Canadian swimmers ready for Olympic run following last week’s strong world championship performances.
Swimming Canada News

MELBOURNE, Australia –The Canadian swimmers ended the competition with one gold medal and one bronze while Canadian records were bettered eight times. “This may not be the best worlds we had in terms of (medal) performances,” said 10-year national team veteran Rick Say of Victoria, who helped Canada to a bronze in the 4X200 freestyle relay.  “But everybody is on the right track and headed in the right direction going towards the Olympics.  We feel it’s been successful and it’s fun to be a part of it.”
 
Brian Johns of Vancouver was eliminated in the 400 IM preliminaries with a 12th spot but it’s been a breakthrough competition for the 24-year-old.  Fifth in the 200 IM earlier this week with a Canadian record and a member of the medal winning relay, Johns was racing at his first worlds since coming back from a serious shoulder injury which kept him on the sidelines for several months after the 2004 Olympics.

Canada was also 16th in the men’s 4X100 medley relay preliminaries with Matt Rose of Victoria, Mike Brown of Calgary, Johns and Brent Hayden of Vancouver.
Hayden was Canada’s big star of the meet with the gold medal in the men’s 100-metre freestyle in a Canadian record.  It was Canada’s first world championship victory in the swimming pool since 1986. 

He also helped Canada to bronze in the 4X200 freestyle with Johns, Rick Say of Victoria and Andrew Hurd of Toronto. Hayden was also on the 4X100 freestyle relay that placed seventh with Rose, Say and Joel Greenshields of Calgary and eighth in the 50 freestyle.

“We are becoming more and more of a solidified team,” said Swimming Canada’s national coach Pierre Lafontaine. “That night of the gold we had five finalists overall. Our swimmers showed they don’t get intimidated.  When they fell behind they showed an ability to comeback.  The only way we’re going to beat the world, is to to comeback faster than everybody else and be fitter and stronger.”

Beside Johns, fifth place finishes were posted by Erica Morningstar of Calgary in the women’s 100 freestyle and Audrey Lacroix of Montreal in the women’s 200 butterfly.  All three established Canadian records in their performances.  Mike Brown of Calgary was seventh in the men’s 200 breaststroke.

Ryan Cochrane of Victoria and Julia Wilkinson of North York, Ont., made impressive worlds debuts placing eighth in the 800 freestyle and 200 IM respectively.  Cochrane also lowered the Canadian record in his prelims swim.
Canada also qualified spots for the Olympics in five of the six relays.

“If you want to medal at the Olympics, the numbers show usually need to be in the top five or six in the world the year before”, said Lafontaine.  “We have people there and others close.  We felt we were part of the success of the meet, and this was the fastest meet in history.  When that happens, it’s anybody’s ball game.”

Canadian Freestylers Conclude 2006-07 Season.
Airborn News

Vancouver, March 27, 2007 -- With the conclusion of the Canada Post National Freestyle Championships in Calgary this past Sunday, the National Team wrapped up a successful season.

Without doubt the highlight was the FIS Freestyle World Championships in Italy where the Canadian team won an unprecedented three World Championships – Kristi Richards is now the reigning World Champion in single moguls, Jennifer Heil in dual moguls, and Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau in single moguls.

Steve Omischl also won the bronze medal in aerials at the World Championships.

Other highlights include:

- Jennifer Heil winning her fourth consecutive FIS World Cup moguls title;
- Steve Omischl winning the aerials FIS World Cup title;
- First ever World Cup gold medals by Kristi Richards (at Deer Valley) and Cord Spero (at Mont Gabriel);
- First ever World Cup medals by Vincent Marquis (a silver at Deer Valley) and Maxime Gingras (at Apex);
- 13 different athletes reached the World Cup podium (this compares to a total of 77 Canadians in all winter sports);
6 different athletes on the Development team reached the podium in Nor-Am competition;
- Chloe Dufour-Lapointe winning the FIS Jr World Championship dual moguls title;
- Jeff Bean nailing his final competition jump at Nationals, concluding an incredible 15-year Freestyle career.

“This was a very satisfying year,” said CFSA CEO Peter Judge. “The athletes’ ability to perform on demand at events like the Canadian World Cups and World Championships is a very important step as we build to Vancouver 2010.”

“We also have to recognize that this success, and our success moving forward, is in large part due to the support we are able to provide our athletes through our partners at Own the Podium and directly with our funding partners at various levels of government; the incredible support we have received from Canada Post and our other team sponsors Bell, RBC and Spyder; our team suppliers Auclair, Copasetic, djOrtho and Canadian Optical; our major event host resorts including Apex, Ski Mont Gabriel, Canada Olympic Park and Silver Star; and an untold number of volunteers.”

The athletes, coaches and support staff will now be taking a well earned, but short, break before training begins in earnest in about one month’s time.

Guay, Rubens capture men’s and women’s downhill ski titles.
Canadian Press

WHISTLER, B.C. — Shona Rubens of Canmore, Alta., and Erik Guay of Mont-Tremblant, Que., captured the Canadian women’s and men’s downhill titles Tuesday at the GMC Canadian ski championships.

The win was Rubens’ third this week after she captured both the slalom and Super-G titles while also finishing second in the giant slalom. Rubens finished ahead of defending champion Britt Janyk of Whistler, B.C., who was second.
Montreal’s Emilie Desforges was third.

“I knew I had a chance to win,” Rubens said in a statement. “But Britt is the queen of Whistler so I guess it was a bit of a surprise when I came down and found out I was in first.

“I feel as good as I’ve felt all year. This is a great way to end the season but, to be honest, I just want to keep racing. I’m looking forward to next year already, that’s for sure.”

Guay captured the men’s race, edging 2005 champion John Kucera of Calgary, who was second. Francois Bourque of New Richmond, Que., was third.

“What a great course and perfect day, it was a World Cup calibre course,” said Guay. “It’s a long track and it was icy and challenging. “It would rank up there among the most challenging courses on the World Cup.”

Calgary’s Brady Leman claimed the overall title with 690 points.

Health Minister hopes to tie obesity awareness into 2010 Olympics.
Simcoe Reformer

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement and Vancouver Olympics organizers are discussing plans to make the battle against childhood obesity an unofficial event in 2010.

Clement told Sun Media yesterday that he has spoken with Games planners and high-profile Olympians, including rower Silken Laumann, in a bid to put kids’ fitness on the podium with a major public awareness campaign.

“We think it’s going to be a time when people are going to be thinking about sports and fitness and activity,” Clement said. “We’ve got some other things that are gearing up that use the Winter Olympics as a way to get back into people’s households on fitness issues.”

The initiative, which is still in the discussion stages, comes as a new report by the House of Commons health committee warns that childhood obesity has become a national epidemic. One in four Canadian children (26%) are considered overweight or obese, according to Statistics Canada figures.

Several experts testifying before the committee warned that the current generation of kids may have shorter lives than their parents as the incidence of weight-related health problems such as diabetes, heart disease and strokes escalates.

One of the committee report’s main recommendations was for the government to use the Olympics as a means to trigger a shift in public perceptions on diet and exercise similar to the public’s acceptance of seat belts in the 1970s.

“It’s a great idea because I thought of it first,” said Clement. “Part of the reason why we announced Participaction was to take advantage of the fact the winter Olympics are coming.”

Canada climbs podium list World Cup, world championship results ‘an unequivocal success,’ COC says.
The Globe and Mail

Germany is still a giant step ahead, but Canada moved up to second place in the season’s-end medal tally of World Cup podiums for Olympic sports.

The Canadian Olympic Committee’s target for the Vancouver Winter Games in 2010 is for the host country to place first overall, but the second-place ranking, with 135 World Cup podium finishes to Germany’s 215 this season, represents a step up from Canada’s third-place finish at the Turin Olympics 13 months ago.

In addition, Canadian athletes have mounted the podium 28 times at world championship events, with a few more medals likely to come in men’s and women’s hockey and men’s curling.

Canada is not clear and away from the pack of fellow contenders. The United States was third in the World Cup hardware parade with 134 podium performances, followed by alpine ski power Austria (128) and speed-skating dynamo South Korea (103).

“As a nation, we remain on target to achieve our goal of finishing first overall in Vancouver in 2010,” Roger Jackson, the chief executive of Own the Podium 2010, said in a statement issued by the COC.

Own the Podium is the $110-million funding partnership of the COC, the Vancouver organizing committee, national sport bodies and corporate supporters driving the bid to place first at Vancouver.

“Through Own The Podium 2010’s targeted high-performance programming, many of Canada’s winter athletes saw marked improvement in their performances this past season,” Jackson said. “Over the next three years, our challenge will be to continue to effectively develop and target our resources in order to keep Canada’s winter athletes on an upward trajectory during the lead-up to 2010.”

Overall, a total of 77 Canadian athletes reached the podium in World Cup and world championship events during the 2006-2007 winter season.

“The 2006-2007 international season was an unequivocal success for Canadian winter sport,” Chris Rudge, the chief executive officer of the COC, said.

In 2007 world championship events, Germany leads all countries with 39 medals, topping Canada by 11. Norway is third with 25, the United States fourth with 20 and Switzerland fifth with 15.

The 2007 winter world championship season will officially end next month with the men’s and women’s hockey tournaments and the men’s curling event.