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Sport Performance Weekly
June 4th, 2007 |
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Canadian Press
NEW YORK (CP) - Tyler Christopher of Edmonton, AB opened his season with a victory Saturday, capturing the men's 400-metre title at the Reebok Grand Prix.
Malindi Elmore of Calgary, AB, won the women's 1,500 metres.
Christopher, the world championship bronze medallist, edged American LaShawn Merritt, who was second. Chris Brown of the Bahamas was third. "It was a fantastic opener out of Lane 8," said Christopher's coach Kevin Tyler. "He beat a world class field, everyone but (world No. 1-ranked) Jeremy Wariner and Gary Kikaya (No. 2) were in the race.
"We are looking forward to a very exciting season with the Pan Am Games and the world championships."
Elmore won the 1,500 with Mestawot Tadesse of Ethiopia in second, while American Shayne Culpepper took third. Carmen Douma-Hussar of Cambridge, Ont., was fourth. Diane Cummins finished third in the women's 800 metres. |
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Erica Sharp went a perfect four wins and no losses in the 51kg weight at the German Grand Prix held in Dormagen Germany. The 19 nation event was highlighted by the participation of Russia, China, Canada, and Germany, four of the top 6 ranked countries from last seasons Senior Women’s World Championships.
In the finals Sharp beat Maryna Markevich of Belarus where she won a one-sided victory, surrendering no points to her opponent. Sharp' comments after the tournament were positive yet tempered. “I didn’t feel that great about my earlier matches, I actually felt a little shaky but they were not the strongest opponents. I was happy with my Gold medal final though. I felt like it was a very solid performance and I was putting things together much more effectively. That is how I need to wrestle every match through the World Championships, but it is always a good feeling to win an international event like this.”
Canada had four bronze medals at the tournament. Carol Huynh (48kg-Calgary), Brittanee Laverdure (55kg-Calgary), Amanda Gerhadt (59kg-Vancouver), and Martine Dugrenier (67kg-Montreal).
Also participating for Canada at the event was Megan Schweitzer (St. Catherines , Ontario) in the 63kg category and Megan Buydens (Saskatoon Saskatchewan) at 67kg. Members of the National team remained in Germany following the tournament to take part in a major international camp along with host Germany, China, Sweden, and the Czech Republic. |
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Canada News-Wire
LONDON, June 4 /CNW/ - The new brand and vision for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games was launched in London this morning by Sebastian Coe and a team of London 2012 ambassadors.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070604/259665 )
The new Olympic emblem is based on the number 2012 - the year of the Games - and includes the Olympic Rings, one of the world’s most recognised brands, and the word ‘London’ - the world’s most diverse city. The same 2012 image, with the Paralympic agitos, symbolises the Paralympic Games.
The powerful, modern emblem symbolises the dynamic Olympic spirit and its inspirational ability to reach out to people all over the world. “London 2012 will be Everyone’s Games, everyone’s 2012. This is the vision at the very heart of our brand. It will define the venues we build and the Games we hold and act as a reminder of our promise to use the Olympic spirit to inspire everyone and reach out to young people around the world. It is an invitation to take part and be involved,” said London 2012 Chairman, Sebastian Coe.
“We will host a Games where everyone is invited to join in because they are inspired by the Games to either take part in the many sports, cultural, educational and community events leading up to 2012 or they will be inspired to achieve personal goals,” he added. |
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The Calgary Herald
From his home in picture-postcard-pretty Nanoose Bay, overlooking the Georgia Strait, an hour-and-45-minute drive out of Victoria, Deryk Snelling sends his hearty congratulations. “That,” he says with no small degree of fondness, “was an amazing little group in Calgary. Jon Cleveland. Tom Ponting. Curtis. Maybe they didn’t have the sheer ability of, say, Alex (Baumann) or Brent Hayden today. Or, for that matter, Mark Tewksbury, who showed the talent from Day 1.
“But those three guys all went on to win Olympic medals. Quietly. Almost invisibly. Through determination and hard work. In their minds, nothing was out of reach, no amount of sacrifice out of line. “Curtis had a commitment level I’ve seldom seen. Anywhere. In anything.
“He put off medical studies to concentrate on swimming. He did things steadily, but slowly. Most people would’ve dropped out along the way. Not him. A lot of people wondered if he’d ever make it to an Olympics. He did. Three of them. Could’ve been four, I have no doubt, if he’d wanted to continue. “And, every time he got there, he thought he could win.
“Whenever Curtis stepped into the blocks, he was ready to pour everything of himself into a race.”
Curtis Myden is still ready to do so, although a hospital has taken the place of a pool. And there is only the personal satisfaction of helping others when he touches the wall now; no medals; nothing tangible to take out of a curio cabinet display case and admire.
After earning a three-year degree in medicine at the University of Calgary, one of this country’s preeminent swimmers of the 1990s is now in orthopedic residency, with an eye toward sports medicine and/or trauma treatment, four years from now.
That diligence, the same ferocious single-mindedness that coach Snelling says pushed Myden to compete in Olympic Games at Barcelona, Atlanta (200-metre and 400-metre individual medley bronze medals) and Sydney (400-metre IM bronze) fuels his drive to specialize in orthopedics. “I’m on 24-hour call today,” Myden apologizes. “Seems as if I’m always at the mercy of this pager.” A buzzer goes off in the background. “Oops, sorry, is that mine? Uh, no.”
Tonight in Red Deer, Curtis Myden, three-time Olympic bronze medallist, joins Ponting and Tewksbury in the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame. No fear: His pager will be turned off for the banquet. He’s booked holiday time.
Myden considers himself to be in pretty fine company. Rower Megan Delehanty, former New York Ranger Earl Ingarfield Sr., diving builder Eldon Godfrey, swimming builder Lorna Snow, multisport builder John Mayell, golfer Robert MacDermott, women’s hockey icon Cassie Campbell, late broadcaster Wes Montgomery and Calgary Flames owners Harley Hotchkiss, B.J. and Doc Seaman all will be inducted alongside him this evening.
So will a pair of teams—the 1954-to-‘56 Grey Cup-dynasty Edmonton Eskimos and the back-to-back Memorial Cup-champion Medicine Hat Tigers of 1987 and ‘88.
“It’s exciting, for sure,” Myden says. “I’m going to have a lot of family there. It’s going to be a wonderful night. “What do I miss about swimming? The races. The competition. There’s nothing like being in the blocks, knowing that all the hours you’ve worked have prepared you for this moment, and then hitting the water. The lessons I learned at the pool have been great preparation, great grounding, for a career in medicine. Handling pressure, being calm at important moments. Making decisions. Being mentally tough. Understanding disappointments.
“In so many ways, swimming, sports, helps set you up for the rest of your life.”
Myden competed in numerous Pan Am Games, Commonwealth Games and Pan Pac championships, established Commonwealth records in both the 200 and 400 IM and Canadian standards in both the short- and long-course 200 and 400 IMs. Add ‘em all up, and he reeled in 30 national titles.
But the career highlights are absurdly easy to pinpoint.“Oh, the Olympic medals, I’d say. I still get a kick out of taking them to schools and showing them to kids. No matter what else you do in your athletic career, there’s something uniquely special about an Olympic medal. About competing at an Olympic Games at all.”
From his pretty-picture-postcard house in Nanoose Bay, Deryk Snelling, who was elected to the Alberta Hall of Fame in 1997, says amen to that. He still helps out with the junior national setup and can see parallels emerging with Canada’s glory years in the pool, when Baumann, Ponting, Tewksbury and Myden et al held sway. “I think the swimming program is headed in the right direction again,” he says. “I believe we’ll do well in Beijing, but London in 2012 . . . that could be a real payoff. There are an awful lot of great young swimmers in this country now.”
Great young swimmers like, say, Curtis Myden nearly two decades ago? “Well, as I said, Curtis was one of the most committed, hard-working athletes—make that people—I’ve ever come across. And, like I mentioned, he did it all pretty quietly. “He’s just someone who sets his sights on something and gets it done. “So I think it’s absolutely fabulous that he’s getting this sort of recognition.” |
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Agence France Presse English
BEIJING, May 31, 2007 (AFP) - Mobile air quality testing stations will be set up during next year’s Beijing Olympics so athletes and coaches can monitor pollution levels first-hand, the city’s vice mayor said Thursday.
Poor air quality in Beijing, one of the world’s most polluted cities, is a chief worry for many of the 10,000 athletes who will be competing here at the August 8-24 Olympics next year.
Some competitors plan to arrive in Beijing at the last moment before they compete to avoid the potential health risks from bad air.
But vice mayor Ji Lin said that visiting Olympic delegations had nothing to fear and should have confidence in the city’s air quality guarantees. "The Beijing city government is responsible for guaranteeing good air quality during the Games and we hope that other parties have confidence in this, “ he told a media briefing. “In the Olympic villages and other sites we will set up mobile air quality testing stations and the information at these stations will be open to all,” he said.
He said that scientists had studied air quality in Beijing during the August period for the past 10 years and had drawn “pretty optimistic” conclusions. “For August last year 30 of the 31 days were standard air quality. Only one day saw air quality not up to the standard,” he said.
Beijing has spent 120 billion yuan (15 billion dollars) battling environmental pollution for a decade and the effort has produced some progress but air pollution remained a key challenge, said Ji.
He said that a comprehensive plan on providing good air quality for the Olympics would be released in July or August. “We are providing an air quality guarantee for the Beijing Games,” he said. “Before 2008 we are going to take measures that need to be taken as a component of the plan.”
Beijing has been curbing air pollution by reducing the amount of coal burned for fuel in the capital and shutting down or relocating polluting industries.
All civil engineering work in the capital will be banned during the Olympics, he said, to reduce the volume of construction dust which is another key source of pollution.
The number of cars in Beijing, which passed three million last week, was exacerbating the problem, he said.
Officials were imposing stricter emission standards and trying to entice more Beijingers to use public transport, he said.
The Beijing Olympics are going to be smoke-free.
Organizers were expected to announce an Olympic smoking ban today to coincide with World No Tobacco Day. The move will put the 2008 Games in line with other recent Olympics, but it is sure to be controversial in China where an estimated 350 million are smokers.
China is the world’s biggest producer of tobacco and manufacturers one third of the world’s cigarettes. China already has legislation that bans smoking in public places, but enforcement is uneven. “The ban will apply to Olympic venues and restaurants,” said Zhang Jianshu, a spokesman for Beijing’s Health Bureau. He said more details would be released later today.
The ban is expected to include Olympic competition sites, the Olympic Village—and hotels, restaurants and other areas designated for Olympic use. “The 2008 Olympics will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in China’s tobacco fight,” said Dr. Henk Bekedam, the World Health Organization spokesman in China.
Beijing organizers have been under pressure to change people’s behaviour before the Aug. 8-24 Games. In recent months, campaigns have begun to stop people from spitting and teach them to stand in line. Some taxi drivers and hotel worker are also receiving etiquette and English lessons. |
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Times Colonist (Victoria)
VANCOUVER—Canada’s long-track speed skating team got to check out its home turf yesterday.
Cindy Klassen, Denny Morrison and the rest of the 50-member team began a six-day training session in Richmond. They spent the afternoon at the Minoru Park athletic complex doing wind sprints and playing soccer before donning hard hats for a quick tour of the Olympic Oval, where they’ll be hosting the world and, they hope, kicking its butt at the 2010 Olympics.
“It was pretty neat to take the tour,” said Morrison, who got a silver medal in the men’s team pursuit at the 2006 Olympics in Turin and ended a strong 2006-2007 season with silvers in the men’s pursuit and 1,000 metres and a bronze in the 1,500 metres at the 2007 world single distance championships last March in Salt Lake City.
“I was here in March and we got a look at it from the outside but we weren’t able to get inside and look around,” the native of Fort. St. John, said. “It’s pretty amazing when you get in there. It’s just a huge, massive structure. It’s an amazing building and I’m really excited to have that in my home province. I hope I can keep skating at competitions here after the Olympics.”
The Olympic Oval will be up and running by November 2008. But it can’t open soon enough for Canada’s long-trackers who hope to have a big home-ice advantage come 2010.
That was part of the reason for this trip. Team officials wanted to bring their skaters out here to familiarize them with the Vancouver area. Ten national team skaters train in Ste-Foy, Que., the rest train in Calgary.
“We wanted to start making Richmond and Vancouver our home,” said Finn Halvorsen, long-track program director for Speedskating Canada. “When the Oval opens in 2008 that will be when things start to come together but we wanted to get our athletes out here now.”
Canada has one of the best teams in the world, winning nine medals at the ‘07 worlds in Salt Lake City. Halvorsen is excited that Canada has three world championship medallists in their early 20s—Morrison, 21, Shannon Rempel, 22, and Christine Nesbitt, 22.
And then there’s Winnipeg’s Klassen. She sat out the first part of the 2006-‘07 season to rest after winning five medals at the 2006 Olympics. She’s keen to start a full season and was doing the squat jumps and sprinting with the rest of them yesterday. |
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The Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) invites applications for volunteer positions with the Team Canada Mission Staff for the 2008 Paralympic Summer Games, September 6th-17th, 2008 in Beijing, China.
The Paralympic Games are the premiere event in the world for athletes with a physical disability. The Canadian Paralympic Committee is a not-for-profit, charitable, private corporation responsible for developing and promoting all aspects of the Paralympic Movement in Canada (www.paralympic.ca).
The Paralympic Team Mission Staff Positions are:
Operations Team
• Athlete Services Officer
• Team Services Officer
• Database Officer
Communication Team
• Press attaché
• Photographers
For the application form and detailed job descriptions, please download the documents from the main page on the CPC website at www.paralympic.ca (left column).
Please submit your complete application by no later than June 22nd, 2007 |
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The Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) is seeking to fill two positions, a Senior Coaching Consultant and a Coaching Consultant to assist in the development of multi-sport and sport-specific coaching programs leading to the transition of the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) to a competency-based education and training approach.
To download both job descriptions, go to http://coach.ca/eng/story_details.cfm?ID=340.
Location: CAC office, Ottawa; some weekend travel is required
Salary: Commensurate with experience and qualifications
Please submit your CV and salary expectations via e-mail, by June 22, 2007, to the Coaching Association of Canada, e-mail: NCCP-PNCE@coach.ca.
The Coaching Association of Canada has two term positions to fill for maternity leaves.
For information on the Program Coordinator position, visit http://coach.ca/eng/story_details.cfm?ID=329.
For information on the Financial Assistant position, visit http://coach.ca/eng/story_details.cfm?ID=328.
All responses are appreciated, however, only those selected for an interview will receive a reply. Interviews will be scheduled for the week of July 9-13, 2007. |
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The Canadian Snowboard Federation is seeking a team oriented and self-motivated
individual to fill the newly created position of Snowboardcross Assistant Coach –
National Snowboard Team. This is a Canadian based full time position, with a starting
date of June 15, 2007.
The Snowboardcross Assistant Coach must have Level II NCCP certification (or International equivalent), and a minimum 5 years Alpine skiing or Snowboard athletic or coaching experience at the elite or International level.
Applications, stating availability and salary expectations, must be submitted no later than June 6, 2007 to Martin Jensen, High Performance Program Director (mjensen@csf.ca), Canadian Snowboard Federation. Please note that only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.
For more information http://www.csf.ca/ |
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The Senior Men’s National Water Polo Team is hosting a send off Brazilian Cocktail Hour for the 2008 Pam Am Games on Wednesday July 4th at the Sheraton Eau Clair starting at 5:00 pm. Please see the attached poster for further details.
This will be a great opportunity to meet and greet with the members of the team and you will be able to enjoy great finger foods, drinks and Brazilian music. You will also have the opportunity to enjoy a display of professional artistic pictures of the Senior Men’s National Water Polo Team.
You don’t want to miss out wishing the team good luck on the Pam Am Games. The Pan Am Games is a qualification event for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Tickets are available through any member for the Men’s National Water Polo Team or from the event organizers, Judith Virag and Anne-Marie Painchaud.
If you have any questions or comments or if you wish to support the team by sponsoring the event please contact:
Judith Virag: 403-254-5534 or judithvirag@shaw.ca
Anne-Marie Painchaud: 403-338-0951 or annepainchaud@gmail.com
Thank you for your support! |
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