Home Court Advantage?

Aksel Lund Svindal has spent plenty of time training with the Canadian alpine ski team over the years.

But late last month, the reigning overall World Cup champion from Norway could only stand on the outside of the fence and watch the Canadian team practise on the downhill course that will be used for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

At least Svindal had company. Austria's Christian Walchhofer, the World Cup downhill champion, also was barred from training on the Whistler course.

Max Gartner, Alpine Canada's chief athletics officer, makes no apologies for hanging out the Canadians only sign.

"There are a lot of resources getting spent on making this training possible," said Gartner. "We told all the other teams . . . we cannot have anybody train with us.

"This is a Canadian advantage we are not going to give away."

Erik Guay, one of the Canadian skiers looking to win Olympic gold next February, has no problem with limiting access.

"I think a lot of the time Canadians can be too nice," the Mont-Tremblant, Que., native said in a recent interview. "If you look at any other nation, they would be doing the same thing.

"We're not letting anyone come and train on the hill. I think that's important. It will give us the advantage for once. We never really have the advantage. I think we will at home."

Athletes and sports officials talk about the home-field advantage that goes along with hosting the Olympics. Canada's goal at the 2010 Games is to win more medals than any other country.

The Vancouver organizing committee, known as VANOC, spent $580 million building or upgrading venues for the Feb. 12-28 Games. All were open at least one year in advance to give Canadian athletes time to practise in the facilities.

This has raised the question of how much access should be given to athletes from other countries. Is Canada cheating by slamming the door in their faces? Would Canada lose its edge by giving foreign teams too much time to train in the Olympic venues?

Chris Rudge, chief executive officer for the Canadian Olympic Committee, said Canada is following the rules when it comes to foreigners using venues.

"It's not inappropriate for us to have more time on these facilities than some of the other countries may have, as long as we are not prohibiting them from their fair share," said Rudge. "We are investing considerably to bring these Games to Canada. A return on that investment is expected by Canadians.

"I don't think we are doing anything at these Games that is inconsistent with what has gone on at other Games in the past."

Cathy Priestner Allinger, a VANOC executive vice-president, bristled at the suggestion the Canadian beaver is turning into a weasel.

"We've absolutely been fair," said the former speedskater who is in charge of sport and Games operations for VANOC. "In fact, we have exceeded what is required of us."

Each sports federation sets rules for international competition and practice time in Olympic venues prior to the Games, said Priestner Allinger. Usually a World Cup event or world championship competition is staged at a facility. Not only does this give the athletes a chance to familiarize themselves with the venue, it's an opportunity for organizers to work out any bugs.

"We are obliged to run the sports events for every discipline so that anyone who is eligible to compete at those events can get onto our venues," she said. "The training varies depending on who owns the venue and what the requirements of that sport might be."

Between January and the end of March, seven World Cup events were staged at Olympic venues in Vancouver and Whistler. In addition, the Four Continents figure skating meet was held at the Pacific Coliseum and the world single distance speedskating championships at the Olympic Oval in Richmond.

Both the world junior and world wheelchair curling championships were used to test the Vancouver Olympic Centre, site of the curling competition during the Games.

A controversy erupted in March when it was reported long-track speedskaters from outside Canada were being denied training time at the Richmond Oval.

Brian Rahill, high performance program director for Speed Skating Canada, denied anyone was being treated unfairly.

Some of the teams had not followed proper protocol in booking time, he said. Others were denied access because there was work being done in the building.

"No one has been turned away," said Rahill.

In some instances, VANOC and the sports federations have increased access.

The new track at the Whistler Sliding Centre - home to bobsled, luge and skeleton - is so fast and technical, extra training weeks have been added, said Priestner Allinger.

That didn't happen prior to the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, said Jeff Christie, a luge athlete from Vancouver.

"At the Olympics in Italy we had zero extra," said Christie. "They actually gave us less than exactly what we were supposed to get. They didn't have any qualms about it because they gave their home team the advantage.

"In a sport like luge, that's the way it goes. I go onto other tracks in the world, a lot of the German tracks, where I get six runs before a World Cup event and they train on it their whole lives."

Priestner Allinger said management at the Pacific Coliseum, home to figure skating and short-track speedskating, has offered ice to other countries on a pay-as-you-go basis. So far, most countries have not taken the arena up on its offer, she said.

Other host nations have also played it close to the vest on the issue of Olympic venue access.

Peter Judge, chief executive officer for the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, remembers the World Cup events hosted by the U.S. team prior to the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

"Their mogul course builder built the course differently for all the World Cups that led up to the Games, but for their home-field advantage training camp, built it the way it was going to be for the Olympic Games," said Judge.

Priestner Allinger said the Turin organizing committee also played some tricks.

"I can tell you the Canadian short-track team and the figure skating teams did not get on the ice once in Turin prior to the Olympic Games," she said. "They chose to hold a sport event that was the European championships, so it excluded America."

Gartner thought he had an agreement in place for Canadians skiers to train with the Italian team on the Olympic course prior to Turin.

"They played all sorts of games," he said. "We ended up getting no training."

Judge recently had an argument with a friend of his from the Australian Olympic team. The Australian was angry his skiers were prevented from practising on the Olympic moguls course at Cypress Mountain.

The freestyle association used $15,000 from the Own the Podium program to build the course for a training camp, said Judge.

"How could I justify going to my funding partner and saying 'You are going to give us X amount of dollars to build this course so we can have training, and then we are going to let one of our prime competitors come on and train?"' he said.

While some sports closely guard their venues, cross-country skiing has an open-door policy.

Any athlete can go to Whistler Olympic Park, purchase a ticket, and ski the course.

"Our sport culture around the world has never been to restrict asses to a venue," said Al Maddox, executive director of Cross Country Canada. "For us to take that approach would be quite odd within the sport.

"We've always enjoyed having the ability to go the Olympic venues to whatever degree we wanted to. Why would we impose that suddenly on our competitors just because it's in Canada? It would have been bordering on unsportsmanlike behaviour."

Judge said Canada is doing nothing wrong.

"I honestly believe that's business," he said. "If you look at any other business model, you wouldn't be inviting your competitors into your research and design labs.

"You keep those things to yourself."

There's no doubt the more training Canadian athletes enjoy on the Olympic venues, the better chance they have at winning medals.

Still, there is no guarantee.

During the Salt Lake City Games, American freestyle skiers won three silver medals but no gold. Italy won 11 medals in Turin. The country's alpine skiers and bobsledders were kept off the podium.

Christie said in luge, and any other sport, the best athletes will always finds a way to win.

"The top 10 athletes in the world aren't the top 10 for no reason," he said. "It's because they are really good at what they do and they adapt quickly."

 

SOURCE: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Olympics/2010Vancouver/News/2009/04/07/9042476-cp.html