Temporary Hostels Planned for 2010

If you're stuck in the early morning Vancouver rain, a long way from home, with an aching in your heart and your pockets full of sand during the 2010 Winter Olympics, VANOC will have a place for you.

Olympic organizers aim to set up one or more temporary hostels to accommodate several hundred young people expected to show up before, during and after the Games with little more than an unfocused desire to be in Vancouver for all the excitement and maybe find a way to make a buck or two.

A call for hostel proposals was posted Friday on the provincial government's official bid website.

Donna Wilson, VANOC executive vice-president for people and sustainability, said the hostels will exist as an accommodation safety net to ensure that existing low-income housing and shelters for the homeless are not affected by a Games-time influx of visitors without an arranged place to stay.

Ms. Wilson said VANOC wants to avoid what happened in Salt Lake City during the 2002 Olympics when Games planners, unprepared for hundreds of young people who flocked to the city, wound up housing them in an abandoned mattress factory.

"Our expectation is that there will be kids who come here with a bit of money in their jeans to have a good time, or to find work, and haven't thought about where they're going to stay," she said. "Salt Lake City didn't plan for this kind of thing and we want to make sure we do."

Asked why anyone would make the trek to Vancouver without a plan or assured accommodation, Ms. Wilson laughed and replied: "Do you have an 18-year old? The Salt Lake experience showed there are a lot of people, generally from 18 to 25, looking for a great time at this great event. They want to be part of it."

She said VANOC is seeking bare-bones facilities that will provide little more than a bed and a bathroom for a nominal daily fee. They are to remain open from Nov. 15 to March 15, with the ability to take in as many as 400 people during February, when the Olympics take place.

There have been concerns that shelters trying to cope with Vancouver's severe homeless problem would be even more hard-pressed during the Olympics, but Ms. Wilson said VANOC made a commitment long ago to do everything possible to mitigate that potential pressure.

"The world will be watching, and we want to make sure the Olympics are as positive an experience for everyone as we can make it," she said.

VANOC wants a single operator or consortium to be responsible for the temporary accommodation, likely to be run on a non-profit basis. The organizing committee has set aside $250,000 to help pay the cost of upgrading and necessary renovations for the hostels. There is no intention for existing backpacking hostels in the city to make room for the young, temporary visitors, Ms. Wilson said.

She said VANOC envisions local church or other community organizations might want to take on the responsibility as a way of contributing to the Olympics.

VANOC does not intend to advertise that there will be low-cost, basic accommodation available during the Olympics. "If nobody shows up, that's fine, that's great," Ms. Wilson said. "But we'd rather be prepared in case they do show up."

The plan, she added, is to have operators of existing shelters for the homeless refer visitors looking for an overnight crash to the one or more temporary Olympic hostels.

 

SOURCE: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/

 

Home Sweet Home

Is Canada's dubious distinction about to become history?

It's one Olympic record we can't wait to shed.

By now you've probably heard the embarrassing statistic: Canada, the only country to host multiple Olympic Games without winning a single gold medal at home.

The Montreal Summer Games of 1976? Non.

Calgary's Winter Games of '88? A horse-bleep total of just five medals, including two silver.

That's 244 chances, in all kinds of events, in all types of conditions, and nary a win.

If this is the mother of all sports curses, it's time for somebody to cut the umbilical cord.

As we speed our way toward Vancouver 2010, a nation that has discovered its inner conqueror is ready to do whatever it takes to climb to the top of the podium, even if it means elbowing aside a few people along the way.

Sound un-Canadian?

That's the idea.

Those brash Yanks have nothing on us anymore. Haven't you heard -- we want to Own the Podium in Vancouver, and we spent more than $100 million to do it.

So the feeling right from the boardroom down to the bobsled run is not if Canada breaks the jinx, but when.

"When you look at the goal of this team, to be the No. 1 in the world, we've got to get on a roll," Nick Bass, the high-performance adviser for the Own the Podium program, said.

Getting on a roll means striking gold early. That usually sets off frenzy, and you don't have to go back to the Klondike Rush 113 years ago to see it.

It happened at the Turin Games of '06, too.

So who's our top candidate? Learn from history and, if we're lucky, we'll be doomed to repeat it.

Three years ago, Alberta's Jennifer Heil pulled on her goggles, hit the moguls run and struck it rich -- on Day 1.

That sparked the Canucks to their best-ever Winter Games: 24 medals overall, including seven gold.

Guess who's going mining on the first full day of competition in Vancouver?

None other than the queen of the bumps, making Heil our choice to hit the first gold vein on Canadian soil.

"Best bet for the first gold medal," Bass said. "She is one of our stars."

Bass isn't alone in his prediction.

In Calgary, the president of that city's Canadian Sports Centre, which services our high performance athletes, echoed Bass's sentiments.

"I'm going to say it's Jenn Heil, women's moguls," Dale Henwood said. "Just based on history, she's a pretty good shot."

A poll of Sun Media journalists and commentators from TSN/CTV produced more votes for Heil than anyone.

So we have an early favourite in this thoroughbred race. Post time, 7:30 p.m., Pacific time, Feb. 13.

Perhaps the best news, though: Canada has plenty of horses around Heil, in men's moguls, on the speed skating oval, the short track course, even on the slopes.

No Beijing

This should be no Beijing, where day after day after medal-less day went by, and all our athletes produced was sweat.

"It won't be like the Summer Olympics," Bass said. "We didn't have a lot of depth in the first week."

By comparison, Team Canada is swimming in world-class talent going into the early events of 2010.

Alexandre Bilodeau, Heil's training partner and male equivalent, with gold medals in his last five World Cup events, not to mention at the world championship in March, comes to mind.

At the tender age of 22, Bilodeau will hit the moguls on Day 2, the same day Canada's powerful long track speed skaters bust out of the gate, led by Kristina Groves, Clara Hughes and, we presume, a recovered Cindy Klassen, queen of the Turin Games.

At this point, Groves is the better bet in the women's 3,000, while Klassen's stock -- she took the year off to have orthoscopic surgery on both knees -- will rise or fall on the World Cup circuit next season.

Still at the oval, we won't have to wait long to see if Jeremy Wotherspoon can bury his Olympic demons, and bounce back from a badly broken arm -- the men's 500 metres is set for Day 3.

Neither our experts nor our media panel expect the drought to go beyond three days.

The revival of the men's alpine team has even created more than a passing interest in the men's downhill, the first medal event of Day 1.

"We have multiple medal threats in that event," Bass said. "And with a little bit of home field advantage where they've been training on that course, I would not be surprised if we had an athlete on the podium."

Bass is referring to John Kucera, Manuel Osborne-Paradis and Erik Guay, long shots for gold, perhaps, but in the unpredictable world of alpine, who knows? Kucera shocked everyone by winning gold at the world championship -- despite being ranked 19th.

Call them crazy, but the Canucks see that kind of magic happening more than once in Vancouver.

 

SOURCE: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Olympics/2010Vancouver/News/2009/05/17/9485616-sun.html

 

Flyin' High in 2010?

All hail – or inhale – the 2010 Olympic Torch.

Or, as it's jokingly known around Vancouver, the Olympic Toke.

Composed of stainless steel, aluminum and sheet moulding, the torch was designed to evoke snow, ice, skiing and skating, but to many, the metre-long white torch looks suspiciously like a marijuana joint, especially when lit.

The observation has become so common in this city that it's hard to know who was the first to say, "Hey, doesn't that look like ..."

But the torch's resemblance to British Columbia's biggest cash crop was evident right away to Jodie Emery, editor of Cannabis Culture magazine.

"A lot of people come to Vancouver because it's marijuana-friendly, so I think people who already enjoy a joint themselves will feel a little more kinship to the Olympics," said Emery, who ran as a Green party candidate in the provincial election this month.

"I'm sure the organizers didn't intend for it to look like a joint, but that's what a lot of people are seeing."

The association between toking and the Olympics didn't begin with the torch, of course.

At the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan, Whistler skier Ross Rebagliati won, then lost, the gold medal in snowboarding after testing positive for marijuana. The medal was returned after Rebagliati explained he had inhaled second-hand smoke. And Olympic swimming sensation Michael Phelps was photographed in February smoking pot from a bong.

Industrial designer Mark Busse said he doesn't see a joint so much as a tweezer or scalpel.

"Sure, it may look a little bit like a joint, but I can tell you that what they were going for was ergonomics, sleekness, modernity," he said.

Suzanne Reeves, the Vancouver organizing committee's director of communications for the Olympic torch relay, said she has taken the torch across the country and people's faces light up when they get the chance to hold it.

At Nathan Phillips Square a couple of weeks ago, Reeves said she had the torch in a bag when a cyclist went by and did a double-take when he saw what she had.

Reeves said what she sees when she looks at the torch is the edge of snow and an unfurling flag.

"It's quite magical. Most people's reactions are emotional," she said.

The torch will be carried by 12,000 people over 45,000 kilometres as it makes its journey across Canada.

Because the torch will travel through the winter months, it had to meet some tough technical requirements, including being able to withstand high winds, cold temperatures and different altitudes.

The torch officially is meant to resemble the lines left behind by skiers and skaters on snow and ice.

Any double – or doobie – entendres, officials say, are purely unintentional.

A Grandi Ol' Time!

Extraordinary skill made alpine skier, Thomas Grandi, Canada's best technical racer securing nine World Cup podium finishes and 11 Canadian championship titles.

But no amount of training and ambition last season could help the 36-year-old reclaim the success he had known early in his career.

Forced to acknowledge that he was unlikely to reach his goal of qualifying for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, Grandi retired in March - for a second time.

His public struggle over when and why to quit the sport he once dominated highlighted the conundrum many elite athletes face -- including some who will compete in the upcoming Games -- as they advance in years yet remain capable of high-level performance.

Dr. Michael Joyner, a scientist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, has studied the effects of age on athletes and suggests deciding when to retire is among the toughest decisions a competitor of Grandi's calibre will make.

"A lot of these people are still very, very fit and can compete a high level but they have these tremendous internal standards that they can't live up to their own expectations. I mean, for a guy like [Grandi] being 20th just isn't good enough," Dr. Joyner said.

"They're addicted to improvement, they're addicted to finishing first or setting new personal bests and so on and so forth and to be anything other than the absolute best is difficult."

When Grandi retired for the first time, at age 34, he was doubtful he could continue to train full-time and secure an Olympic medal.

"When I first retired I thought ‘the Olympics are still too far away for me to be able to continue full-time as an athlete and make it there.' I never imagined I would be able to make it there," Grandi told CTVOlympics.ca in a recent interview.

Such an instinct is in keeping with what science reveals, Dr. Joyner said. The peak capacity of human cardiovascular systems begins to decline in one's late 30s and early 40s. An average person will lose 10% of that capacity per decade, starting at 30, he said.

Exceptions do exist, however, and 30-somethings who exercise intensely can stave off the effects of aging until their mid-forties.

The lure of the Olympics was too much to resist and Grandi initiated a carefully-planned and ambitious comeback.

"After a year off and a year of rest, I felt like I could do it again," he said.

"I was surprised by how well my body reacted to training. I think as you get older, you're not as good off the couch, but if you put a lot of work into it you can reach quite a similar or same level you were at before."

Grandi's comeback demonstrates that through a significant and steady amount of training elite athletes are able to slow the aging process, Dr. Joyner said.

"You can delay that decline through training until you're about 40 and then - through hard training - you can delay the rate of the decline by about half," he said. "In other words, you can start to age 10 years later and the rate of aging is cut by about half."

Such superior physical ability is part of what makes deciding to retire so difficult. Dr. Joyner has observed other athletes as they try to reconcile their changing physical abilities with the logic of remaining competitive.

"That's not atypical to see somebody [like Grandi] who has either been successful and trying to hang on for one last Olympics or people who in fact do come out of retirement," he said.

Grandi did not accomplish his Olympic goal, but remains pleased with the attempt he made in part because training challenged the expectations he had of his body.

"As you get older, you can still get to a very high level but you have to work harder to get there. But, if you do work hard, your body does react and perform really well and that's what I was really impressed with," Grandi said.

"Sport is something that keeps you young and being athletically competitive, maybe not to the degree that I have been but to be active and continue in sports really does keep you healthy and young.

"I think people can really take something from that."

SOURCE: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/

Golden Opportunity?

Hockey Canada's annual general meeting concluded in Vancouver yesterday with two recommendations for the game's future.

For starters, delegates from across the country decided to hold a second hockey summit that will focus on "the player" and will take place next summer at a location to be determined.

More immediately, however, the membership told Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson to ensure three gold medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver-Whistler next winter. Concerned by a string of recent international results, the message from Hockey Canada's board was simple, according to Nicholson.

"Silver isn't good enough," he said. "We shouldn't be satisfied with silver. I was given an endorsement to do everything in my power to win three gold medals."

Canada finished second to Russia at the International Ice Hockey Federation's men's world championships in Switzerland earlier this month. The women's national team fell to the United States in the gold-medal game at the IIHF's world women's championships in April.

Canada's under-18 men's team finished fourth at the most recent world championships in North Dakota, losing to the U.S. in the semi-finals, and the national sledge team lost to the U.S. earlier this week and took bronze at the world championships.

Nicholson didn't mention it, but Canada's under-20 team was nearly beaten by the Americans at the world junior championships in Ottawa on Dec. 31, needing a three-goal comeback to salvage victory at Scotiabank Place.

"When you look at it, there's a common theme," Nicholson said. "The U.S. is coming. We have to respect them."

Nicholson said his first step will be a full post-mortem of "what went wrong" at the women's worlds, but that he would then turn his attention to the management at all national team levels.

"If we need to do changes or make adjustments, we will," he said. We've got to put our work boots on and get to work."

Meanwhile, Nicholson said a second summit was overdue, and that contemplation of the game's future in Canada from the eyes of the player was worthwhile. The first Hockey Canada summit, titled "Open Ice," was a conference on the future of the game in Canada and the country's performance at international competitions, and came on the heels of the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, where the men finished fourth, and the women second.

Nicholson said the summit would look at rules such as the Canadian Hockey League's "exceptional player" rule, which has only been applied to teen sensation John Tavares, the likely first pick in the 2009 NHL entry draft. It would also examine more provincial issues such as territorial boundaries, the freedom of movement for players, and age groupings.

"We thought it was important," Nicholson said. "And if we lose in Vancouver, everyone will demand it."

SOURCE: http://www.ctvolympics.ca

Stevie Y Talks Netminders, eh?

It has often been said there are enough great hockey players in Canada to send two teams to international competitions.

That may be the case when it comes to skaters, but in terms of goaltending, Steve Yzeman is hoping he'll have one dependable stopper.

And you can excuse Stevie Y if he were just a tad concerned about his team's crease for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver; even though he insists he isn't worried. Yzerman is the capable man Hockey Canada put in charge of winning a gold medal in men's hockey in Vancouver next winter.

On Monday night he watched as Roberto Luongo, whom many feel stands the best chance to be the starter for Team Canada in the next Olympics, laid an egg in the most important game of his career. In a game that was to be a defining moment for Bobby Lou, in just his second trip to the NHL playoffs, Luongo allowed seven goals as his team, the Vancouver Canucks, was sent packing by the upstart Chicago Blackhawks. In his post-game meeting with the media, the captain was reduced to tears, but to his credit, he didn't run and hide. He faced the music even though he didn't like the tune.

Asked if Luongo's performance sent shivers down his spine, Yzerman chuckled.

"I was watching," he said. "All I can say is players have ups and downs and the very best players learn from the downs. The great players bounce back. I don't put too much weight on the performance of a player in one game. Roberto is a great goaltender and had a very good year."

Goaltending should be the least of Canada's worries. Canadian goalies, after all, have won five of the past six Vezina Trophies as best goalie in the NHL. Upon closer inspection, however, four of those went to Martin Brodeur and the other to Jose Theodore.

Brodeur, the winningest goalie in NHL history, has been bounced from the playoffs in the first round the past two seasons. He'll be 37 when the Olympics roll around and while he remains a great stopper; he's no longer money in the bank. Theodore lost his job as Washington's No. 1 goalie to an unproven 20-year-old in this year's playoffs. He wouldn't make the longest of long lists for Team Canada.

The next guy on the list, speaking logically, is Carolina's Cam Ward, arguably the best goalie in the NHL in the second half of this season. It must be noted in the few minutes I was on the phone with Yzerman last night; Ward allowed two goals as his team fell behind 2-0 at home and then proceeded to lose to the Bruins. Not a good sign.

Yzerman remains unfazed.

"We have an excellent group of goaltenders in Canada and lots of depth," he said. "There is a lot of uncertainty at this stage, but that doesn't change the fact we have great goalies."

Regardless of what happened this season, you'd have to say Luongo and Brodeur are still the best bets to be Nos. 1 and 2 on Team Canada. But that does not mean they won't be supplanted if a young gun steps up to the plate. If Ward leads the Hurricanes to a second Stanley Cup in his four-year career, he'd shoot to the head of the class.

Steve Mason, meanwhile, will be named the NHL's rookie of the year in June and probably should win the Vezina Trophy, too. A strong start with the Columbus Blue Jackets next season would mean Yzerman and Co. would have to give him strong consideration to be on the team, and not just along for the ride, but as the starter.

After Luongo, Brodeur, Ward and Mason, it actually gets a bit bleak. Marc-Andre Fleury ranked seventh in the NHL this season with 34 victories, but that was as much a reflection of the great team he plays for as his own doing. He was 21st in save percentage and 23rd in goals-against average.

Carey Price of the Montreal Candiens has a huge mountain to climb to put himself back in contention for Team Canada. I'm not even certain he'll be the No. 1 goalie in Montreal next season.

Yzerman told sportsnet.ca a few months ago his selections for Team Canada will not be solely based on statistics. He also said veterans will not be given a free ticket to make the team. Clearly, what a player does in the first half of next season will have a large bearing on his potential to play for Canada in Vancouver.

Yzerman said he has not yet sat down and put together a depth chart.

"Every now and then I'll be sitting around and I'll start doodling a potential team, bit nothing official," Yzerman said. "Or I'll ask some guys to give me their top seven defencemen and top 13 forwards on any given day. But you know it changes. I'd go nuts if I started trying to put a final list together at this point."

Yzerman said he'll put together a long list of players that will attend a summer camp, but cautions player that do not attend aren't necessarily out of the mix.

"Especially younger players," Yzerman said. "A young guy that doesn't attend the summer camp might step up next season and force us to put him on the team."

So the door is open for young skaters to make Team Canada. It is also wide open for all goaltenders.

Oh, and if Detroit repeats as Stanley Cup champs, then you have to throw Chris Osgood into the mix. He, more than anyone in the NHL, knows how to lift great teams in the crunch.

 

SOURCE: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/

Clean Sweep, eh?

Could Canada sweep a podium in 2010?

Canada has never swept the podium in one event at the Olympics.

Could it happen next year on home turf?

Perhaps. But it won't be easy.

The odds of sweeping are long, but other countries have done it. Germany won gold, silver and bronze in women's luge in 2006 in Turin, Italy, and the Austrian skiers did the same in men's slalom.

Canada has never prepared for an Olympics like it has for the 2010 Vancouver Games. Claiming all three medals in a single discipline would help the host team reach its goal of winning more medals than any other country.

Not only would it bump up Canada's medal total, it takes hardware off the table for other countries.

Canada's team will be deepest in men's moguls, the women's 1,000 and 1,500 metres in long-track speedskating, men's and women's skeleton and the new sport of ski cross.

Depth in a sport doesn't guarantee even one medal, however. Winning at least one, if not more, in men's aerials at the 2006 Olympics looked promising yet Canada came up empty.

The man overseeing the five-year, $120-million Own The Podium plan to get Canada hitting its medal target believes home ice, home track and home snow, plus the adrenaline rush of performing in front of friends and family, could produce that historic sweep.

"The opportunity is there,'' says Roger Jackson.” The familiarity of the home track, whether its speedskating, bobsleigh, skeleton and luge, is going to make a huge difference.

"Even though there's going to be a lot of focus and a lot of pressure on our athletes by competing at home, the crowd support will be absolutely overwhelming. I suspect that is going to be much more of an advantage than a disadvantage.''

Canada's ski cross team took five of a possible six World Cup medals on the Cypress Mountain Olympic course in February, with the men sweeping and the women taking gold and silver.

There aren't as many women in international ski cross as there are men. As often happens when a sport makes its Olympic debut, Canadian women are at the forefront.

Ashleigh McIvor of Whistler, B.C., won the world championship this season and Kelsey Serwa of Kelowna B.C., was third in the overall World Cup standings that included four Canadians in the top 11.

Aleisha Cline of Squamish, B.C., won the World Cup gold on Cypress and says why shouldn't she and her teammates swing for the fences?

"We like crazy talk. Crazy talk is good,'' Cline says. "When we came into Cypress this last race, we had five out of the six possible medals. We were just missing one of our girls. The chances of us sweeping the podium, I don't want to be cocky but we have a good chance.''

The myriad of variables - weather, snow conditions and four racers jostling for position at high speeds - makes ski cross wildly unpredictable. The top seeds can end up skiing off course in qualification rounds. A sweep would require an incredible amount of luck.

There aren't as many variables in long-track speedskating. It's the skater on indoor ice racing against the clock and not in a sea of flying elbows and legs.

The expected return of multi-medallist Cindy Klassen after a year rehabilitating her knees from surgery creates the possibility of a sweep in women's middle distances. She holds world records in the 1,000, 1,500 and 3,000 metres.

Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., is the reigning world champion in the 1,000 metres. Ottawa's Kristina Groves is the overall World Cup champion in the 1,500 metres. Groves finished second to Klassen in the 1,500 in 2006.

While Groves was reluctant to discuss the prospect of a sweep, Nesbitt wasn't.

"It's not something I'd laugh at if someone said it,'' she says.” I’d say 'That would be pretty cool.'

"Our middle distances are definitely our strongest distances right now.''

Canadian men swept the moguls podium this winter at World Cups in Mont Gabriel, Que., and Are, Sweden.

Montreal's Alexandre Bilodeau captured both the world and World Cup titles this season. Vincent Marquis of Rosemere, Que., Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau of Drummondville, Que., and Maxime Gingras of St-Hippolyte, Que., joined Bilodeau on the podium at various points in the year.

Moguls is a judged sport and athletes execute difficult tricks in varying snow and weather conditions. Luck will need to be on Canada's side for a sweep.

"So many stars need to be aligned, the judges, the conditions, the qualifications, the final and everybody needs to put down two good runs, which is pretty rare,'' Bilodeau explains. "It's not impossible, but I wouldn't bet on it.''

Canada's skeleton team was positively buoyant on the prospect of a 2010 podium sweep on the eve of the 2008-09 season. That enthusiasm was tempered when they didn't produce a world championship medal this season.

Calgarians Duff Gibson, Jeff Pain and Paul Boehm finished first, second and fourth in the 2006 Olympics. Gibson has since retired, but Jon Montgomery of Russell, Man., has pushed his way into the world's elite by winning a silver medal at the 2008 world championship.

On the women's side, Mellisa Hollingsworth of Eckville, Alta., is an Olympic bronze medallist, Michelle Kelly of Fort St. John, B.C., is a former world and World Cup champion and Calgary's Sarah Reid won the world junior championship last year.

The sliders' familiarity with the track by next February should give them an edge over the rest of the world, but enough of an edge to capture gold, silver and bronze?

"We've had our ups and downs this season,'' Kelly says.” You never know how the rest of the world is going to do on the track.

"But I still think at the end of the day with the home-field advantage and the run volume we're going to get, to actually have numerous runs, way more than the competition on our home track - I think it's very plausible.''

SOURCE: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/

 

Are Canadians Up to Code?

The organizing committee for the 2010 Olympics is inviting Canadians to share photos and words about their daily lives through an online digital scrapbook.

Anyone with access to the Internet can contribute to the project that will portray contemporary Canada.

It's part of the Cultural Olympiad - a three-year series of cultural and arts festivals and digital programs.

A selection of the current project, called Canada CODE - Cultural Olympiad's Digital Edition - will be showcased on public screens in Vancouver and Whistler during the Olympic Games.

The whole project will continue to exist online as an archive of Canada in 2010.

Submissions made on the Vancouver 2010 website will be uploaded within 48 hours, with the contributor's user name and location tagged to their creative work.

CHECK IT OUT OR MAKE YOUR SUBMISSION HERE: http://canadacode.vancouver2010.com/

(To answer your question – yes, you can find me there)

 

Dissin' the Queen?!!!

An alert reader has alerted me to an online petition to have Governor General Michaelle Jean open the Olympics in lieu of the Queen. Without personally weighing in on the matter, I present the reasoning here:

 

Olympic protocol dictates that the head of state (or his or her designate) of the host nation opens the Olympic Games.

Yes, Elizabeth II is Canada's official head of state. And the Governor General is her resident representative in Canada. However, because we are a modern, progressive and proud nation that is trying to assert and "touch the soul" of our nation with these Olympics, it is in our best interest that a resident Canadian (the Governor General) officiate in this matter.

Billions watch the Olympic Opening Ceremony around the world. There is an opportunity here for Canada. Will we rise to it or miss it? On one hand, we could invite the Queen and have people look at Canada as a mere possession of the British Crown, as a stuffy and backward society that doesn't know its place, that doesn't have a direction that turns to a distant 83 year old woman in London and requests her permission. Or we could present a youthful, vibrant, and elegant personage in Governor General Michaelle Jean. We could show that Canada is a vivid nation of diversity, where someone from a humble background can build a life, succeed, and rise to the highest position in the land, and beautifully deliver an opening of the Olympic Games that would go down in history as a shining moment for all the world to look at Canada and say "wow, what a country!".

Yes, the Queen has the right to do the job. And she should refuse it or not be invited. This would not be the first time. In 1956, she sent her husband to open the Melbourne Games in Australia. In 1988, Jeanne Sauve opened the Calgary Olympics. And again in 2000, Australians preferred their own son over the monarch and invited the Governor-General to open the Sydney Olympics. The Queen is healthy. London 2012 is not far away. The Queen also opened the 1976 Montreal Olympics. She's been there, done that, and will get to do it again.

But in Vancouver in 2010, this is Canada's moment to shine. And a Canadian citizen who resides in a Canadian home and has a Canadian family should stand up and open Canada's Games.

It is time we showed the world who we are.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and hear our concerns. Let the Games begin. And let it be a Canadian who begins them.

 

If you agree – you can sign the petition here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/governor-general-michaelle-jean-to-open-vancouver-2010-olympics

 

NHL-Sized Rink at my Olympics?

It’s more likely than you think …

This is the first of a series – a look at the venues that will make up the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

Name: Canada Hockey Place

Events: Hockey

Venue Capacity: 18,630

Cost: $160 million (original cost in 1995/privately financed)

Status: Existing

Opened: September 17, 1995

Elevation: 8 metres

Distance: 2km from Vancouver Athletes' Village

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games hockey tournaments will take place in two venues -- Canada Hockey Place and the UBC Thunderbird Arena.

Canada Hockey Place, known outside the Olympic Games as General Motors Place, will be the main hockey venue at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. It was completed in 1995 and privately financed to be the home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks and NBA's then Vancouver Grizzlies. The arena has 88 luxury suites, 12 hospitality suites and 2195 club seats. In 2006, Canada Hockey Place was upgraded with an LED ribbon board encircling the upper bowl and a brand new state of the art high-definition scoreboard overhanging centre ice.

When Vancouver originally won the right to host the 2010 Games, the plan was to renovate Canada Hockey Place to accommodate an international-sized ice surface for the Winter Games that would have forced the removal of seats in the arena. But on June 7, 2006, VANOC and the International Ice Hockey Federation announced they had cancelled the ice renovation plans and the 2010 Olympic hockey tournament would be played, for the first time, on NHL-sized ice. The new plan saved VANOC $10 million in renovations and will allow 35,000 more spectators into Canada Hockey Place over the duration of the tournament. Additional locker rooms will be built as part of the venue preparations for the Games.

General Motors Place has played host to international hockey before. The 2006 World Junior Hockey Championships were held in Vancouver, which saw Canada win the tournament. Russia's Evgeni Malkin was named tournament MVP.

 

Last Team Meeting

Listening to speedskater Catriona Le May Doan talk about her doubts heading into the 2002 Olympics was a relief to Regan Lauscher.

The luge athlete from Red Deer, Alta., has had her own challenges to deal with and just knowing she wasn't alone gave her peace of mind.

It's that kind of information sharing Canadian Olympic Committee officials had in mind when they planned the Olympic Excellence Series.

The Canadian Olympic Committee’s final instalment of the series before the 2010 Games opens Friday in Vancouver and concludes Monday.

It's the last opportunity for Canada's Olympic team to be together before they gather for the opening ceremonies Feb. 12.

During a seminar a year ago in Whistler, B.C., Le May Doan opened up to other athletes about her fears in trying to defend her gold medal at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.

"Just to hear Catriona say 'I broke down and didn't think I could do it' before 2002, to hear someone who you think would never stumble . . . and for them to sit there and listen to you, know who you are and say 'We support you, you're here for a reason and part of this group and everyone knows you can do it', you really feel you have an enormous support group behind you,'' said Lauscher.

Lauscher had surgery on one shoulder and was two weeks away from surgery on the other when she attended the Whistler event. She missed half of this season rehabilitating the injuries.

"I definitely had to come back to the words of these people and I still lean on them when I sit there and go 'I don't know. Can I do it still? It's a year out now and I still feel like I'm not there, but I want to be and have the potential to be and I'm capable of it.'''

Lauscher is among about 100 athletes planning to attend this weekend's events and another 100 coaches and support staff will be there too. Athletes who have finished top five in world championships and World Cups were invited.

Canadian ultra marathoner Ray Zahab, who recently completed an Arctic expedition, Norwegian speedskater Johan Olav Koss and Canadian synchronized swimmer Sylvie Frechette will be the key speakers.

The athletes and coaches will also participate in team-building activities and strategy sessions with athlete mentors Le May Doan, former rower Marnie McBean and freestyle skier Veronica Brenner.

"For a home Games, there will be a lot of demands on athletes from all angles,'' said Derek Covington, the COC's director of Olympic preparation and Games.

"Things that take you off your Games are what the Olympics are all about. That's what makes it different than any other event that they'll ever go to because there's so many more variables that are layered on top of the practice of their sport.''

Retired and even current Olympians tell first-timers about issues that can be addressed months before the Games so their performance isn't affected in Vancouver, Covington added.

What won't be formally addressed this weekend is the COC's goal of the host team winning more medals than any other country in 2010.

"We won't be dealing with the topic,'' Covington said.” The goals are out there as they were for Beijing. It's up to each one of the sports and athletes to decide how they want to achieve their own personal goals.''

Rowing Canada's national team co-ordinator Adam Parfitt will conduct a session with coaches and support staff on how he juggled the demands of 150 family and friends of the rowing team in Beijing.

Koss was invited to speak because he won five medals - four gold and one silver - when his country hosted the Olympics in Lillehammer in 1992, Covington said.

Karen Cockburn, a three-time Olympic medallist in trampoline, said prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing she discussed having knee surgery with wrestler Daniel Igali at one of these COC sessions. His advice steered her towards going under the knife and she won a silver medal in Beijing.

A personality profiling exercise Lauscher participated in last year in Whistler was a revelation. The 29-year-old discovered she had a sensitive ''blue'' personality while her physiotherapist Louise Vien and coach Wolfgang Staudinger were scientific ''green'' personalities.

"You learn about yourself and team dynamics and how you would handle a situation, but a coach or a teammate would see it differently,'' she explained.” You learn to separate that it's not personal. It's kind of who they are.''

The personality profiling opened lines of communication and understanding that can lead to better performance, Covington added.

"I've heard that a lot from people, who said it changed their entire year in terms of how they worked together in training groups,'' he said.

Based on previous experience, Lauscher expects to come out of this seminar inspired and more confident as she prepare for 2010.

"This might sound funny, but I feel more normal,'' she said.” It’s easy to think 'I must be the only one who gets worried about this or has to deal with this.'

"You can ask people 'did you ever have this problem and how did you deal with it?'''