Canadians Finish 2-3 in World Cup downhill.
Canadian Press and Associated Press

VAL D’ISERE, France — There was a champagne celebration plus hollers and hugs for Erik Guay and Manuel Osborne-Paradis after they posted the first double-podium by the Canadian men’s ski team in 13 years Saturday.

The partying at the finish line came after a long and stressful wait as 44 skiers followed them on the quick Oreiller-Killy downhill course, trying do disrupt the latest highlight in a resurgent season on the slopes for Canucks.

“We were sitting in the hot seat there for a while watching the good guys come down, just sort of sending mind bullets to them to help them slow down a little bit,” said Guay, who finished second for his first podium of the season.
“I was telling Manny it’s more stressful being in the finish watching the other guys come down than it is to be in the start hut.”

It was even tougher for Osborne-Paradis, who finished third to add a bronze to the silver he won earlier this year. “I was just standing there and there’s only one guy that needs to come down to bump me off,” he said. “It was a little more nerve-wracking. But it all worked out.”

They’re believed to be the first Canadian men to share a World Cup podium since Ed Podivinsky (gold) and Cary Mullen (silver) on Jan. 6th, 1994 at a downhill race in Austria.

Genevieve Simard and Allison Forsyth gave the Canadian women a 2-3 finish at a Giant Slalom in Italy on Jan. 8, 2005. “That’s absolutely incredible,” said Guay. “It just shows the direction of the team, it shows that we have a lot of depth, on any given day we can have two guys on the podium.”

It pushes the ski team’s medal total up to eight this season — seven by the men — and moves them within four of the 200th World Cup podium in Canadian history.
The success has not gone unnoticed by other teams on the circuit. “I definitely think they’re taking us seriously,” said Guay. “You can’t deny we’re one of the stronger teams out there, we’ve had medals in all disciplines this year, there’s no reason to question us.”

Added Osborne-Paradis: “We’ve always been a really nice team and everybody has talked to us and been our friends but they haven’t really feared us. The Austrians, they come up and talk to us a lot more now. On an inspection we figure out lines together and there’s little things like that where they wouldn’t have done that before if we were not doing that well.”

Francois Bourque of New Richmond, Que., was 30th, Jan Hudec of Calgary was 34th, John Kucera of Calgary was 37th and Jeffrey Frisch of Mont-Tremblant, Que., was 50th.

The podium was the fifth of Guay’s career and his third in downhill. He hadn’t been in the top-3 since 2005 and getting back to one was a relief. “It was big, I’ve been struggling a bit this year,” said Guay. “I think I might have put too much pressure on myself at the beginning of the year. The last couple of races it’s been getting better and better. “When I came here I just felt really focused and comfortable on my skis.”

Both of Osborne-Paradis’ career podiums have come this season and he has now met his goal of three top-10 finishes. “When I started skiing, that’s what I wanted to do is get on the podium at a World Cup race,” said Osborne-Paradis. “This just proves that I can do it and that’s the best feeling.”

Klassen wins bronze medal.
CBC.CA News

Canadian Cindy Klassen won a bronze medal in the women’s 1,000-metre final and finished third in the overall standings at the ISU world sprint speed skating championships in Hamar, Norway, on Sunday. Denny Morrison of Fort St. John., B.C., won bronze in the men’s 1,000.

Anni Friesinger of Germany took the women’s overall title with 151.935 points, sweeping both 1,000-metre races on the weekend and placing fifth in both 500s. Dutch skater Ireen Wust of the Netherlands, second in both 1,000 races, was second overall at 152.995 and Klassen followed at 153.370.

Klassen was third in both 1,000 races and eighth in the 500 Sunday. She struggled to a 16th-place finish in Saturday’s 500. “My improvement in the 500 today really helped me climb up a bit in the overall standings,” said Klassen, who was fourth overall after Saturday’s races. “In the 1,000, the start was good, the first lap was good then I had a tougher time with the finish. Still I came here not knowing what to expect so it’s exciting to do this well.”

Shannon Rempel of Winnipeg was 10th overall, finishing eighth in the 1,000 and 15th in the 500 on Sunday. Kristina Groves of Ottawa was 15th overall, placing seventh in the 1,000 and 24th in the 500.

Morrison won the bronze medal in the 1,000 in a time of 1:08.78. He was also 16th in the 500, a seven-position improvement on Saturday’s performance, and took seventh overall. “To be seventh overall is a real eye-opener for me,” Morrison said. “I knew I was capable of being competitive but this is better than expected. My goal coming in was a top-16 finish overall.”

Brock Miron of Calgary was 10th in the 500 and 25th in the 1,000. He broke his skate blade in Saturday’s 500, which knocked him out of the running in the overall competition. Mike Ireland of Winnipeg injured his ankle in Saturday’s 500 and withdrew.

Morrison had a breakout season last winter and competed in the Torino Games. He fell short in his individual events, finishing 11th in the 1,500 and 19th in the 1,000. But he skated well in the team pursuit and took home a silver medal. “The initial fall portion of this season was disappointing for me because I expected too much, too early,” Morrison told CBC Sports Online in December. “But [my coach] Marcel Lacroix has developed a program that will allow me to peak for the winter portion of the season.”

Klassen, who won five medals at the Winter Olympics in Torino last February, was the landslide winner of the 2006 Bobbie Rosenfeld Award for Canadian female athlete of the year.

Golden run for Lueders, Brown: Alberta sledders notch first victory of the season.
The Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - Pierre Lueders and Lascelles Brown found gold at the bottom of the canyon of ice Saturday for their first World Cup gold of the season in the two-man bobsled.

Aboard the new Canada 1 sled, Lueders, the pilot from Edmonton, and Brown, the brakeman from Calgary, edged out German pilot Karl Angeer and brakeman Marc Kuehne in Igls, Austria. Trailing after their first run, Lueders and Brown exploded into first place on the second run, forcing the Germans to settle for silver.
Daniel Schmid and Thomas Lamparter of Switzerland won the bronze in 1:45.17.
“We had some really good start times,” Lueders, 36, said Saturday on the telephone from his hotel room in Austria. “We had a good race, for once. We put a couple of consistent runs together.”

Lueders won silver with Brown at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, but that didn’t stop the most decorated slider in Canadian history from relegating his partner to the sidelines last week in hopes of lighting a fire under Brown, 32, and giving a promising kid a chance to ride in Canada 1. In that race, David Bissett, 27, also of Edmonton, pushed off and Canada won silver at the World Cup start in Cortina, Italy. “You have to give the younger guys a chance to get in there,” Lueders said. “We know David can do a great job, and he proved that last week.
“We want to keep everyone looking forward and not getting complacent. We need everyone to be better each week and each year. Competition is important.”

Virtually every athlete suffers a bit of an emotional letdown the first year after the Olympics, but the post big-event blues perhaps hit Brown harder than most.
Born in Jamaica, Brown received his Canadian citizenship the month before the Olympics. Just weeks later, Brown tearfully accepted the silver medal on behalf of his new country.

On top of that high, he returned home to Canada and his wife gave birth to a baby girl four months ago. “I have a newborn daughter, and I don’t like leaving her and my other kids behind in Calgary,” Brown said on Saturday. “It’s not an Olympic year, but I’m still going out there because I still want to win. I know my driver also wants to win.
“Everything is going in the right direction, because Dave puts a little bit of fire behind me. I have to always watch, because he’s coming. He’s young, too. He’s awesome.
“That’s how it is with competition. You have to rise to the occasion. It will only make me better. He’ll make me better, and I’ll make him better, because we always want to be on top. And that’s a beautiful thing.”

The two-man world championships is slated for next weekend in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Lueders now trails American Steve Holcomb by 10 points in the World Cup standings on the season. Holcomb finished fourth on Saturday.

Overall, the Canadian pilot is thrilled with the success of his team this year after parking his old two-man sled in favour of a newer, sleeker model. “It’s been quite a challenge adjusting to it on all these tracks I knew so well in a different sled,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve changed from the one that I’ve driven at the last three Olympics. “It was the right time to do it. The other one was getting a little tired. We’d like to put it in the museum at Canada Olympic Park. That’s where it belongs.”

With the new sled, Lueders and crew hope to get back where they think they belong—on top of the podium at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Meanwhile, Helen Upperton of Calgary and Jaime Cruickshank of Shellbrook, Sask., placed fourth in the women’s event, while the Canada II sled of Amanda Stepenko of Edmonton and Shelly-Ann Brown of Toronto finished in 12th spot.

Canada’s Martin soars to halfpipe bronze at world championships.
CBC Sports

Brad Martin of Ancaster, Ont., captured a bronze medal in the halfpipe at the snowboard world championships Saturday in Arosa, Switzerland.

Mathieu Crepel of France won gold, edging out silver medallist Kazuhiro Kokubo of Japan by 0.1 of a point. “It’s a very good moment in my life,” Crepel said after winning his second gold medal in the world championships. “It’s fabulous.”

Vancouver’s Crispin Lipscomb finished sixth.

In the women’s competition, Switzerland’s Manuela Laura Pesko won the gold, with Japan’s Soko Yamaoka taking the silver and Poland’s Paulina Ligocka the bronze.
Vancouver’s Mercedes Nicoll was the top Canadian, finishing 11th. Sarah Conrad of Halifax was 14th, Montreal’s Dominique Vallee 15th, and Calgary’s Charmaine Ironside came 17th.

Canadian grabs skeleton bronze.
The Toronto Sun

Michelle Kelly of Fort St. John, B.C., captured a bronze medal in a World Cup skeleton race yesterday at Igls, Austria, while Russia’s Alexander Tretiakov won his first gold on the circuit.

Kelly, who was sixth after the first run, finished third overall with a combined time of one minute 52.07 seconds.

Anja Huber of Germany ended American Katie Uhlaender’s unbeaten streak in the women’s event. The 23-year-old Huber won in 1:51.89, edging Uhlaender by 0.07. Amy Gough of Vancouver finished fifth while Carla Pavan of Calgary was seventh.

Canadian bobbers cop Europa Cup.
Globe and Mail Update

Calgary’s Kaillie Simundson and crewman Nadine Walker of Saskatoon, Sask., finished the Europa Cup bobsleigh season on top of the points standings after dominating the field in both runs on the ice chute of Winterberg, Germany.

It was a stunning third win of the season for the 21-year-old Simundson in her rookie season as a bob pilot. She also won at Turin and Igls, Austria, early this season. Simundson had previously learned her way around the circuit as a brakeman after coming to the ice sport from alpine skiing and earned a spot on the Olympic team in Turin.

An adept all-round athlete who attended Calgary’s national sports high school, Simundson made a great first impression on the ski slopes at 17 as a member of the Canadian development alpine team competing in Europe.

At Winterberg, the Canadians clocked the fastest start times and the fastest runs in both heats for a total race time of two minutes 0.73 seconds, and finished a half second ahead of Romania’s silver medalists, Dana Ungureanu and Maria Dragan.

Another Canadian sled, with pilot Lisa Szabon of Calgary and brakeman and Jillian Halligan of Port Hope, Ont., aboard, brought home the bronze. They had the second fastest run of the first heat and second fastest start time in the second heat. 

It was the first Europa Cup medal of the season for Szabon and Halligan, but underlined the growing depth of the Canadian women’s team as they aim for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Simundson’s repeated victories on the track gave her 370 points. Szabon’s consistently strong races landed her in third place overall, with 250 points. Great Britain’s Jackie Davies claimed second place with 303 points.

Canadians win gold at Para-Alpine world cup.
Canadian Sport News

ASPEN, Colorado- Lauren Woolstencroft of Calgary and Chris Williamson of Markham, Ont., each won their fourth gold medal on Sunday to conclude the opening Para-Alpine World Cup stop for alpine skiers with a disability.

In the women’s standing slalom, Woolstencroft clocked a two-run time of one minute and 43.14 seconds.  She built a 1.2 seconds lead after the first run and won the second run by more than 2.5 seconds over her closest pursuer.
Andrea Rothfuss of Germany was second and Sandy Dukat of the U.S. was third.
 
Woolstencroft, the defending overall World Cup champion and a double medallist at the Paralympics last year, won gold medals in both super G races and both slaloms this week.  She added a silver in the giant slalom.

In the men’s slalom for the visually impaired, Williamson was the winner in 1:32.02 over two runs.  He led by 2.5 seconds after the first run.  Gianmaria Dal Maistro of Italy was second and Gerd Gradwohl of Germany third.

Williamson, a double medallist at the Paralympics last year and the defending overall World Cup champ, also won both Super G’s and both slaloms this week.
Matthew Hallat of Coquitlam, B.C., was ninth in the men’s standing slalom while Kathleen Forestell of Ottawa did not finish her second run in the women’s slalom for visually impaired.

No complacency in Olympic lull: Athletes push to reach next level as Vancouver Games approach.
The Calgary Herald - Cassie Campbell

It is almost one year ago that the 2006 Winter Olympic Games took place in Turin, Italy.

It is hard to believe how fast time has flown since that event where Canadian athletes brought home a total of 24 medals, including a gold medal in women’s hockey. This marked the most ever medals brought home by our country. The excitement continues to grow as we head towards 2008 in Beijing and then, of course, the next Winter Olympics here at home in Vancouver in 2010.

With the presence of an Olympic Games that will soon be on our doorstep, there has been more media exposure than usual for some Olympic athletes, but the song still remains the same—the year after the Olympic Games, all the fanfare starts to diminish.

I will have you know that the commitment of Canadian amateur athletes does not.
As I walk through the Olympic Oval in Calgary and chat with some of my former Olympian teammates, I know the journey still carries on.

The training regimens and constant commitment never fade. Sure, there are many who took some time off after 2006 to “cash in” on their performances and try to make some money to pay the bills that accumulated, but the passion is still burning inside to perform well in future events, regardless of their financial situations.

All Olympic athletes, regardless of the sport they represent, don’t just stop and hope for the best four years down the road. There are performances still in the wings that need full dedication . . . World Cups, world championships, national championships and other grassroots programs that need to continue.

After all, there are athletes who fight to make their respective teams every year, or pursue that personal-best time or result, even after winning Olympic gold.
Many athletes, as you may have heard, go through a transition period after the Olympics where the next Games seems so far away, but yet they know their commitment can not decrease.

They must continue to get better, increasing their times, strength and results, all the while increasing their passion to represent their country and continue on in pursuit of excellence. It is during this period that their quest becomes mental, and finding new ways to perform at their best must be a priority.

Our national women’s hockey team continues to take the women’s game to the next level. After all, the “real” reason and the “real” message sent by our program at the last Olympics was simply that if you want to win on our soil in 2010, this is how hard you have to work.

Winning another gold and taking the game of women’s hockey to the next level was our team’s goal in 2006, and I believe outscoring our opponents 46-2 proved just that. Even though two Olympic gold medals have been won by Canada in women’s hockey, the next goal for the program is three in a row and the focus will always remain the same. So, too, will the expectation.

The expectation to win every event our athletes compete in will be the pressure they face, and the pressure they put on themselves. And that goal starts now—there is no time for complacency.

Every athlete who competes for Canada’s national women’s team, whether it’s the U22 or senior team, plays 60-plus games a year, on average, for their country and/or club team, training and practising every day while continuing with studies or part-time jobs, with an ongoing goal of taking their game and the program, as a whole, to the next level.

The dedication never ends for all Olympic athletes. It is a passion for success that consumes their lives and the honour to represent their country on a yearly basis that rules their souls.

So even after an Olympic Games end, the accolades stop, and the cameras and media move on to other Canadian interests, know that every Olympic athlete continues to pursue the ultimate Canadian dream—an Olympic gold and making our country proud to be Canadian!

OFF-SEASON TRAINING PAYS OFF FOR CANADA’S ZINA KOCHER.
CODA Release

Pokljuka, Slovenia – Zina Kocher continues to prove that she is becoming one of the world’s best biathletes. Marking her fifth top-15 result of the season, the Red Deer, Alta. native finished 13th in Wednesday’s Biathlon World Cup, in Pokljuka, Slovenia.

Missing only one target on the range, the 24-year-old crossed the line just over a minute behind the leader from Sweden. Coming off a fantastic pair of results from last week’s races, her finish today marks another in a string of solid finishes for Kocher. “Things are really coming together for me this season,” said Kocher. “The off-season training is showing up in the consistency of my results this year, which is a noticeable difference from past years.”

As the leader of this young Canadian squad, Kocher has been achieving regular top-15 results against the world’s best biathletes, proving to herself and her competitors that any given day could be her day to stand on top of the podium.
“This year has been a definite confidence booster,” said Kocher. “With the consistent results I have had this season, I really believe that I belong here. I know now, that in every race I have a chance to be at the top, it’s just a matter of putting everything together and believing in myself.”

Sweden’s Anna Carin Olofsson scored her third victory of the season, winning the sprint in 21 minutes 45.2 seconds. The 33-year-old missed only one of her targets and defeated Russia’s Tatiana Moiseeva by 6.8 seconds. Germany’s Kati Wilhelm was third, 17.4 seconds behind the Swede.

Three other ladies suited up for Canada in Wednesday’s race, Sonya Erasmus, of Vanderhoof, B.C., was 57th, Jodi Etcheverry, of Canmore, Alta., was 69th, and Lindsay Bolivar, also of Canmore, was 73rd.

Humility a common trait among top 20 females in sport.
The Edmonton Journal

No question, when you rank among the Top 20 Most Influential Canadian Women in Sport, you clearly possess countless good qualities. But here’s one you might not think of right off the bat: Humility.

Not that it’s a pre-requisite, but it sure seems to be a common theme among the women on the 2006 list assembled by the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport and Physical Activity.

National women’s hockey team head coach and general manager Melody Davidson, for one, burst out laughing when an old acquaintance called her to congratulate her on making the list. “It’s flattering, I guess,” said the self-effacing Davidson, who led Canada to a gold medal at the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin last February.
“But I’m not kidding anybody—I have a long way to go to be as influential as a many people on that list, especially the athletes, with what they do and the things they make happen.”

Davidson was referring to the likes of cyclist/speedskater Clara Hughes, her speedskating teammate Cindy Klassen, cross-country skiers Chandra Crawford and Beckie Scott, wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc and longtime women’s hockey team stalwart Cassie Campbell, all of whom are on the list.

But Davidson, too, has come a long way from her young days growing up in Oyen. And her achievements in women’s hockey are a key reason Hockey Canada created her job description and signed her to a four-year contract in 2006 to run the national women’s team program through to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver-Whistler. “It’s great vision by Hockey Canada to put the role in place,” Davidson said. “To me, even though sometimes they don’t proceed as fast as we’d like here sometimes, (Hockey Canada) has good vision. Things happen as we need them, kind of thing.”

Things can move slowly in the grunt and groan world of weightlifting, too, but little by little Moira Lassen, based up there in Whitehorse, Yukon, has gone from the neophyte mother of an elite competitor to the second-term secretary general of the Canadian Weightlifting Federation, an international-level referee and the first female technical controller in the sport in 15 years.

She was a key mover in Canada’s successful bid for Whitehorse to play host to the 2008 world junior weightlifting championships, as well. Oh, and she works for Sport Yukon, too.

One of her goals is to be the first-ever female technical controller to work an Olympic Games. Think about that. It’s 2007 and women are still piling up “firsts” for things men have been doing for decades. Which is a key reason why CAAWS assembles the list in the first place. “There are all kinds of lists done in which you maybe one in 50 (names) is a woman,” said CAAWS executive-director Karin Lofstrom. “We think there are a lot of women who are influential and who are doing a good job and who should be recognized.”

Not that recogition is the goal, but a higher profile can sometimes help already high-achievement leaders be that much more effective. “I think they (the women on the list) really are doing it for all the right reasons,” Lassen said in a telephone interview. “I think they want to make the world a better place and they realize they have that power.

Entering the high-testosterone world of weightlifting, a naive mother of an aspiring Olympian and becoming a leader in the sport is an underdog’s story, if ever there was on. Lassen had to prove herself every step of the way. But her story also demonstrates that it’s possible, that she can be as much of a role model to other parents as her daughter, Jeane, a gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, last March, is to aspiring female lifters.

“Just keep an open mind,” Lassen advises others who might be thrust into a sporting environment they know nothing about. “Be patient. “Don’t expect change to come right away, especially in a male-dominated sport. And know that people are watching you, that people are grateful. You will get recognized, even if it doesn’t feel that way a lot of the time.”

Like Davidson, Lassen has no illusions that being named to the CAAWS list will radically transform her life. Her goals remain grounded ones—like someday being paid for the important work she does for her sport. But to Lassen, that matters.
“My mom said, ‘Wow, this will be great for your CV,’ “ Lassen said, laughing. “I think she’s right.

“I think even locally, people who see me at the gym or at the grocery store will be connecting this local Whitehorse woman with people that they see on TV all the time (Beckie Scott, Cindy Klassen). Of course, they’re famous.
“But it turns out that this little person from Whitehorse is among them. It’s completely special. It’s overwhelming.”