on the World Cup circuit and at two winter Olympics.

In other words, items that have no monetary street value, but are priceless when it comes to sentimental worth. It’s this sentiment that causes both Tyler and Krista to cry when speaking publicly about the theft.

When asked by one reporter what the sporting mementoes meant to him, the burly former athlete can hardly find the words. “It represents a . . .” he says, before becoming too choked up to speak. The several seconds-long silence that follows is broken by his wife of just one year. “For Tyler, it means so much more than to someone on the street,” says Krista, who works as a geophysicist in Calgary. “It’s more than about the one day, it took him years of preparation to get those.”

Her husband quickly regains his composure. “It represents more than half my life, in a sport I really enjoyed,” he says. “It’s your only paycheque for all that hard work . . . it was something I was going to cherish and pass down the generations.
“Everyone here, I think, feels the insult to Canada from something like this.”

The last time the 29-year-old Seitz was in the news, it was for a much happier reason. In December 2002, after 15 years of competition, he was retiring from luge, a man leaving his sport at the top of his game. Carrying a picture of his mother before his race, he went on to earn bronze in the men’s World Cup luge singles. The victory was enhanced by the fact it happened on his hometown turf, at Canada Olympic Park.

The achievement was the realization of a lifelong dream, one sparked when, as a school kid in 1988, he went on a class field trip to Canada Olympic Park. “We had a choice to try skiing or luging,” he says later Monday at his rural home on six acres of rolling foothills with a view of the mountains in the distance. “I figured, I might get only one chance in my life to luge, so I’m going for that.”

The one-time thrill, however, sparked a passion that would flame for many years to come. In 1991, Seitz joined the national junior team, where he went on to win bronze at the 1996 junior world luge championship. Although over the years he struggled to become a force in his sport—he placed 18th at the Nagano Olympics and 19th at the Salt Lake Olympics—by the time he finished his last competitive run, he had forever etched his name in the Canadian luge history books.

Since that time, Seitz has chosen a much quieter life in the countryside east of Calgary, working as project manager in Strathmore and renovating the couple’s home in preparation for the family they hope to someday raise here.

Seitz knows his situation is far too common. “I know this happens every day, to a lot of people, and it’s traumatic for everyone whose home is violated,” he says. “In the grand scheme of things, I know this is a pretty small thing.” Small things perhaps, but important and much-cherished reminders of a former life of which he’s justifiably proud.

IMPACT ENTERS ITS 15TH YEAR OF PUBLISHING AND EXPANDS TO VANCOUVER.

September 2006 marks IMPACT Magazine’s 15th year of publishing in Calgary. This special edition will take a look back at the past 15 years of fitness, and will maintain stories in all of the regular departments such as health, fitness, sports performance, sports medicine, food & nutrition and body & mind. A popular feature with IMPACT readers, the annual Health Club Guide also appears in this issue.

In March 2006, IMPACT launched its first issue in Vancouver, BC—its popular Running issue—and immediately opened a Vancouver office to best service readers and advertisers in the new market.

Based in Calgary, Alberta, publisher Elaine Kupser launched its first issue in 1991. IMPACT is published bi-monthly with six issues per calendar year. A leader in the industry, IMPACT Magazine publishes content provided by the best experts in their fields for those who aspire to higher levels of health, fitness and performance.

IMPACT is a unique publication—there is no other magazine like it provincially or nationally; and the majority of its exclusive readership cannot be reached by other publications.

IMPACT is the official magazine of the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary.

Calgary Oval X-Treme excited for new National league.

Olympic Oval, Calgary - - Since the recent announcement of the new National Women’s Hockey League, Calgary’s Oval X-Treme are geared up for their first-ever chance to compete in a true Canadian championship and play more games against the best female hockey players in the world.  

“With the naming of the Clarkson Cup and the joining of the WWHL and Canada’s Eastern conference into one true Canadian National league, this is a very exciting time for women’s hockey. This is what the players have wanted for years and finally we will be able to play the best from across the entire country,” says Hayley Wickenheiser, three-time Olympic medallist and returning Calgary Oval X-Treme.

The new NWHL will have two conferences; the WWHL, with five Western teams, and an Eastern conference, comprised of the seven former NWHL teams. Teams will play regular league and championship games within their own conference, while the winners will move on to play for the recently unveiled Clarkson Cup. “To have the two highest level leagues under one umbrella certainly takes our female game to another level,” says Kathy Berg, Governor of the Calgary Oval X-Treme. “The true winners of this new NWHL are the players. Although there will be no interlocking play, West and East teams will now be allowed to play exhibition games, giving the most competitive opportunities to our elite players.”

The Calgary Oval X-Treme is excited to add at least five highly competitive games to their exhibition schedule, facing off against Eastern Canadian teams which include several Olympians. “We now have higher goals for our team this year,” says Berg. “Not only will we aim to represent Alberta at the Esso Women’s Nationals, but we will be working to win the WWHL championship and move on to win the first-ever Clarkson Cup.”

Wickenheiser is happy with the new structure. “People need to have a clear picture of the best in women’s hockey. The new NWHL will provide this, bringing us two conferences and giving players the opportunity to play the best in Canada.”
The Calgary Oval X-Treme, who are heading into their 11th year, have been part of the WWHL for the past two seasons and are league champions for both, in 2005 and 2006. Visit www.calgaryovalxtreme.com for more information.