Calgary’s Kylie Stone solid sixth all around at American Cup gymnastics competition.
(Canadian Sport News)

NEW YORK-Carly Patterson led the U.S., to a medal sweep in the women’s all around event posting the best scores on all four apparatus on Saturday afternoon at the American Cup gymnastics competition. More than 12,000 fans attended the competition at Madison Square Garden.

Patterson defended her crown more than half-a-point from runner-up Courtney McCool. Chellsie Memmel completed the sweep. Patterson and Memmel were medallists at the world championships last year while McCool won Pan Am Games gold.

Stone, 16, was absolutely sensational in her first major international meet this season and finished sixth. She performed some new movements and made no major mistakes at a meet were you couldn’t afford to make any. Her best score was a 9.525 on floor, the fourth best score of the day in the event. She also posted a 9.312 on vault, 9.100 on beam and 9.012 on uneven bars.

Last year, Stone finished 14th all around at the world championships, the best ever international showing by a Canadian woman. That earned her the
sole Canadian invitation to the prestigious American Cup. ‘’I was little bit nervous but I was able to stay focused,’’ said Stone. ‘’It was pretty important for me to get the season started on a strong note like this. I wanted to really show what I could do here and the fact it was in the States made it even more important.’’

‘’My floor was awesome. I felt like I did my best and it was fun because the crowd was in it. It’s the routine I hope to use at the Olympic trials.’’

Stephania Iliesu was a very proud coach. ‘’Kylie showed once again she belonged with the best in the world,’’ Iliesu said.

Canada qualifies for the Olympics in women’s water polo.
(Canada Sport News)

IMPERIA, Italy- Canada assured itself a berth in the 2004 Olympic women’s water polo tournament on Friday with a 10-3 victory over the Czech Republic to conclude round robin play at the Games qualifier.

‘’It’s an unexplainable feeling to know we are going to the Games,’’ said 19-year-old Christine Robinson of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que. ‘’We certainly earned our spot.’’

Marie-Luc Arpin of St-Lambert, Que., continued to be Canada’s most dangerous offensive weapon with three more goals. She has 10 in the tournament so far to stand second in scoring. Ann Dow of Montreal and Susan Gardiner of Vancouver scored two apiece with singles to Robinson, Cora Campbell of Calgary, and Andrea Dewar of Dollard-des-Ormeaux.

‘’The Czechs were the weakest team in our division so we just had to stay focused on our Olympic goal,’’ said Robinson. ‘’It’s been an amazing experience to go through all this to make it through but a bit stressful too. However, the opportunity to play in a tournament like this just makes us that much better.’’

At the Pan Am Games last summer, Canada had an opportunity to gain a direct ticket to Athens but loss in the final to the world champion Americans.

Canada, ranked fourth in the world, ends the round robin with three wins and one loss and finishes second in its division behind number-three Russia which posted a perfect 4-0 record. Canada’s only loss was to the Russians, a 6-5 squeaker, in its opening game on Monday.

Canada finished fifth at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney where women’s water polo made its Games debut.

‘’We can win the gold at the Olympics,’’ said Canadian national team coach Patrick Oaten of Montreal. ‘’This tournament showed that the players are talented but also dedicated to the program and willing to put in the work.’’

Wotherspoon puts golden touch on superb World Cup season, Mark Nielsen adds silver.
(Canadian Sport News)

HEERENVEEN, The Netherlands- Jeremy Wotherspoon of Red Deer, Alta., put a golden touch on a superb long track speed skating World Cup season on Sunday winning the men’s 500-metres while Mark Nielsen of Calgary added
silver in the100-metre dash.

In the men’s 500, Wotherspoon earned his sixth win this season in 12 races. Fengtong Yu of China was second and Hiroyasu Shimizu of Japan third. Wotherspoon had clinched the 500 World Cup title last weekend. He receives $14,000 (U.S.) for the title.

‘’It’s nice to finish off with a really good solid race,’’ said Wotherspoon, who’ll now prepare for the world single distance championships March 13-15 in Seoul. ‘’I was pretty confident I could do a sub-35 seconds here and that would probably get me the gold. I definitely used that as a motivation for today.’’

Mike Ireland of Winnipeg was seventh on Sunday and finishes fifth in the 500 standings. Brock Miron of Cornwall, Ont., was 20th. Nielsen won the B final.

In the men’s 100, Yu took the gold medal with Nielsen second and Ryohei Shimizu of Japan third. ‘’On the start line I try and find the most powerful
position,’’ said Nielsen, who finishes second in the 100 standings behind Yu. ‘’There’s like a sweet spot from which you can create the most power. And it’s different for everybody. Being indoors also makes the conditions ideal for having the best race possible.’’

In the women’s 5,000, Claudia Pechstein won the gold medal to take the World Cup title while Kristina Groves of Ottawa was fifth and placed eighth overall.

Other Canadian results: in the men’s 1,500, Jay Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., was 12th while in the B final his brother Denny Morrison was seventh, Steven Elm of Red Deer, 13th, Peter Volcic of Kitchener, Ont., 15th and Dustin Molicki of Calgary 23rd; in the women’s 500, Krisy Myers of Calgary was 18th while in the B final, Kerry Simpson of Melville, Sask., was first, Kim Weger of Regina fourth, Danielle Wotherspoon of Red Deer 11th and Brittany Schussler of Winnipeg 13th; in the women’s 100, Myers was 12th.

The Canadians return home to Calgary for a couple of days before heading to Seoul to prepare for the worlds.

The Big Picture with Dale Henwood: The Medal Shine.

The Canadian sport system is undergoing a shift in direction – one that will provide a much clearer pathway to international success for our athletes. Our international success is measured by the medal count at Paralympic and Olympic Games. Medals are the performance standards by which excellence in the Canadian sport system is evaluated.

Excellence and the “golden glow” created by podium performances inspire participation by young Canadians, they encourage us to be more active in our lifestyle, which reduces health care costs, and costs associated with crime.

There is an obvious continuum or a circular relationship between the influence of the high performance athlete on the community and vice versa. All athletes get their introduction to sport at the community level and, consequently, the role of the community in supporting athletes is critical. It is at this foundation level where our youth get excited about sport.

As the participants become more physically active and involved in sport, they progress through the development stream up to the elite level. The ensuing performances of Canada’s best athletes excite, stimulate and inspire others to get involved and the continuum comes full circle.

Canada's athletes can greatly assist community development by sharing their stories, speaking to youth groups and community organizations/service clubs, and being role models for people of all ages. Inspiring others to become active and involved can lead to a fitter and healthier community in many ways: economically, physically, psychologically and spiritually. High performance athletes help our youth recognize there is another lifestyle they can pursue and, as a by-product, our sporting heroes can help to curtail the obesity creep.

Athletes in Calgary have been very generous with their time – freely giving back by being involved in a wide variety of activities such as the Youth Education through Sport Program, United Way, Raise a Reader, Special Olympics, Alberta Sport Plan advocacy efforts, Champions Together and numerous other community and charity events.

Through their involvement and active participation, the athletes can show their appreciation for all the support they have received, as well as inspire dreams and create greater interest in the community through their powerful message of success.

Dale Henwood
President
Canadian Sport Centre Calgary

Canadian swimmers bring in hardware at Australian meet.
(Canadian Sport News)

CANBERRA, Australia - National record holders Morgan Knabe and Erin Gammel, both of Calgary, led Canada to three more gold medals on Sunday at the 2004 Australian Institute of Sport Championship Meet swimming competition.

In the women’s 100 backstroke, Gammel clocked a meet record for the gold with Melissa Gordon of South Africa second and Giaan Rooney of Australia third.

In the men’s 50 breaststroke, Knabe edged Australians Mark Riley, second and Simon Cowley, third.

Canada also won the gold in the men’s 4X50 freestyle relay with Yannick Lupien of Beauport, Que., Riley Janes of Victoria and Mike Mintenko and Brian Johns, both of Vancouver.

Mintenko touch the wall first in the men’s 50-butterfly with a meet record but was
disqualified for travelling past the 15-metre underwater mark at the start. He won the 100 butterfly on Saturday one of six victories for Canada.

Other Canadian medallists on Sunday were for the women: Joanne Malar of Calgary and Brittany Reimer of Surrey, B.C., with silvers in the 200 IM and 400 freestyle respectively as well as in the 4X50 freestyle relay with Gammel and Kelly Doody. Bronze went to Lauren Van Oosten of Calgary in the 200 breaststroke and Rhiannon Leier of Winnipeg in the 50 breaststroke.

On the men’s side Johns added silver in the 400 freestyle and bronze in the 200 IM while third place finishes were also posted by Janes in the 100 backstroke and Mike Brown of Perth, Ont., in the 200 breaststroke.

Several Canadian national team members have been training down under for the past month in preparation for the Olympic trials in July.

Athlete Profile: Jennifer Heil's 'baring' down on title; Alberta moguls darling has obviously grown up.
(The Edmonton Sun)

Skin to win isn’t a new concept in skiing.
Karen Percy-Lowe won a couple of Olympic bronze medals wearing the nothing-underneath Spandex-type downhill race suits that created the expression.
But this is skin to win with a twist.

Jenn Heil, if anything, is overdressed on the moguls ski hill. But on the cover of Ski Press, she’s wearing nothing but a towel and a hat. Yesterday she was wearing the smile to go with the fresh-from-the-shower pic. The idea is to tell the world she’s “all growed up now,” not Little Jenn, the teeny-bopper girl next door, but the lady-in-waiting to take over as the reigning Queen of Moguls. And after what happened yesterday in the Czech Republic, there won’t be much more waiting.

The pride of Spruce Grove won her third moguls event of the season to take a 113-point lead in the World Cup standings over Olympic and world champion Kari Traa of Norway, who finished second yesterday. Three events remain on the schedule, two of them next weekend. With points distributed on a 100-80-60-50-45 etc. basis, the win put Heil an entire 100-point race ahead of the current Queen of Moguls, the Norwegian with the long, braided blonde hair.

AN EYE-OPENER
But what is making Heil the sensation of the nation, at least in the areas where there are mountain men, are the pictures on ‘The Sexy Issue’ of the spring issue of Canada’s leading ski publication. “The boys have been bugging me,” said Heil yesterday over the phone after the win. “I’ll walk into a room and they’ll say, ‘Sexy Skier! Sexy Skier!’ Everybody seems to be having fun with it,” she said of the cover photo and the accompanying pic on Page 42 which definitely adds curves to the sport which is already known as bumps and jumps. “I’m really happy with the way it turned out. I showed my parents the picture before it ran so they’d be in a little less of a shock. But they warmed up to the idea.

“When I broke onto the World Cup tour, I was only 16. I was really young. So much was made of me being ‘Little Jenn.’ When I went to the Olympics in Salt Lake City I wasn’t just the youngest member of the ski team, I was the youngest member of the entire Canadian Olympic team. “There was no escaping that image.” This is the, ah, great escape. “Yeah, I think it’ll help turn the page,” said the 20-year-old, who doesn’t seem to have had any trouble convincing judges to look at her as a big girl now anyhow.

The coach of the Russian team told me in Salt Lake that he thought Heil was robbed when she finished 1/100th of a point shy of winning a bronze medal and speculated it was because she was considered such a kid. Heil went to Japan and won her first World Cup race after the Olympics, took all of last year off and has been sensational upon re-entry. “I think winning this event maybe illustrated that I’m maturing a bit as a skier,” she said. “We competed in pretty bad conditions. It was snowing like crazy and the wind was really high as well. The course was really difficult, with ice underneath the snow. “I’d won the semifinals and qualified first and both other times that happened to me, I didn’t win the race. I think it got to me being at the top of the course, listening to the crowd and the scores of the other skiers before I skied last. I told myself it was time to get over that.”

HASN’T WON IT YET
While many may be tempted to concede Heil the title with the two events, a straight moguls and a dual moguls, in Switzerland next weekend and a season-ending event in the Olympic Valley in Turin, Italy, Heil says ‘whoa’ and ‘no.’ “It’s still not a runaway. If it were anybody other than Kari Traa in second, maybe I’d start to think maybe. Kari is one of the best competitors I’ve ever seen. “She’s the Olympic gold-medal winner from Salt Lake, won last year’s world championships (held every second season) and has won loads of World Cup titles.

“Everybody refers to her as ‘The Queen of the Moguls.’ I really look up to her. She brought this sport a long way when she started jumping as big as the guys. When I first made it to the World Cup, I really looked up to her and I still do. If I start thinking she’s going to let me have this thing, I know I’m going to end up chasing my tail.”

Heil has managed to keep her mind off it to the point that she couldn’t answer my question whether a Canadian woman had ever won the World Cup title before. She put down the phone and went away for a while to find out the answer to the question. “They said, ‘Not even close,’ “ she said. “I’m where I am because I’ve raced it one race at a time. I come out on the day and try to put it down,” she said of a season where her worst result has been ninth and 24 points on her home hill World Cup event at Fernie, B.C., where maybe she lost that focus. “In my last World Cup season before this, I was able to get to the podium. But I wasn’t able to do it with consistency. I grew up a bit.”

Yup, you certainly did.

Beckie Scott and Sara Renner share top-10 spot in world cup, Olympian Milaine Theriault makes first World Cup appearance since having baby.
(CODA Release)

Drammen, NOR-Canada’s cross-country ski women, Sara Renner and Beckie Scott, not only welcomed team member, Milaine Theriault, back to the World Cup circuit on Thursday, but they also posted two top-10 results.

Renner, of Canmore, Alta., nailed down her strongest sprint result of the season to lead the Canadian trio in Drammen, Norway. The 27-year-old, who qualified 11th for the final round of head-to-head heats with the top-16 athletes, after powering her way around the 1.2-kilometre track, made her way into the consolation final where she finished eighth. Scott, of Vermilion, Alta., also climbed back into the top-10 after qualifying in ninth spot. The Olympic gold medallist made her way into the elimination round, but was knocked out in the opening heat and was forced to settle for 10th spot.

Renner and Scott’s Olympic teammate Milaine Theriault made her first appearance on the World Cup circuit in more than a year. The St. Quentin, N.B. native had taken some time off to have a baby boy, and his been whipping into shape back in North America on the Haywood NorAm Canada Cup circuit. While Theriault missed qualifying for the finals, she did finish 42nd in a field loaded with international talent.

Canada’s Drew Goldsack and Devon Kershaw got a wake-up call while competing in their first-ever World Cup sprint. Goldsack, of Red Deer, Alta., who recently won a gold medal at the Under-23 World Championships in Utah, posted a qualification time putting him in 59th place, while Kershaw, of Sudbury, Ont., who teamed up with Goldsack for a bronze medal in the sprint relay at the Under-23 world Championships last week, crossed the line in 67th spot.

Chandra Crawford capped off an impressive month of February, which saw her win five medals in total, including another gold on Sunday in the 10-kilometre free mass start cross-country ski event at the Swisscom Cup in Marbach, Switzerland.

The 20-year-old Canmore, Alta. native, who also won gold in the women’s sprint event on Saturday at the Swisscom Cup, ripped through the Swiss track nearly a second ahead of the next fastest athlete. The victory marks the end of a month in which Crawford compiled two medals - silver and a bronze - at the Under-23 World Championships in Soldier Hollow, Utah, a silver medal at the OPA Continental Cup in Italy and two final gold medals in Switzerland.

“This has been so exciting and we have a very happy team heading home,” said Crawford. “It was a great experience over here for us, and a busy month. I am pumped with my results, it is great to be Canadian and I’m looking forward to some rest at home before Canadian Championships in March.”

The future definitely looks bright for Canada’s cross-country skiers. Toronto’s Gordon Jewett completed the double gold victory for the Canucks after winning the men’s 15-kilometre free mass start event. Jewett’s teammate, Dan Roycroft, of Port Sydney, Ont., joined him on the podium while locking up the bronze medal position.