Athletics Canada names Olympic team.

Tyler Christopher and Gary Reed will carry the hopes of the Canadian athletics team after it was confirmed they are among the 29 athletes Athletics Canada is sending to Beijing.

Athletics Canada said in a statement released Monday that they are aiming for two athletics medals at the Olympics. This is the same number of medals won at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, where Perdita Felicien won silver in the women's 100-metre hurdles and Gary Reed won silver in the men's 800 metres.

Felicien was among six athletes who were granted extensions based on their previous performances, and have until July 22, 2008, to meet the criteria for their events in order to qualify.

The team was selected after the Canadian track and field trials this past weekend, where Reed won his fifth Canadian championship.

The track and field events are scheduled to start on Aug. 15 in Beijing. The Canadian competitors will attend a training camp in Singapore before going to China four or five days prior to the start of their competition.

Representing Canada in athletics:

Ruky Abdulai - Long jump
Richard Adu-Bobie - 4x100-metre relay
Dylan Armstrong - Shot put
Brian Barnett - 200 metres, 4x100-metre relay
Tim Berrett - 50 kilometre race walk
Massimo Bertocchi - Decathlon
Pierre Browne - 4x100-metre relay
Tabia Charles - Long jump
Tyler Christopher - 400 metres
Jared Connaughton - 200 metres, 4x100-metre relay
Nicole Forrester - High jump
Sultana Frizell - Hammer throw
Kelsie Hendry - Pole vault
Anson Henry - 100 metres, 4x100-metre relay
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep - 100-metre hurdles
Michael Mason - High jump
Megan Metcalfe - 5000 metres
Taylor Milne - 1500 metres
Carline Muir - 400 metres
Hank Palmer - 4x100-metre relay
Emanuel Parris - 4x100-metre relay
Adrienne Power - 200 metres
Gary Reed - 800 metres
Scott Russell - Javelin throw
Jim Steacy - Hammer throw
Kevin Sullivan - 1500 metres
Achraf Tadili - 800 metres
Angela Whyte - 100-metre hurdles
Jessica Zelinka - Heptathlon

Athletes granted extensions:

Nathan Brannen - 1500 metres
Dana Ellis-Buller - Pole vault
Malindi Elmore - 1500 metres
Perdita Felicien - 100-metre hurdles
Adam Kunkel - 400-metre hurdles
Hilary Stellingwerff - 1500 metres

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Three athletes named to Canada's Olympic track cycling team.

The Canadian Press - OTTAWA - Gina Grain of Burnaby, B.C., Zach Bell of Watson Lake, Yukon and Martin Gilbert of Chateauguay, Que., will compete for Canada in track cycling at the Beijing Olympics next month.

The Canadian Cycling Association announced Thursday that Grain will compete in the women's points race, Bell in the men's points race and Madison and Gilbert in the Madison.

Canada's Lori-Ann Muenzer won a gold medal in track cycling at the Athens Olympics four years ago. She has since retired. ``This is an experienced team,'' said Sean O'Donnell, the CCA's manager of high performance programs. ``All three athletes have spent considerable time over the last number of years competing on the World Cup circuit. They head to Beijing very familiar with their opponents.''

Bell and Gilbert will team up for the Madison, an event where teams of two riders try to accumulate the most points in intermediate sprints during a 60-kilometre race. Riders from each team alternate turns on track.

``It's probably one of the most dynamic races on the track,'' said Bell.``Because of the rest factor you can race quite a bit harder and with a lot more intensity. It's exciting and spectator friendly which are some of the reasons I like it along with the speed factor.''

Gilbert and Bell raced together in the Madison at an Olympic test event earlier this year in Beijing at the new Laoshan Velodrome. ``It was really nice but a lot of athletes complained the air quality wasn't good inside the velodrome,'' said Gilbert. ``It's something they'll need to improve for the Olympics.''

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Age ain't nothing but a number; Edmonton Fencer to compete in Olympic Games at age 50.

Edmonton Examiner - Neither superlative cliches nor overwrought hyperboles are needed to enliven the story of Jujie Luan. In fact, words, no matter how bombastic, can't do justice to the Edmonton fencer. It's best to let the inconceivable facts speak for themselves.

On the verge of turning 50, Luan is set to join the world's top athletes - nearly all her junior - at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, which just happen to be taking place in the country she called home for the first three decades of her life. Her spot on the Canadian Olympic team was officially announced last week.

"I'm just so happy," says Luan, who will compete in the women's foil event beginning Aug. 11 at Beijing's National Convention Centre. "One of the reasons I wanted to try is it's my 50th birthday, so it's my birthday present if I can qualify for Beijing.

A coach with the Edmonton Fencing Club, Luan returned to competition from a seven year hiatus last summer.

As if this unlikely story needed more intrigue, there's the small fact Luan was born and raised in China, where she swash-buckled to fame during the first decade of her career, becoming the first East Asian to win an international fencing event, placing first at the 1983 World Championship. She then captured gold at the 1984 Olympics and also represented China at the '88 Games.

Currently ranked 44th in the world, Luan doesn't expect to medal in Beijing, but then again, this fairy tale has already proven anything is possible. "The competition is a competition, you never know," Luan says. "If I do, I tried my best."

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Dr.  Susan Nattrass nominated for sixth Olympics by Shooting Federation of Canada.

OTTAWA – Dr. Susan Nattrass of Edmonton, a trailblazer for women’s sport for more than three decades, has been nominated for her sixth Olympic Games by the Shooting Federation of Canada.  In total, the SFC nominated four athletes for the Olympics and two more for the Paralympic Games.

Nattrass will compete in the women’s trapshooting event.  She is joined on the shooting squad by Avianna Chao of Toronto in women’s air pistol and 25-metre pistol events, Johan Sauer of Vancouver in men’s 50-metre prone rifle and 18-year-old Giuseppe Di Salvatore of Surrey, B.C., in men’s trapshooting.

It was more than 30 years ago, that Nattrass became the first woman to compete in a trapshooting event at the Montreal Olympics.  She fought hard to have separate women’s events for trap and skeet and her dream was realized for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Nattrass is a seven-time world champion and a two-time World Cup champion.  She was named Canada’s Athlete of the Year in 1981 (beating out Wayne Gretzky) and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.  She made her first national team in 1969.

Chris Trifonidis of Vancouver and Karen Van Nest of Mississauga were nominated to the Paralympic Games team in men’s rifle and women’s pistol respectively.  Both are Games veterans headed to their fifth and third Paralympics respectively.

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Canada's lack of Olympic track success no laughing matter.

CanWest News Service - WINDSOR, Ont. - At least head coach Les Gramantik still has a sense of humour when talk turns to Canada's lack of Olympic medals in track and field. ``Thanks for reminding me,'' he said with a chuckle.

This country hasn't seen anyone take the podium since Atlanta in 1996 when Donovan Bailey won the men's 100 metres and the men's relay team won the 4x100. No gold, no silver, no lunge at the tape for bronze.

``The objective is to get a few medals,'' Gramantik said on the eve of the Olympic trials at the University of Windsor. ``No country owns the sport. It's very global. Our team is as competitive as it can be. We have adequate talent.''

In 2004, Canada's best finish was sixth. Through the dry years, Athletics Canada has tightened up its qualifying criteria and focused more resources on athletes with podium potential. ``The time of `just to be there is good enough' is long gone,'' Gramantik said. ``What we've been trying to do is create a program that allows people to repeat a performance at the time when it matters.''

Canadian athletes have developed a habit of posting great performances at the world championships without being able to follow them up in the ensuing Olympic year. ``It's like performance on demand,'' Gramantik said. ``Like Cirque de Soleil. You can't drop off the trapeze or fall on your butt.''

Some athletes and coaches have openly grumbled Athletics Canada's A-plus standard required to qualify for the Games is set too high. Gramantik makes no apologies for lofty targets. ``Performances have to be shown in order to duplicate them,'' he said. ``The key is we're not asking athletes to do more (at the Olympics). They don't have to do more. If they make A-plus, they are top performers. If they do that in Beijing, we'll all be very happy.''

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Construction complete on first Vancouver 2010 indoor competition venue: UBC Thunderbird Arena.

VANCOUVER, July 7 /CNW/ - The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) and the University of British Columbia (UBC), in partnership with the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia, announced today that UBC Thunderbird Arena is the first indoor competition venue in the Host Region to complete construction. VANOC also formally launched the Vancouver 2010 Venues' Aboriginal Art Program, designed to celebrate the spirit of the nation by promoting understanding of the rich cultures and traditions of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Construction on the UBC Thunderbird Arena began in April 2006, and involved refurbishing the Father Bauer Arena, built in 1963, and the construction of two new rinks: a practice rink and a 7,500-seat competition
arena. Construction was completed on budget and 4 months ahead of its originally scheduled completion date of November 2008. "The Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are leaving a
lasting legacy of world-class sporting venues, generating new economic opportunities and promoting active living and sporting excellence for
generations to come," said British Columbia (BC) Premier Gordon Campbell.

"Through the new Venues' Aboriginal Art Program, we can showcase BC's strong Aboriginal arts community to the world, and share the richness and diversity of our province's cultural heritage with millions of people."

The venue will host the men's and women's ice hockey, as well as the men's ice sledge hockey competitions during the 2010 Winter Games. Prior to
the Games, the facility will be home to the UBC Thunderbirds' varsity hockey program, student and staff programs, and community programs. The community can use the venue for over 230 hours a week for hockey leagues, high school rentals, drop-in programs and other events. Hockey Canada will also use the facility as a pre- and post-Games training and event-hosting venue. Following the Games, the venue will become a recreational and high-performance,
multi-sport legacy facility, easily convertible for ice sledge hockey training and competitions. The arena can also be converted to a concert venue.

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Coach Tim Frick’s Wheel-life Journey.

By Don Wells - One of the most successful coaches in Canadian paralympic history, Tim Frick says his career path can be traced directly back to his undergraduate days in what was then UBC’s School of Physical Education. It was there in 1977 he met a young wheelchair athlete and fellow physical education student named Rick Hansen.

Inspired by Hansen and others at UBC, Frick began a lifelong pursuit of coaching wheelchair athletes. His many coaching triumphs eventually culminated in him being named head coach of the Canadian National Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team in 1990. Under his guidance, Canada has won medals in every Paralympic Games and World Championships since 1992 -- most of them gold.

“Rick had a big influence on my life,” says Frick. “My experiences with him made me decide to focus on adaptive physical education, which is the area in which I did my master’s degree.”

“There were other incredible people at UBC in those days too -- coaches like Peter Mullins, Lionel Pugh, Bob Hindmarch and Jack and Marilyn Pomfret. They all became my unofficial mentors. They didn’t know it, but they were.”

Frick and Hansen remained close friends and colleagues after graduation, with Frick coaching Hansen in wheelchair marathon, and later playing a key role in helping to launch and stage the Man in Motion World Tour that raised millions for spinal cord research.

At the same time, he was a devoted volunteer coach for both wheelchair basketball and volleyball. His commitment to advancing sport opportunities for disabled athletes one day led him to the bedside of Terry Fox, who had just lost his leg to cancer. He convinced Fox to play wheelchair basketball, and later became his coach too.

Currently on a one-year leave from his job teaching sport sciences at Douglas College, Frick is quietly optimistic about his team’s chances in Beijing, although he agrees with many other coaches that the Chinese will rise to this historical occasion. “Australia, Germany and the USA are always going to be strong,” says the Order of British Columbia recipient, “but I think the Chinese will surprise a lot of people.”

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Cross Country skiers travel across Canada to inspire kids.

Banff Crag & Canyon - A new program that was initiated by Cross Country Canada had skiers like Sara Renner, Chandra Crawford and Sean Crooks travelling to ski clubs all over Canada to inspire the next batch of racers. The inaugural National Ski Team Outreach Week, presented by Haywood Securities, AltaGas and Teck Cominco, kicked off in Rossland, B.C. on June 23.

This past weekend Sara Renner, Sean Crooks and new coach Arild Monsen were at the Nordic centre training and teaching the young athletes in the Bow Valley. "In Canmore the national team is based here and they see us training all the time but we don't actually get to train together," Renner said. "It is a great idea." The Outreach program travelled to six different cities from British Columbia to Quebec. This program allows both the athletes and the coaches the opportunity to learn from the best.

They get to experience first hand what it takes to be an Olympian skier and be given the opportunities to ask question. Renner remembers doing something similar when she was younger. She was able to spend some intensive training with her role models. "They talked about some of the challenges of being a ski racer and being a young girl so that was helpful," Renner explained. "It was helpful to meet them and know that they were approachable people and you could ask them tons of questions."

As for the athletes, the coaches were also given a chance to learn about coaching at a national level. The three coaches from the national team Arild Monsen, Dave Wood and Eric De Nys were at the clubs discussing athlete and coach development. New coach Arild Monsen will be spending a few years training athletes at the Nordic Center getting them prepared for the 2010 Olympics. He joins the national program this year after having impressive results while coaching many Norwegian athletes over the last two years.

Each club visited in the Outreach program is giving two days with the athletes and a coach, they go through their training routines with most work focused on roller skiing and strength training. There was also group discussion with the athletes while out on the course.

This was the first year for this program but will be coming back for several years to come. Executive director of Cross Country Canada Al Maddox describes this program as one of the most unique summer training programs. "It offers the opportunity to showcase our sport in communities across the country, educate Canadian youth on the critical elements required to compete at the highest level, but most importantly, inspire the next generation of Canada's Olympic heroes," explained Maddox.

The weekend was a success, with the young kids building stronger relationships with mentors. Sean Crooks was very excited about the program before it started Saturday morning knowing full well that what they say can and will influence this young kids in fostering a strong skiing future. "I try and remember what the athletes told me when I was training," Crooks said. "You try and give them those messages so that they can remember them for years to come. That is my goal for the weekend.

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