Coaching the next step for Danielle Goyette.

Canadian Press
CALGARY — Danielle Goyette pounced on the chance to coach a university hockey team like it was a loose puck in front of the opposition’s net. The Canadian women’s hockey team veteran is entering the next phase of her life as her playing career winds down.

The University of Calgary contacted her before the recent women’s world championship in Winnipeg about coaching the women’s hockey team and offered her the job with the Dinos after the tournament concluded. Goyette saw it as a golden opportunity. “It doesn’t matter how long I play hockey, this year, or next year, maybe this job won’t be there next year,” Goyette said Wednesday at the Olympic Oval. “It’s something I’ve dreamed about when I was a player, to be a coach in Canada. To have that opportunity, I don’t think I could ask for a better place to be.”

Goyette wasn’t announcing her retirement Wednesday. The five-foot-seven, 148-pound forward will take the summer to think about how long she wants to continue playing. “We just finished the world championships a month ago and for me to make decision right now would be too early,” Goyette said. “I never want to have regrets in my life. I want to make sure I’m 100 per cent. When I say ‘I retire’ it’s going to be for good. “Maybe this job is going to change everything in my life. Maybe something like that is going to give me a chance to think about my retirement or make it easier for me.”

The 41-year-old from St-Nazaire, Que., is one of Canada’s most decorated female hockey players with two Olympics gold medals and eight world championships. Goyette has been a member of the Canadian team since 1991 and is the country’s second all-time leading scorer behind captain Hayley Wickenheiser with 113 goals and 105 assists in 171 games. Goyette was Canada’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

She has intermediate coaching certification through Hockey Canada and is planning to upgrade her qualifications. She says the length of her contract with the university has yet to be negotiated. “I don’t have years of experience as coach, but I did have some good coaches in the past,” she said. “I know a little bit of what to do and what not to do and how the players feel in the room. I think I’ve learned a lot in the last couple years to look around and see what’s going on. “I think I have a good relationship with the players. I know how to talk to them.”

Her goal is to make the Dinos competitive enough to return to Canadian Interuniversity Sport’s Canada West conference. The Dinos currently play in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference. They moved out of the CIS in 2002 because the Oval X-Treme, the high performance team at the Oval, had siphoned off the top players at the university who were focused on playing for the national team.

Goyette’s presence should help recruitment, said Kathy Berg, the director of the Oval’s high performance female hockey program. “She’s a legend. I’d want to play for Danielle Goyette, wouldn’t you?” Berg said.

Goyette didn’t speak English when she moved to Calgary in 1997 to try out for the Olympic team, but has planted roots firmly in the city. She has worked for Home Depot in their Olympic Job Opportunities Program that allows athletes flexible working hours around their training schedules. Even though Goyette takes over as head coach of the Dinos on June 1, she says she’ll continue to work part-time for the company over the summer before saying farewell.

The Canadian team is in transition as older players on the team are deciding whether to continue playing until the 2010 Olympics or retire. Longtime captain Cassie Campbell retired last year and is now a hockey broadcaster.

National team players are natural candidates to coach, but there are few full-time, paying jobs for female hockey coaches in Canada. After leading Canada to Olympic gold last year, national team coach Melody Davidson was looking at returning to Cornell University in the U.S. before Hockey Canada made her position a long-term one.

“After 2010, I know some of those players aren’t going to continue playing and they’re going to make great coaches and I want to do everything I can to create paid coaching opportunities for our female athletes and get them the development they need,” Berg said. “Opportunities have to be created for them.”

Centre of excellence moved into design and construction phase.
The Whitehorse Daily Star

CALGARY - Canada’s current and future Olympic sport athletes are one step closer to gaining access to a world-leading facility that will boost them to more international podium results.

CODA has officially moved its planned $276-million Canadian Centre of Sport Excellence into the design and construction phase with the selection of GEC Architecture and CANA Construction, who will design and construct the Athletic and Ice complex at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, the national body announced today.

“With the 2010 Olympic Winter Games less than three years away, CODA is pushing forward to provide athletes with the facilities and programs they need to be the best in the world,” said Bob Nicolay, president and chief executive officer, CODA. “GEC is a firm that has created landmark facilities where athletes learn to excel. Working with our partner, Hockey Canada, this complex will create world leaders, role models, and medal winners.”

Both firms bring strong experience in developing world-leading and Olympic facilities. GEC Architecture is renowned for its spectacular one-of-a-kind facilities such as the Olympic Saddledome and the Olympic Oval - the world’s first 400-metre indoor speed skating oval.
The Athletic and Ice Complex to be added at Canada Olympic Park is the core new facility within CODA’s plan to build the Centre of Sport Excellence in southern Alberta.

Designed to centralize resources for Canadian athletes while creating a culture of excellence, the project represents the complete renewal and modernization of the legacy of facilities from the 1988 Olympic Winter Games with state-of-the-art facilities and world-leading programming.

CODA also announced CANA Construction, a firm that has built a strong reputation over 65 years for delivering quality construction projects on budget and on schedule, has been selected to build the Athletic and Ice Complex.“We are delighted to be returning to Canada Olympic Park, and to be working closely with the project team, to deliver the best for CODA and Canada’s athletes,” said John Simpson, president of CANA.

The Alberta Government has kickstarted development of the Athletic and ice Complex with $69 million - a quarter of the total cost to fully rejuvenate the legacy of existing facilities and add new ones to create the Centre of Sport Excellence.

The plan models sport institutes the Americans, Germans, Austrians and Australians have all leveraged to increase athletic performance in their countries.

Canada golden again; Canada 4 - Finland 2
Times Colonist (Victoria)

MOSCOW—They came to Moscow in search of world hockey championship gold; the perfect record is merely a bonus.

Team Canada was unbeatable here, an awesome and spotless 9-0, and yesterday the Finns were simply another obstacle on the road to gold. Finland banged in two late goals to put the pro-Canada crowd on edge, but the Canadians hung on for a 4-2 win at Khodynka Arena and collected the 24th gold medal in the country’s world championship history, the first since 2004.

“The last thing I said to them before they went on the ice is, ‘Every one of you during your youth hockey days has played in a tournament,’ “ said head coach Andy Murray. “ ‘You’ve played for your community centre, you’ve played for your club, you’ve played for your home town. Today you get a chance to win a gold medal for your country and that’s pretty special.”’

Nash finished his tour de force of the tournament with a flourish in the 3rd period, a breakaway goal as awe-inspiring as it was clutch. It was his second of the game and sixth of the tournament and though he had already been voted MVP, this was confirmation.

“I don’t think I’m going to see another goal like that in my life,” marvelled goalie Dwayne Roloson, who was relegated to the backup role and watched Cam Ward make 20 saves.

“As I said to the players at the end of the game, when Rick Nash was carrying that puck, he was carrying the emotions of 31 million Canadians with him as he went in on that breakaway. What a special feeling that was.” Added Murray.

Perfection is not its own reward here; the medals and the trophy the players lofted after the game will be perfect keepsakes of the year they beat ‘em all. And it sure beats the alternative. “Last year we came up short. Any time you play for Canada the idea is to win that gold medal. I can’t tell you how elated I am,” said Mike Cammalleri, who finished fourth in 2006. “To win a gold medal, it’s hard to describe. I’m just happy for everyone at home that we’re representing. .... Happy Mother’s Day gift for all the moms at home.”

The Staal brothers already had a bond, of course. There they were on the blue-line, arm in arm, mussing each other’s hair as they sang O Canada. Eric played a bigger role than Jordan but they were in it together. “No better feeling than winning something like this with your brother. It just tops it all off,” said Jordan, who drew an assist on Armstrong’s winning goal. “We definitely had some adversity this game and we battled back, kept our cool.”

They come bigger than this one, the Olympics and the Stanley Cup final for instance. But these guys weren’t considered a pre-tournament powerhouse and to rumble through to gold was impressive. “I don’t think we got a ton of respect to start the tournament, no question,” said Eric Staal. “We knew we had a good team. I think we were so balanced through the lineup. That’s how you win tournaments.”

B.C. teen captures triathlon.
Canadian Sport News

RICHARDS BAY, South Africa– Kirsten Sweetland has made Canadian triathlon history.
The Victoria native captured the women’s title at the BC Triathlon World Cup event. At 18 years and eight months, Sweetland, the world junior champion, became the youngest Canadian ever to win a triathlon World Cup race and the sixth Canadian woman to stand atop the podium.

This marked just her fifth World Cup event and Sweetland has finished in the top-15 each time. The victory moved Sweetland into third in the world rankings.“I feel great, I really wasn’t expecting this,” said Sweetland. “It’s a lot of adrenaline up at the front and I think that really helped me. “I’m just on cloud nine right now, I can’t believe it.”

Sweetland won the race in two hours, three minutes, 32 seconds. She finished 15 seconds ahead of Olympic bronze medallist Magali Di Marco Messmer of Switzerland. Christiane Pilz of Germany was third. Neither Christine Jeffrey of Guelph, Ont., nor Edmonton’s Carolyn Murray finished the race.

Canadian divers earn two bronze at U.S., Grand Prix.
Canadian Sport News

FORT LAUDERDALE – Émilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., won the bronze medal on women’s 10-metre tower on Saturday at the U.S., Grand Prix while Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal were also third on women’s 10-metre synchro.
On women’s tower, China was 1-2 with Wang Xin first followed by Chen Ruolin.  They were also 1-2 at the world championships in March. 

‘’Out of five dives three were very good, one was average and the other should have been better,’’ said Heymans, the 2003 world champion.  ‘’What I liked the most about my peformance today is that I was more aggressive.  I can do all these dives well in practice and I’m getting better now at duplicating those performances in competition.’’

On women’s 10-metre synchro, Xin and Ruolin combined forces for the victory, Briony Cole and Melissa Wu won the battle for silver over Filion and Benfeito.  High winds were a concern during the competition at the outdoor venue. ‘’We really had to fight the wind,’’ said Filion.  ‘’It made standing at the edge of the platform particualrly difficult.  Still we managed to have good synchronization and had good take-offs.’’

Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., and Guo Jinjing of China are set to become the first recipients of a new award as the best international divers over a four-year period. The Duraflex International World Diver Awards will be presented Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Despatie is being celebrated for a series of outstanding performances, including a world title on men’s 10-metre at the 2003 world championships in Barcelona at which he recorded a world record 107.1 points on his final dive; a silver medal on three-metre at the Athens Olympics as well as gold in the event at the 2004 World Cup; gold on one-metre and three-metre with world record scores at the 2005 world championships at home in Montreal and silver on three-metre at the 2007 World Championships this past March in Melbourne, Australia.

“It’s a big honour for me to get that kind of recognition for my efforts over the past four years,” said Despatie, who’ll compete in the USA Diving Grand Prix at Fort Lauderdale beginning Thursday.

“To be the first recipient with Guo Jingjing shows that this is a big award,” he said, acknowledging her insuperable performances on the women’s three-metre springboard. Guo has crushed the opposition, taking all the world titles since 2003 in individual and synchronized diving. She also took double gold at the 2004 Olympics.

“The last four years have been really great for me and changed my career,” Despatie said. “I won my first world title in Barcelona, my first Olympic medal and my experience at the worlds in Montreal was probably one of the biggest highlights of my life.”

Canada taking a young swim team to this summer’s Pan American Games.
CP Wire

Most of Canada’s veteran swimmers are taking a pass on this summer’s Pan American Games, giving some youngsters an opportunity to gain experience at a major international competition.

Gold medallist Brent Hayden and the rest of the team that competed at the world aquatic championships in March in Melbourne, Australia, weren’t among the 28 athletes named to the Pan Am squad Wednesday.

The world championships were held much earlier than usual this year so the Pan Am Games don’t fit into the training schedule for the Canadian swimmers who competed in Melbourne and are focused on Olympic preparation. Of the swimmers that will travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the July 13-29 Games, only four have had prior experience at a major multi-sport event.

Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming Canada’s CEO and national coach, says going with a less seasoned team in Brazil is part of his stratagem to ensure as many athletes as possible get the valuable international experience they need to succeed down the line. “All of a sudden, instead of 25 swimmers going to two major international meets in the same year, we’ll have 50 that will get this international experience,” Lafontaine said during a conference call. “You can’t put a price on that.”

Keith Beavers, Kathleen Stoody of North Vancouver, B.C., Mathieu Bois of Montreal and Scott Dickens of Burlington, Ont., are the only members of the Canadian team who have competed at a multi-sport Games. Beavers has witnessed some of the darkest days for Canadian swimming, competing at the Athens Olympics in 2004 when the team failed to win a single medal.

Lafontaine was brought in shortly after Athens to revamp the program. So far, he’s been successful in getting Canada back on the international podium. Canadian swimmers captured five medals at the 2005 world championships in Montreal and two in Melbourne, including Hayden’s gold in the men’s 100-metre freestyle, Canada’s first world title in the pool in 21 years.

Beavers called the Athens Games a low point for Canada.“I think since Pierre has come on, we’ve definitely moved forward,” he said. “There’s definitely more of a positive attitude, a can-do attitude within the team.”

Canada won 12 medals at the 2003 Pan Am Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Lafontaine is hoping to at least match that in Rio but isn’t focusing too much on the medal standings. “I guess what I’m looking at instead of numbers would be to see most of these kids move forward into semifinals and the finals,” he said. “Like at the world championships, it wasn’t just the winning medals that was neat but the number of young swimmers that were making the finals.”

The swimming events will take place at Rio’s Speedway Sports Complex Aquatics from July 16 to 22.

TransCanada builds on proud Olympic history by joining Vancouver 2010.

May 14, 2007, Calgary, AB - TransCanada and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) announced TransCanada as a new Official Supplier in the Natural Gas Pipeline Operator category for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The partnership was announced at the University of Calgary campus, site of the TransCanada Arch which stood proudly in front of the Olympic Village during the Calgary 1988 Winter Games.

“We are excited to play a role in helping share the Olympic and Paralympic experience with all Canadians and the world,” said Hal Kvisle, TransCanada’s Chief Executive Officer. “Our sponsorship demonstrates our commitment to excellence as a Canadian company, and that commitment extends to playing a role in the success of world-class events held here in Canada.”

Building on TransCanada’s proud Olympic history with the Calgary 1988 Olympic Winter Games as part of Team Petroleum, this partnership provides TransCanada with Official Supplier sponsorship rights to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. TransCanada’s financial contribution will also designate TransCanada as the Official Supplier for the Canadian Olympic Team competing in Beijing in 2008, Vancouver in 2010 and London in 2012.

“Canadian athletes continue to benefit from the legacy of the 1988 Winter Games and the road to Vancouver 2010 truly does go through Calgary. TransCanada’s commitment to the Winter Games in 2010 is a commitment to all of us Canadian winter athletes who are pursuing our dream of representing Canada to the best of our ability in 2010,” said Chandra Crawford, Olympic Gold Medalist (Cross-Country Skiing).

About TransCanada
Founded in 1951 and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, TransCanada has approximately 3,550 employees. With more than 50 years experience, TransCanada is a leader in the responsible development and reliable operation of North America’s energy infrastructure including natural gas pipelines, gas storage facilities, and projects related to oil pipelines and LNG facilities. TransCanada’s network of wholly owned pipelines extends more than 59,000 kilometres (36,500 miles), tapping into virtually all major gas supply basins in North America. TransCanada is one of the continent’s largest providers of gas storage and related services with approximately 360 billion cubic feet of storage capacity. TransCanada’s common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol TRP.

Almost anyone will be able to afford tickets, Vanoc vows; Thousands of seats will be set aside for low-income youth and families.
The Vancouver Sun

Vancouver Olympic organizers were not able to tell the public Tuesday how much tickets to the gold-medal hockey games at the 2010 Olympics will cost, but promised the public will get a fair shake at buying them.

In releasing its business plan, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games said it will try to make tickets available at prices that almost anyone can afford, despite raising its expectations for the revenue that ticket sales will generate.
The business-plan document projects that the Games will sell an average 90 per cent of all tickets for events and generate $231.9 million, which is $91 million more than the estimate that the Vancouver Olympic bid corporation put in its bid for the games.

Dave Cobb, Vanoc’s executive vice-president for marketing and communications, said one reason for the higher estimate is that there will be more tickets to sell. The 2010 Games will see additional events, such as ski cross. More men’s hockey games will be played at GM Place than initially planned and GM Place won’t have to reduce its seating capacity to accommodate an international-sized ice surface.

The bid also did not account for the access to lucrative executive suites in GM Place, Pacific Coliseum and BC Place Stadium that it now has. “Since the bid, we now have much better information to build our ticketing plan,” Cobb said, but added: “Eight years of general inflation is also a factor we considered.”

Vanoc has not decided its ticket prices, although Vancouver’s bid for the Games suggested ticket prices ranging from $29 to $277 for prime events, such as hockey, figure skating and skiing and $19 to $90 for less popular events.

Cobb said the pricing schedule has to be approved by the International Olympic Committee, which he expects to happen by October. Vanoc hopes to put them on sale by the summer of 2008. However, Cobb added that ticket prices will be set to ensure there is a range of prices “that [fits] everybody’s budget, the best we can.”

Cobb said prices for high-demand events, such as hockey, will be higher and will escalate as the play advances into its medal round. In general, however, Cobb said “we don’t want the price of tickets to stop people from going to the Games.”

Cobb added that thousands of tickets will be set aside, either directly by Vanoc or purchased as pre-agreements with major Olympic sponsors, to be distributed to low-income youth and families.

Vanoc CEO John Furlong said one of Vanoc’s goals is to “find ways to make sure everyone has a fair chance [at attending events].”

Cobb said one task for Vanoc’s ticket vendor, which he expects will be selected by July, will be to help organizers find ways of redistributing tickets for people who no longer plan to attend events so all seats are filled, and to look at ways to foil ticket scalpers.

Cobb said Vanoc wants to make 70 per cent of all tickets available to the general public, with 30 per cent to be set aside for the so-called “Olympic family” of national Olympic committees and international sporting federations. Cobb added that the proportion is an average across all events, and for some, “Olympic-family” attendance will be higher than 30 per cent, but Vanoc promised that minimum numbers will be set aside at each event for the general public.

Calgary’s mascots calling it quits; Hidy and Howdy hanging up their hats.
The Calgary Sun

The torch has been extinguished for Hidy and Howdy. The iconic white-furred twin mascots of Calgary’s 1988 Winter Olympic Games will be removed from city entrance signs with interim placards slated to go up in their place, city council decided yesterday.

In a close vote, council said the cuddly bears that adorned welcome signs on the Trans-Canada Hwy., Deerfoot Tr. and Barlow Tr. near the Calgary International Airport would be taken down and replaced.

Mayor Dave Bronconnier said the mascots have provided a good service for years and have earned a break and when permanent signs are selected, they will likely include something commemorating the city’s Olympic legacy. “I think when you look at entrance signage into Calgary right now, it certainly is not in keeping with a city of a million population,” he said.
“(The new signs) will keep with the character and the motif and recognize the important Olympic contribution to Calgary, but for now, Hidy and Howdy are retired.”

Council heard the signs will be taken to Canada Olympic Park, where they will likely find a final resting place. The new signs will trumpet Calgary as the “Heart of the New West.” But Ald. Barry Erskine suggested the new signs could potentially still involve the mascots somehow. “I have a lot of nostalgia about Hidy and Howdy—they’re one of the things that makes Calgary a great place to be,” he said.

CANADA’S SPORTS HALL OF FAME: INDUCTEES Scott, Flutie, Campbell among bumper crop added to Hall.
The Globe and Mail

Beckie Scott, queen of the snow, headlines a list of eight inductees into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Once an anonymous athlete in a sport that was largely unrecognized in Canada, Scott defined herself with excellence - winning Olympic gold and silver medals in cross-country skiing - and with strong ethics in her unrelenting battle against doping and cheating. So convincing a candidate was the athlete from Vermilion, Alta., that Scott was voted into the Hall on the first ballot.

She’ll be joined by other notables, including Doug Flutie, the first non-Canadian to be inducted, and Cassie Campbell, the first women’s ice hockey player to enter the Hall.

Wrestler Daniel Igali, baseball batting champion Larry Walker, National Hockey League sharpshooter Mike Bossy and sport pioneers Sam Jacks and Robert Steadward round out the list.

Flutie, born in Manchester, Md., played for four National Football League clubs in his career, but says his biggest sports thrill was winning his first of three Grey Cup championships in 1992. In eight seasons in the Canadian Football League, he set single- season records for touchdowns (48 in 1994) and passing yards (6,619 in 1991).

Bossy scored 50 and more goals for a record nine consecutive seasons with the New York Islanders and three times won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, awarded for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct.

Campbell played in seven world championships and three Olympics, winning eight gold and two silver medals.

Igali escaped political unrest in his native Nigeria in 1994 and, six years later, won Olympic gold for Canada, kissing the Canadian flag in a joyful ceremony after his win.

Walker, who signed with the Montreal Expos in 1984, was the National League most valuable player in 1997 while with the Colorado Rockies.

Jacks invented the sports of ringette and floor hockey, and Steadward is best known as the founding member of the International Paralympics Committee.

Scott, expecting her first baby in September with her husband, Justin Wadsworth, expects to be on hand for the induction ceremony on Oct. 25 in Toronto.“For sport in this country, it’s as big an honour as comes your way,” Scott said of the induction. “We’ll continue the work to try and clean up sport for the kids who come along.