Miscellaneous Medals

Last Wednesday Chandra Crawford won a gold medal in the 1.1 KM sprint. It was the first Olympics for the 22 year old from Canmore, Alberta and what a sweet start to an Olympic career it was. She had spent 5 years competing as a biathlete and at 16 decided to switch to cross country skiing. Her quote about making the switch ""I figured if I could get rid of the shooting part of it, I'd be OK, but it was good training because all that getting up and down is pretty demanding."



In Men's Figure Skating, Jeff Buttle(23) of Sudbury, Ontario won bronze. Jeff was nervous about going to the Olympics, stating; I'm scared, obviously, about the Olympics. I've never been and I don't know what to expect". But his mentor, Kurt Browning, had been a number of times and must have given Jeff some good advice.



In Women's snowboard cross, Dominique Maltais (25) of Montreal survived the raced for bronze. While coming down the course with her 3 other competitors she wiped out and went flying through the security netting. Miraculously she wasn't hurt and got up and finished the race. Unfortunately her fellow Canadian Maelle Ricker, also in the final heat, slipped and came down hard on her back, she was taken to the hospital and suffered a minor concussion. She hasn't been a competitor for long. 2 years ago she was out boarding with some friends who suggested she try out for the Canadian National team. She figured she had nothing to lose so did, and made it on the team...the same day she was hired as a full time firefighter for Montreal!

Curling

The Canadian's Men team won Gold and the Women Bronze.

This was Canada's first gold medal in curling. The team that represented the country was from a rink in St. John's, Newfoundland. The province was so excited and proud of their teams success of making it to the gold medal round that the Education Minister of Newfoundland and Labrador shut down schools early so kids could be home in time to watch the game! Brad Gushe(25), is the youngest to ever skip a Canadian Olympic curling team. For those of you unfamiliar with Curling, the skip is like the team captain, they're the ones to take the last shots for the team and they have the final call on all shots taken. The team was another example of Canada's collaboration with veteran's and a younger generation, the man throwing second for the team, Howard Russ, is 50.



The women's team hails from Calgary, Alberta. The amazing thing with this team...they won the bronze medal while battling stomach flus which forced them to toggle with shooting orders.




It is believed that Curling (often referred to as "chess on ice") was invented in Scotland. Each team has four players, each player gets 2 stones which they try to get as close to the center target as possible (target is called the house). The stones weight 44 pounds, the shooter slides down the ice with the stone and must release it before the hog line, from there the sweepers that control of the stone and slide it into the place the team has agreed upon.

Skeleton & 2 Man Bobsled

Canada did awesome in the Skeleton! Sounds like a creepy Halloween sport? Well it is relatively new. Skeleton is kind of like Luge, except you go...HEAD FIRST!! Winner is the best combined time of two runs.
The Canadian Men took gold and silver and in women's skeleton bronze.

Duff Gibson came in first to become the oldest Canadian to ever win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, he's 39. He's a firefighter in Calgary. He also has a master's degree in Exercise Physiology and he comes from a family of athletes. His dad was a Canadian Judo champion and his uncle was a rower that went to the '84 Olympics in L.A.

Jeff Pain attributes his getting onto the podium to finally realizing that his attitude and aloofness to his fellow skeleton team mates was hurting his performance. He stated that when he realized that they could have cared less if he was competing or not he figured he better start making some changes. He attibutes some of his poor attitude to bobsledding, which is what he previously competed in. He says that in that sport everyone is out for themselves and what team can steal who to create an even better team. Jeff was born in Alaska and makes his home in Calgary. Jeff's "day job" is as a landscape designer.



Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards (25) took bronze, she's from Alberta as well. (Katie, you'll like this part), she's married to rodeo competitor, Billy Richards.



Pierre Lueders (driver) and Lascelles Brown (brakeman) took silver in the two man bobsled race last Sunday. The best combined time of four runs determines the winner in two man bobsled.
Pierre is 35 and is from Edmonton. He has won 69 World Cup medals in his racing career! Here's an interesting fact about him that was posted on CBC Sports: "Lueders was a decathlete in 1989 when he visited relatives in what was then East Germany. His cousin, Gunnar Meinhardt, a sportswriter, told Lueders that his physical attributes could one day make him a world-class bobsledder".

Lascelles is 31, he lives in Calgary but is originally from Jamaica. He is currently considered one of the top three brakeman in the world. He set the push start record for the Jamaican team at Salt Lake City Olympics: 4.78 seconds.



Brown recently became a Canadian citizen, his application was fast-tracked so that he could compete for Canada. I've heard the same thing for a number of athletes in this Olympics. Changing citizenship for better training opportunities, although some have simply moved to another country and still kept their birth citizenship so they could compete for their country. I'm conflicted on how I feel about this. Part of me feels that if a country has a talented athlete, and they are going to take credit for that athlete, then they should be providing the training opportunities in their country. Another part of me looks at it from the athletes point. It's not their fault their country is in turmoil and can't support them, so go where there are opportunities, follow your dreams, do whatever it takes. Feel free to post how YOU feel about all this. I'd like to hear how others view it.

Team Pursuit

Men & Women's Team Pursuit take silver.

At the World Cup in Calgary the Men's team actually broke the world record to take gold in November. The Women's team did the same, but in 2004, in Japan.

For those of you who have never heard of team pursuit, don't despair, it's the first year that it's been added to the Olympic line up. What is it? Here's how it was explained on CBC Sports: The team pursuit is a new event this year. Teams of three race in single file to achieve the fastest time. Women complete six laps (2,400 metres) and the men race eight laps (3,200 metres). One team member at the front of the pack pulls their teammates, essentially creating a slipstream that allows the others to draft. Part of the strategy is deciding who pulls the team, who drafts and when to switch the leader. The clock stops only when the third (last) person crosses the finish line.


Women's Team


Men's Team

Women's Ice Hockey Gold*

Canada beat Sweden 4-1 yesterday to win Gold.


They're being hailed Canada's Golden Girls, the best (women's) hockey team ever assembled, the most prepared, and well coached. It's players are saying it is the most professional and well balanced team they have ever played for. Hayley Wickenheiser even played with a broken wrist, it broke last week but she kept it secret until after the games. She said she just tried to pass more than to take shots.

Player's represented 5 provinces (Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta) and over a twenty year age span. The youngest player, Meghan Agosta, just turned 19 this month and veteran Danielle Goyette 40, has already won a silver and gold Olympic medal. They outscored the opposition 46-2 and outshot them 222-55.

It took a lot of commitment and dedication. In May they met in Prince Edward Island for a training camp and then in August they met in Calgary to train together for the next 7 months. They even went as far as to take on Midget AAA boys teams to try and raise the level of their game. But it paid off.




*Apologies for being so far behind on Olypmic Updates, we were out of town on vacation (more to come on that after the Olympics)

Speed Skater- Joey Cheek

I'm taking a bit of a diversion from the focus on Canadian Athletes and going to talk about an amazing American speed skater. Joey Cheek won gold in the 500 meter races. After his win he announced he was donating his $25,000 for his win to "Right to Play" and the children of Darfur. Darfur is located in Sudan, Africa. The situation is complicated, there are many sites online to learn more. To put it simply: there is an ongoing genocide by the Arab based government on the black citizens of the region. Estimates of 5,000 people are killed/month over the last 2 1/2 years, at least 1 million people have been displaced from their homes, and well, I'll leave it to your imagination what other war atrocities and human rights violations are happening. Right to Play, with the help of athletes like Joey Cheek, try to bring a little bit of "normal" childhood to devastated areas around the world.

Olympic Update

Canada has a total of 4 medals now. Yesterday we won a silver medal in the women's team sprint (cross country skiing). Teammates Beckie Scott(31) & Sara Renner (29) are both from Alberta. Renner actually broke a pole during the race and a Norwegian coach took pity on her and passed her a pole.

"I said to Sara when we were finishing our warm-up today, 'We've come a long way baby,'" Scott, the 2002 Olympic pursuit champion, said after the race. "We've been around a long time. This might be one of the last sprint relays we ever do together. In a way to finish it with an Olympic medal it's, well I'm not going to say it's surreal. We promised each other we wouldn't get to get too fruity at the end of this."


On Monday, Cindy Klassen(26) took Bronze in the Women's 3,000 meter speed skating. Cindy is from Winnipeg.


Today, after a video review, Anouk Leblanc-Boucher(21) took bronze in the 500 meter short track. She's from Prevost, Quebec.

Valentine's Day

This week is winter school at the academy & Andrew was supposed to go down to PA with everyone today. I was slightly annoyed, but had decided I was not able to change it, so must accept it.
This afternoon, while working on client progress notes, the secretary called me to say there was a problem with my schedule, could I come up to the front desk to figure it out. I sighed, once again what I had in my book, what she had in her book, and what was in the computer must not be matching up. Once I got out there she said, "Oh never mind, I figured it out". Ggrr.. I turn to head back to my office, and out steps Andrew from around the corner.

--"Hey, I thought you were supposed to have left by now?"
-- "I'm not going".
-- "What?"
-- "I made arrangements yesterday not to go, I've just kept it a secret."

Ahh, I'm happy. The secretaries & receptionist think it's great. They've been in on all kinds of things today. All with the promise of; "If you ever want to surprise her again, just let us know, we'll help".

So what did I get? A bouquet of snapdragons and lilies, a Coke with lime, a packet of Ferrero Rochers, and a bear with a heart.

Olympics

For ALL you faithful readers. The next few weeks are going to focus on the Olympics. I'm currently watching the Canadian-Russia Women's hockey game. Canada is winning 7-0 after the first period, yesterday Canada beat Italy 16-0! Rumor has it that after the game the Italian players were asking for autographs and tips. In Italy's defense, it's their first year having a women's hockey team at the Olympics.
But today we're going to talk about Jennifer Heil. Bringing home the first medal for Canada, a gold medal.
Jennifer took out the defending gold medalist Kari Traa of Norway in the Women's Moguls. She's 22 and from Alberta. Heil took the last run of the day and you could see the focus and determination in her face prior to heading through the moguls, you could see her visualizing every turn, twist and flip before pushing off the top and heading through the moguls.



"I don't know what to say, this has been my biggest dream. I didn't know it could come true."

And yet there was some disappointment in the day. When being presented with flowers the announcer introduced her as an American! He quickly corrected himself but not before Heil's jaw dropped and the crowded started to Boo!

Superbowl Ads

My Top 3 Superbowl Ad Picks

1) Clydesdale American Dream
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4258794138972547179

2) Sprint Crime Deterrent
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7107840583664584754&q=sprint+locker+room

3) Sheep Fan
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6405149872126763049

Honorable Mention
The Wave
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=58624158025167369&q=Budweiser+The+Wave

Training

I've decided I am master at reasons (aka excuses) not to train. After getting my latest active.com newsletter delivered to my virtual mailbox, I have decided it is time to take action. I have returned to my training diary, made a year training chart and now I'm set to plan out my year, set clear and specific goals and stick with them.

Maybe I should use Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy.

+ Set a goal for each day (train)
+ If you do it, then do something enjoyable and relaxing(read)

+ If, at the end of the day, you realize you didn't do it, spend an hour doing something awful (clean, especially the bathroom)

Maybe that will get me off my butt and going.