Olympic champion gymnast Kyle Shewfelt faces long road to recovery.

CP Wire - BY DONNA SPENCER - CALGARY (CP) _ Kyle Shewfelt has a long road back to gold. Canada’s Olympic gold medallist in artistic gymnastics, and the country’s only Olympic medallist ever in that sport, will need weeks of rehabilitation on his two broken knees and additional ligament damage in one before he’ll compete again.

But while the injuries he suffered in Stuttgart, Germany, on Aug. 27 just prior to the recent world championship were more serious that originally thought, Shewfelt, and more importantly his surgeon, believe he will be able to try and defend his Olympic title in Beijing next August.

“There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that in Beijing I will be in my best form and I’m going to have some routines that will challenge for podium positions,” Shewfelt said Wednesday at a news conference. “I can’t even think that’s not a possibility. “It’s going to be a battle, but I’m so ready for this fight. I’m going to come back and I’m going to be stronger. I’m going to be able to help this team.”

Shewfelt won Olympic gold in the floor routine in Athens in 2004 and narrowly missed the podium in the vault. After taking 2005 off, Shewfelt took the bronze in the floor routine at last year’s world championship.

He arrived at the press conference at the University of Calgary on Wednesday in a wheelchair, which he’s been in since mistiming a landing on a difficult tumbling pass, which caused him to hyper-extend his knees, just four days before the world championship.

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Nick Mohtadi operated on Shewfelt last Friday in Calgary. “It’ll be a matter of months before he’s ready to start training and competing,” Mohtadi said. “It’s everybody’s expectation that Kyle should be competing next year in Beijing.”

Mohtadi inserted a plate and screws and re-attached the ligament in Shewfelt’s left knee and re-positioned the bone and inserted a screw in his right knee. “In another sense, it’s good news because the bones broke and not all the ligaments tore which arguably is a more difficult injury to recover from,” Mohtadi said.

While Mohtadi said he couldn’t give a timeline for Shewfelt’s return to competition, the gymnast wants to be back competing by March. He’d gone to Stuttgart feeling he was in the best condition of his career. “I believe I had a chance to win the world championships and head into the Olympics as the world champion,” said the 25-year-old from Calgary. “That was my goal. Then this happened.”

While Mohtadi had recommended Shewfelt come home after his injury, Shewfelt wanted to stay and support his teammates, whom he’d been expected to lead at the world championship.

The Canadians qualified a full men’s team _ six gymnasts _ for the Olympics in Beijing by finishing 11th in the team event without Shewfelt. “It would be an understatement to say what this team did was phenomenal,” University of Calgary coach Tony Smith said. “If you use a hockey analogy . . . we won that game with third and fourth line players. “Losing a guy like Kyle, it’s like losing your Jarome Iginla. Kyle has carried this team for the past five years and I’m very proud of all the guys on the team for providing Kyle with a chance to get to the Olympics Games because Kyle had done it for us.”

Shewfelt has already begun rehabilitation with team physiotherapist Susan Massitti and she believes he’s up to the challenge of many weeks of it. “Kyle’s greatest strength is mental,” she said.

The team was able to have Massitti at the world championships thanks to extra funding out of the Road To Excellence plan, which is a business plan for summer athletes. “The opportunity to have the funding from the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary in bringing somebody as good as she is, she saved the day for us,” Smith said.

Canadian Paralympic Committee Past president Patrick Jarvis Inducted into Paralympic Hall of Fame.

CALGARY - Paralympian Patrick Jarvis was inducted into the Canadian Paralympic Hall of Fame today at the same time as a permanent display honoring all inductees was unveiled at the Olympic Hall of Fame and Museum at Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park.

The Canadian Paralympic Hall of Fame Display is a year-round tribute to the athletes, coaches and builders who have helped advance the Paralympic Movement in Canada. The Hall of Fame display compliments an existing Canadian Paralympic exhibit in the museum.

”Patrick is not only a former elite-level athlete, but also a current mentor and leader whose contributions to the Paralympic Movement are lengthy. It is with great pleasure that I introduce Patrick as the latest inductee into the Paralympic Hall of Fame,” said David Legg, vice-president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee who spearheaded the development of the Hall of Fame display.

Jarvis served on the board of the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) from 1992 to 2006, and was president from 1999 until he joined the governing board of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in 2006.

He continues to represent the CPC on the board of directors of the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee (VANOC), and was most recently appointed by IPC to sit on the London 2012 Games Coordination Committee.

Jarvis competed at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympic Games and served as Chef de Mission for the Canadian team at the 1998 Nagano Paralympic Games and was an official CPC representative at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games and the Salt Lake City 2002 Paralympic Games.

He was also a member of the first National Sport Advisory Committee to the Secretary of State for Amateur Sport and the 2010 Bid Corporation Board of Directors.

”When the Canadian Paralympic Hall of Fame was initiated in 2000 it consisted primarily of a ceremony. The display provides a more lasting tribute to all the great Canadians who have made a difference for sport for people with a physical disability,” added Legg.

Olympian Hollingsworth-Richards is refreshed and ready to slide again.

CanWest News Service - WHISTLER, B.C. - From a mental standpoint, Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards - bronze medallist in skeleton at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games - knew that a year away from the rigors of elite-level competition and gruelling travel had done her a world of good.

She had a chance to settle into married life last winter with husband Billy, a pro rodeo saddle bronc rider. She went to work at a “real” job for her sponsor, True Energy Trust, as sponsorship and donations co-ordinator. And she let the stress of a pressure-filled Olympic year slide away now that she wasn’t squeezing into a skin-tight suit and sliding headfirst in a harrowing high-speed ride down a twisting, dangerous ice-walled track.

“I had been competing for 11 years at that point, I looked at the long-term goal being Vancouver in 2010 and I was exhausted in putting every effort possible into the bronze medal that I won,” the Eckville, Alta., native said last weekend at a Canadian Olympic Committee fundraiser. “It was refreshing to take that time away and I was able to put everything into a whole new perspective.”

Dressed for the COC dinner in a stunning, strapless white dress, the tanned, raven-haired Hollingsworth-Richards, 26, did seem as relaxed and worry-free as an athlete could possibly be. But a clear, refreshed mind is one thing. How would her body react to a season off the track?

After all, her remarkable 2005-06 season - she was World Cup points leader after reaching the podium in all seven events she entered - had followed years of frustrating inconsistency. “We just had a recent testing camp (in Calgary) and I pushed the fastest I’ve ever pushed,” said a beaming Hollingsworth-Richards, who returned to Whistler on Wednesday for a three-day sliding summit with members of the national skeleton and bobsled teams.

“It made me quite excited to see how things could be going for the rest of the year. Training programs are set up in blocks. At the beginning of the year, we’re working more on volume. In the middle of the year it’s more in strength and as we get closer to competition season, that’s when you start working on your speed. So, for me to have the speed in August, faster than what I was Olympic year, I’m excited to see what happens now that we’re starting to work on speed.

“Taking the (last) competitive season off, it was the best decision I could have ever made.”

Her coach, Stuart MacMillan, said the year off gave the slider a chance to release a lot of the mental pressure that had built up in the Olympic year. “Definitely, it has helped her. Not just mentally, but physically. Going full bore for over a decade and just getting away from structured sport, it gave the body a chance to heal a little more. She is a little fresher and we’re seeing the benefits in her training. She’s training at an all time high.”

Hollingsworth-Richards said her stint in the office at True Energy - she hooked up with the company after winding up in a group with president Paul Bray at a Canadian Sport Centre Calgary golf tournament three years ago - was a real eye-opener. She wrote a sponsorship policy for the company and handled funding requests. “It was kind of neat to be on the other side of things. As an athlete, kind of being the door-to-door salesman, which is what we can be, I understand now what it’s like to handle giving the money out.”

Hollingsworth-Richards did attend one World Cup last season - the season-opener in Calgary in late November - but as a spectator. “I was OK watching,” she said. “I was excited to cheer my teammates on. It wasn’t until everybody left for Europe that I started to get the pangs in my stomach, thinking ‘oh, oh, this is strange to be home’ because I’ve been touring since I was 15, pretty much grew up on the road. “But that’s what I needed to know, whether I missed it.”

She’s set a goal for the 2007-08 season of finishing in the top three in the World Cup standings and top three at the world championships in Germany. And she’s keenly looking forward to getting on the 2010 track in Whistler for a couple of days when it opens in early January and then spending all of March in Whistler after the World Cup season ends training on the course she hopes to medal on two years later.

“That’s my goal. I can’t imagine anything more exciting than to compete in your home country Olympics and have a chance to stand on that podium.”

Kelly Bechard’s offence worth gold at Hockey Fall Festival.

Prince George Citizen - Kelly Bechard has been a sharpshooter for Team Canada for seven years now. So, during the International Women ’s Fall Festival, she didn’t have to prove she belongs on the senior national hockey club again this season.

In Saturday night’s Fall Festival gold medal game at the Coliseum, Bechard made a statement anyway. Skating for Team Canada White, she scored three goals in a 4-0 victory against Team Canada Red. “I just wanted to play the best game that I could,” said the 29-year-old Bechard, who helped Canada win gold at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

“I just think it’s one of those games where it’s effortless. It’s the ideal game that you want to have all the time, but it doesn’t really happen that way. It was good. My linemates played exceptional. (When) you’re in the right place at the right time, pucks go in.”

In the game, the final one of a week-long tournament used by Hockey Canada to evaluate talent for the national team, power plays were the difference. Team White cashed in three times on nine man-advantage chances. Team Red also had nine power-play opportunities but came up empty.

“I thought our penalty-killing was unbelievable—we didn’t give them any chances on their power play because we were so solid and together, even on five-on-threes,” Bechard said. “As far as our power play, we moved the puck up as a unit and we just basically outworked them.”

Canadians wrangle for medals at world wrestling championships.

CP Wire - Leigh Vierling is clear about what he wants from his team at the world wrestling championships. "We expect a lot of people on the podium," the Calgary based coach of the Canadian women’s freestyle squad said this week.

Canada will send 10 men and seven women to the world meet, which begins Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan. The tournament will serve as the first step in qualifying for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Vierling has reason for optimism as the women’s team ranked third in the world last year behind Japan and China and has been consistently among the best for a decade.

The team is led by 2004 Olympic silver medallist Tonya Verbeek of Beamsville, Ont., 2007 Pan American Games gold medallist Carol Huynh of Hazelton, B.C., and 2006 world championship silver medallist Martine Dugrenier of Montreal.

The men’s side has 36-year-old Guivi Sissaouri of Montreal, a silver medallist at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, as well as Vancouver-area wrestlers Matt Gentry and Arjan Bhullar, who each took bronze at the Pan Ams. A three-man Greco-Roman team includes Pan Am silver medallist Ari Taub of Calgary.

The top eight in each weight class will secure a spot in the Olympics for their countries, but not necessarily for themselves. There are three more qualifying tournaments and then Canada’s team will be chosen at its Olympic trials in Toronto in December.

Vierling has high hopes for Huynh, whom he coaches at the University of Calgary along with national team members Erica Sharp and Brittanee Laverdure. "I really believe Carol has the ability to win the world championship," said Vierling, who considers Huynh one of Canada’s top gold medal hopes for Beijing. "She’s gone the extra mile this year in her physical training and mental preparation. To beat her would take a superb performance."

The 32-year-old Sharp was on the first Canadian women’s team ever to go to a world championship in 1993. She was fifth at the world tournament in 2005 and defeated 2006 world silver medallist Lyndsay Belisle this year to make the team.
Laverdure was Calgary’s female athlete of the year in 2006.

While there are seven events at the world championships, women compete in only four weight classes at the Olympics, the same number as when the women debuted in wrestling at the 2004 Games. The men have seven classes.

Canada boasts wave of talent; National swim coach Lafontaine hopes to make big Olympic splash.

The Calgary Herald - This Olympic year, Calgary is bound to be generous with its talent pool of world-class swimmers. More than a dozen local stroke specialists have a legitimate shot at making Canada’s swim team for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games.

But the country also boasts a wave of elite swimmers across the board. “I think the numbers have risen, there’s no question about that,” said Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming Canada’s national team head coach and CEO. “The coaches have done a great job in the last couple years at raising the bar on their performance and also raising the expectation of the kids.”

Lafontaine made a stop in Cowtown Friday to chat with the Canadian Olympic Committee and work with its Road to Excellence program, which supports athletes at the top of their disciplines.

When it comes to the pool, Lafontaine says Canada so far has competed quite swimmingly. “You know what was fun this summer?” said Lafontaine. “All of a sudden, not only the kids from the world championships, the second and third tiered kids were just awesome.” “I think what’s happening now is people are seeing that there’s a spot for them on the Olympic team, maybe. Nobody has made the team yet, so the door is open . . . but I want to feel like when the kids get to the Olympics, they feel like they belong.”

Earlier this year at the world aquatic championships in Melbourne, Australia, Brent Hayden of Mission, B.C., snared gold in the 100-metre freestyle, chipping in for the Canucks’ five-medal count, which included three silver and one bronze.

Following that performance, Canada returned from the Pan-American Games in Brazil with 18 medals—one gold, five silver, and 12 bronze. And Canadians collected 10 medals at the World Universiade in Bangkok, Thailand, eclipsing their total medal count—three—at the previous universiade in Turkey in 2005.

“Since even the world championships in 2005, we’ve gotten a lot stronger and a lot deeper in our competition,” said Erica Morningstar, a rising phenom from Calgary. “We had a world champion (Hayden) this year, so that was really exciting. Then, this summer again, we had a meet in Paris and nationals was fairly strong, so I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction.”

Morningstar, 18, hopes to make a splash in Beijing along with fellow Calgarians Mike Brown, Seanna Mitchell, Chad Hankewich, and Adam Sioui, to name a few.
At April time trials in Montreal , they will try and plant themselves on the Olympic roster, which will likely be whittled to a 30-swimmer roster after the event.

“Everyone’s getting excited. Definitely, I am,” said Morningstar, a Calgary Patriots’ club swimmer and master of 100 freestyle and sprint freestyle. “I can’t wait to see after the Olympic trials and see what kind of a team we have. It’ll build up until then and I’m sure it’ll build up again until the Olympics. “I’m fully thinking I’m going to qualify this year and, hopefully, I’ll be on the podium as well.”

University of Calgary swim coach Mike Blondal says Canada has good reason to have high hopes for Beijing. Blondal figures the nation’s swimmers are better placed in the world at this point than four years ago, heading into the Athens Summer Games. Canadians were blanked in pool medals in 2004 for the first time since the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

“Going into (this) Olympic year, in some of the events over the last two years, we’re ranked significantly higher than we have been going into previous Olympics,” said Blondal. “In my time, if we had four people we could put together for a relay event-medal performance—that would be great.

“But now, in some events, we’ve got up to six people that are legitimate contenders to be on the relay team and that are fighting for a spot. “And any six of them could be part of the medal-winning team, in a couple events . . . we’re not having unrealistic expectations to think we have some podium potential.”

Morningstar and Lafontaine will be speaking at the Making Waves event held by the Calgary Foundation for Swimming Excellence on Oct 3.

Seven cities bid to host 2016 Games.

Timmins Daily Press (ON) - Seven cities from four continents are officially in the race to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee said Friday it had received formal applications from Baku, Azerbaijan; Chicago; Doha, Qatar; Madrid, Spain; Prague, Czech Republic; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Tokyo.

Thursday was the deadline for submission of applications by national Olympic committees. The host city will be selected by the IOC on Oct. 2, 2009, at its session in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The cities must reply to a detailed IOC questionnaire by Jan. 14, 2008. The IOC executive board will select a short list of finalist cities in June 2008. Full bid files must then be submitted to the IOC by Feb. 12, 2009. An IOC evaluation commission will visit the cities in May and June of 2009 and publish a report assessing the bids one month before the vote.

Bell invites all of Canada to Believe.

TORONTO, Ontario, Sept. 17 /CNW Telbec/ - A first in Olympic and Paralympic history, Bell today launched a fundraiser for athletes uniting Canadian sport and culture. Believe, an Olympic-inspired rock-orchestral recording and music video, chronicles the journey of Canadian athletes on the road to 2010, performed by rock star Suzie McNeil and Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra conducted by Dave Pierce. Canadians are invited to visit bell.ca/believe to view the video and download the song into their music library or mobile phones. Proceeds from every download will be donated to Own the Podium 2010 (OTP).

“The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will be a celebration of both sport and culture. Believe is an extraordinary initiative from Bell that will connect Canadians young and old to the spirit of the 2010 Winter Games in a way that has not been done before,” said Loring Phinney, Vice President Corporate and Olympic Marketing. “By downloading Believe, Canadians will raise funds for Own the Podium 2010 and expand awareness of the journey of our Canadian athletes as they dedicate their lives to reaching the podium in 2010.”

In addition to McNeil’s dramatic rock performance set against the magnificent 61-piece National Arts Centre Orchestra, three of Canada’s top Olympians star in the Believe music video: Steve Omischl, World Champion freestyle skier and two-time Olympian; Joannie Rochette, Canadian National Champion figure skater who placed fifth at the 2006 Games in Torino; and speed skater Clara Hughes, one of only four athletes in history to win medals at both Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The video chronicles their lives as athletes, the sacrifice to train and the celebration of their triumphs.

“I think athletes like artists face similar journeys. When your dream is so big, you have to believe in yourself and just go for it. I am excited to collaborate with Bell on this amazing project and to know that Believe is uniting Canadians to help our winter athletes achieve their dreams in 2010,” said Suzie McNeil, the last woman standing on Rock Star INXS who recently released her debut cd “Broken and Beautiful”, which includes the original version of Believe and has spawned two hit singles.

Believe is a unique collaboration of Canada’s top talents across diverse fields. Technology experts at Bell, McNeil, renowned composer/conductor Dave Pierce, acclaimed director Stephen Scott, Olympians and Paralympians, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and many other leading culture, sport and technology icons contributed to the production of Believe, resulting in a powerful, emotional and unforgettable performance that leaves listeners and viewers wanting more.

Said Dave Pierce, internationally recognized Canadian composer/conductor, “Writing the charts for the 61-piece orchestra, marrying their sound with Suzie’s powerful rock vocals, and infusing the passion that our nation’s athletes live and breathe into every note performed has been an unforgettable accomplishment. It was simply magic when it all came together. And I think Canadians will agree when they listen to Believe and view the video.”

The Government of Canada is also providing support for the Believe video. “The Government of Canada is working closely with its many partners to ensure that the 2010 Winter Games leave a lasting legacy of economic and social benefits for all Canadians,” said the Honourable David Emerson, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver- Whistler Olympics. “We are proud to support and promote Canadian excellence, both artistic and athletic, nationally and internationally, with initiatives like Believe and Own the Podium 2010.”

Starting today, Canadians can support Own the Podium 2010 by visiting bell. ca/believe where visitors can download the audio track to their music libraries and enabled Bell mobile phones, as well as access exclusive Believe ringtunes. Visitors to the site will also be able to view the music video and a special 14 minute feature of the “making of” Believe with behind the scenes footage and exclusive interviews. The music video and “making of” feature will also be available for viewing to mobility customers that subscribe to one of the Fun 20 clips or Fun 25 bundles, as well as on ExpressVu Channel 370 and HD Channel 830.