ATHLETE RESULTS
FREESTYLERS
FLIPPING FOR MEDALS DOWN UNDER
AUSTRALIA --Canadians shone in season-opening
World Cup freestyle ski action down under last Saturday.
Men's Aerials podium. Nissen(L),
Capicik (R) |
Kyle Nissen of Calgary,
Andy Capicik of Vancouver and Steve Omischl of North Bay
finished 2-3-4 behind 1998 Olympic champion Eric Bergoust
of the United States. And Pascale Gadbois of Coteau-du-Lac,
Que., had her best-ever World Cup showing -- a fourth to
improve on her previous best of seventh in last year's World
Cup final. She's not a member of the national team, but
qualified for the event by winning the overall Nor Am title.
Fog, wind, and overcast skies
forced organizers to downgrade the difficulty of jumps and
to reduce the event a one-jump contest, from the typical
two jumps.
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"I'm not really going to complain,"
said the low-key Nissen, whose first World Cup medal was
a victory in Heavenly Valley (U.S.) two years ago. "It was almost
similar conditions, but they seem to work out well (for us Canadians).
I've jumped at Fortress Mountain (Alberta) a lot and because the
wind tends to be bad, when the wind comes it doesn't affect us
as much as the other countries." Nissen scored a career-high 102.59
points with his triple-twisting double somersault for second.
Ryan Blais of Grande-Prairie,
Alta., was 18th, Jeff Bean of Ottawa 21st, and David Belhumeur
did not start after aggravating a groin injury.
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Jacqui Cooper of Australia won the women's final with 91.87
points, leaving Nina Li of China at 86.94 and third-place
Natalia Orekhova of Russia at 83.79. Gadbois scored
79.85 for fourth, while next Canadian woman was Deidra
Dionne of Red Deer, Alta., with an 11th-place total
of 71.19.
Weather forced cancellation of the men's event, while the
women's event was downgraded from a two-jump to one-jump
event on Sunday.
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Deidra Dionne |
The best Canadian was Dionne,
who placed 10th to move to eighth in the overall World Cup standings.
The World Cup circuit resumes later
this year on North American snow, with its annual stops in Canada
and the U.S.
CANADIANS AT THE GOODWILL GAMES
IN THE
NEWS....
SNELLING
RETURNS TO CANADA AS
JUNIOR MENTOR COACH
The Vancouver Province--Deryk
Snelling, one of swimming's most accomplished coaches, and
former head coach of the University of Calgary National Swimming
Centre, has rejoined Swimming Canada after four years as the
national coach in Britain. Snelling will work with coaches in
a grassroots assignment aimed at putting more Canadians on international
podiums.
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"I'm very excited," Snelling
said from his home near Nanaimo after the announcement was
made Wednesday out of the organization's Ottawa office.
"I want to see Canada back on the world (swimming) map."
Snelling, 68, who was born
in England, began coaching in Canada in 1967 and stayed
for 29 years before accepting an offer to revitalize the
British program. "It was too good an offer not to take,
although it was hard to leave Canada, but I knew I was only
going to take a four-year contract," he said of the stint
in his homeland.
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Snelling coached Mark Tewksbury
to Olympic gold in 1992. In all, he placed 56 swimmers on Olympic
teams, and 19 of them won medals.
National team head coach Dave
Johnson made the job offer when funds for such a hiring became
available. "Canada is a huge country and, to get the coaching
coverage we need, I needed some support," Johnson explained. "We
brought Deryk on board to provide some leadership to the younger
coaches who are developing swimmers who are the future of our
program."
ATHLETE
PROFILE
NICOLE SLOT - Long Track Speed
Skating
Nicole Slot got the speed skating
"bug" after watching the Calgary Olympics in 1988 while she was
in first-year University. She thought she'd just try the sport
out and 12 years later she is one of a group of all-around athletes
that are starting to give the sprinters a run for their money
when it comes to podium finishes.
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The road to success hasn't necessarily been a smooth one
however. "I had a stint in the mid-90's where I was severely
over-trained," remembers Nicole. "I went to Germany for
a year and worked on my masters (in German) to get over
that, and then I had to start trusting myself with training
again when I came home."
Nicole, who has worked for
the Alberta Cancer Board since 1996 on cancer prevention
studies, hopes to qualify for Salt Lake City this year (she
only needs one more time standard), and to improve in the
World Cup standings and at the World All-Round Championships.
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"I'm pretty confident," says Slot
of making the Olympic team. "I have enough chances to make it.
To qualify is the ultimate - though it's not the be-all and end-all.
I've learned so much through the process of getting here that
that one competition won't make or break it for me."
To take time away from the ice,
Nicole enjoys walking her dog and spending time with her husband
Rob, who is a bit of an adrenaline 'junkie' himself - he recently
completed the 24-hours of adrenaline mountain bike race - Nicole
didn't join him in that endeavour!
Nicole's message for up-and coming
speed skaters? "The key thing in sport is perseverance and patience.
If you work through the tough moments, it will pay off in the
end."
