OUR NEW LOOK!

Effective Thursday, April 18 - the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary officially became the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary (CSCC).

Our new logo and name reflect a formal partnership between the eight other national sport centres located across the country who have all joined together under the title of the Canadian Sport Centres.

"The formalization of our partnership further illustrates how we have evolved in our support of Canada's athletes and coaches," said Dale Henwood, President of the CSCC. "There is already a high degree of consistency and standardization across the centres network and now we want to get better and raise the bar across the country."

The eight other centres are located in Victoria, Vancouver, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Montréal and the Atlantic provinces.

OUGHTRED ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM ALPINE SKIING

CALGARY (CP) -- Canadian alpine skier Ryan Oughtred, who suffered a career-threatening injury four years ago, announced his retirement last Monday.

The 26-year-old native of Kelowna, B.C., competed in his final race last month in Nakiska, AB, on the same hill where he tore knee ligaments four seasons ago and was nearly forced to quit the sport. He made a comeback after a 11/2-year recovery.

"I knew Nakiska was my last race and I felt sad going up the chair," Oughtred said in a release. "I had all those memories about growing up and wanting to be the best in the world." Oughtred had a disappointing season in 2001-02, failing to qualify for any second runs in his World Cup giant slaloms. "I always had the commitment and I was always prepared to put in the work. I love the sport," Oughtred said. "I had a lot of fun racing, but I'm most proud of coming back from those surgeries. I was out of racing for a year and a half and there were a lot of days when I thought I'd be limping around for the rest of my life."

Oughtred finished second behind Jean-Phillipe Roy at this year's national championships in Whistler, B.C. He won the 1997 Canadian title ahead of Edi Podivinsky and Cary Mullen. "To be on the podium with Edi and Cary was special," Oughtred said. "And losing to J.P.? I'm okay with that -- he's a great skier."

100 DAYS AND COUNTING TILL 2002 COMMONWEALTH GAMES

OTTAWA--There are less than 100 days remaining until the opening ceremonies for the 2002 Commonwealth Games July 25-August 4 in Manchester, England.

The Canadian team's Chef de Mission Marg McGregor says the Commonwealth Games are a key competitive event for the athletes. "Our goals for Team Canada 2002 are performance, excellence and memories of a lifetime," said McGregor. "Things are shaping up well on the performance front. With 100 days and counting, exceptional athletes are being named to the team. We look to these athletes to deliver medal winning performances, break records, and set personal bests. Many medalists from '98 will be back on the 2002 roster to defend their titles. We look forward to many exciting performances which will make Canadians proud"

The 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester feature 17 sports: Aquatics (Diving, Swimming, Synchro); Athletics; Badminton; Boxing; Cycling; Field Hockey (Men and Women); Gymnastics (Artistic); Judo; Lawn Bowls; Netball; Rugby 7; Shooting; Squash; Table Tennis; Triathlon; Weightlifting; Wrestling.

Known as the inclusive Games there will also be 8 full medal events for athletes with a disability. Approximately 5,250 athletes and team officials from 70 countries will compete at these 17th Commonwealth Games.

YET ANOTHER NAME CHANGE.....

EDMONTON, AB--At an annual general meeting in Edmonton this past weekend, members of the Canadian Olympic Association approved the change of the organization's name to the Canadian Olympic Committee.

"This name change brings us in line with other national Olympic committees around the world," said Mike Chambers, President. He added that the COC acronym is the same in English and French (Comité olympique canadien). 180 of 199 of the world's national Olympic organizations are "committees," as per their official IOC designation as "national Olympic committees" (NOC).

Earlier during the weekend, the Board further strengthened the COC Vision for Sport by adopting stricter Olympic and Pan Am Games selection criteria, and by reformulating the COC funding policy to National Sport Federations (NSF), to put more Canadian athletes on the podium. Press releases on each are available at www.coa.ca (under Media/ News and Publications/ Press Releases).

In other news at the AGM, Sally Rehorick and Shane Pearsall, Chef de Mission and Assistant Chef de Mission in Salt Lake were honoured for their outstanding leadership in bringing back the best overall performance of the Canadian Team at Olympic Winter Games. Gene Sutton and Benoît Séguin, respectively Chef and Assistant Chef de Mission are now taking the lead for the Santo Domingo Pan Am Games in 2003.

Canadian Olympian Steve Podborski, who is Executive Director of International Relations for the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation, gave an overview of the status of the bid, stressing the benefits this bid will bring to the country.

In other developments over the course of the congress weekend, Dave Bedford of Toronto, was selected as Chef de Mission for the Canadian Olympic Team in Athens in 2004. Also, at the 2002 Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame induction dinner on Friday night, the CSCC's first chairman of the board, Geoff Gowan was inducted under the "builder" category.

ATHLETE IN PROFILE:
Dusan (Duke) Lazarevic - Water Polo
By CSCC Practicum student - Corrina Roth

"I like offence, the competition, the physicality, and the roughness. I like contact sports" says Canada's top scorer at the Commonwealth Water Polo Championships, Dusan (Duke) Lazarevic.

Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, a country where water polo is a national sport, Duke had an early start. Introduced to the pool at the age of six, he quickly tired of the sport and after only three years he thought it was time for a break. He came back when he turned twelve though, and hasn't looked back since. His family decided to move to Toronto when he was fifteen and when he made the national team, he moved on to Calgary where he has lived for the last five years. He has travelled far and wide with the national team, competing in countries like Brazil, England, France, and Australia, among others, but his favourite place, besides Canada, is Australia because, "of the outdoor pools and because it is so much like Canada."

Duke also mentioned that there is quite a rivalry between Canada and a few other countries. With the team from Brazil for example, he says that if there's a scrimmage, within ten minutes someone is punched out; the national team from France has been known to get down and dirty, and the USA, because the Canadians have so many camps with them, are also a team that there is fierce competition with.

This generation of Canadians seems to be faced with many challenges, aside from the fierce competition with various countries. Dusan feels there is not enough access to the sport and there is little publicity. He thinks there needs to be more invested into it, as is true of many sports in Canada, but no one wants to do that. They have accomplished many firsts for Canada however, including placing second at a junior qualification tournament for the world championships in Dusan's junior years. That was a particularly proud moment for Dusan as he was the captain of the team and he played well.

The team also set high goals for themselves. Dusan's highest goal so far is the Olympics in Athens in 2004 and then the World Championships. Prior to that though he hopes to attend Law school and maybe play pro in Europe for a year or two.