Canada Playing Nasty?

Count the American speed skater Catherine Raney among the athletes, coaches and officials of several sports surprised by Canada's approach to hosting the Winter Olympics in February.

Raney spent seven years living in Canada, attending University of Calgary and training with Olympic champion Clara Hughes and other Canadian skaters. For four years, a Canadian national coach was her coach, too.

But after the 2006 Games in Italy, Raney needed to find a new home and a new coach. She was told the Canadians did not want foreign athletes training with them prior to the 2010 Games in Vancouver. Raney and many other foreign athletes expected to spend quite a bit of time practising at the Vancouver-area Olympic venues, but have been granted only minimal access.

"They're playing nasty," said Raney, now based in Utah. "I think every one of us would love to prove to them that what they did wasn't right, and we're ready to show it on the ice.''

The way Raney and athletes, coaches and officials of several other sports see it, limiting access to the sites means the Canadians are more serious about mining medals than evincing Olympic spirit.

Canadian officials said they have been following rules of access to competition sites, as set by each sport's governing body. But they also intend to protect the Olympic host's home-field advantage.

Canada has made a public quest to win more medals than ever, and more than any other country.

"By virtue of being at home, you have more access to venues,'' Cathy Priestner Allinger, executive vice president for sports of the Vancouver Organizing Committee, said this summer. ``That's the nature of it. There's no country or organizing committee that would tell you otherwise, or that wouldn't try to take advantage of some of that.''

The colliding notions of sportsmanship and gamesmanship require a delicate balance. Some say Canada may have tilted too far.

An open-access agreement between the Canadian and U.S. luge teams has come undone. Americans said most Canadians took 60 to 100 extra practice runs in Utah before the 2002 Games. Canada offered the U.S. 18 this time, in a trade for 18 Canadian runs at this year's world championships in Lake Placid, N.Y. The Americans refused.

"I guess I can intellectually say I understand it," said Ron Rossi of USA Luge, upset that a gentlemen's agreement dating to the 1980 Games has ended. "But as an honourable thing, I don't support it, and I think it shows a lack of sportsmanship.''

Last winter, foreign speed skaters were denied access to the Richmond Olympic Oval, Canadian officials said, citing a lack of proper arrangements and a last-minute decision to shut the site to add lighting. A German team spent days waiting to get in. The conflict and confusion made headlines in Canada.

At the Whistler downhill course, several medal contenders were left watching over a fence as the Canadian team trained.

"Everybody was pushing to get on that downhill," said Max Gartner, Alpine Canada's chief athletic officer. "That's an advantage we cannot give away.''

Canadian officials said that they had provided more access than any previous host, largely because their sites were completed early. But they acknowledge they are also driven to succeed at these Olympics.

"We're the only country to host two Olympic Games and never have won a gold medal at our games," Priestner Allinger said, referring to Montreal in 1976 and Calgary in 1988. ``It's not a record we're proud of.''

Canada's target this time is 35 medals, 11 more than it won in 2006 in Turin. Its Own the Podium program is pumping $110 million into the medal push, with focus on athletes most likely to win. Alpine skiers, for example, are being counted on to win two medals. Besides gold medals in hockey and curling, Canada expects big hauls from speed skating and the sliding sports.

Own the Podium emphasizes the advantage gained by giving athletes time to acclimate.

"Increased track exposure will provide athletes with the confidence they need to reach the podium," reads a section about bobsled and skeleton in the program's literature. Speed skaters were given "a strategic plan to maximize their comfort level" at the Olympic oval. Even biathletes were granted ``additional training opportunities to ensure athletes know every inch of the course.''

The benefits of familiarity vary by sport. It is vital on one-of-a-kind new sites like the track for luge, bobsled and skeleton. Canadian athletes will have had hundreds of trips down what is widely considered the world's most treacherous course. Foreign athletes will have had a few dozen.

"For sure, there's an advantage," said Tim Fars tad, executive director of Luge Canada. "That's the nature of our sport – every country has an advantage on its own track. It's not like a 100-metre sprint, where it doesn't matter where you sprint.''

At last February's luge world championships in Lake Placid, the American Erin Hamlin became the first non-German woman to win in 16 years. Weeks later, on the same track, Steven Holcomb and his four-man bobsled team became the first American world champions in 50 years.

To improve Canada's chances in skiing, the downhill course at Whistler was built each of the last two springs and surrounded with safety fencing, at a cost of $100,000.

"Once we go to downhill training in Whistler, it has to be exclusive to Canadians," Gartner said. "It is an advantage if you've run that downhill a few times. No question.''

Some rivals, including the U.S. ski team, expressed disappointment. But many understand Canada's reluctance to open up competition sites, even if the pressure to win stems largely from the organizing committee.

"It just doesn't seem like it's in the Olympic spirit," said Derek Parra, a skating medallist who now coaches the U.S. team. "It's un-Olympic.''

Among his charges is Raney, still close friends with Canadians she'll race against in February. She might have the sharpest rebuke to her neighbours to the north.

"It's un-Canadian," Raney said, laughing. "Isn't it?''

 

SOURCE: http://www.thestar.com/

 

Officials ask for Knockout of Olympic Knockoffs

At first glance, the kids' Olympic T-shirts on sale at Liquidation World outlets across the country might have come directly from their designers and exclusive retailers, Please Mum.

The familiar 2010 inukshuk logo was emblazoned on the front of the colourful shirts, precisely as patterned by the Canadian children's wear company.

But the paltry $5 price tag was a giveaway, not to mention the lack of an official 2010 Olympic label and hologram.

The shirts were fakes, and the brand police of the 2010 Winter Olympics pounced.

Within days, the purported Olympic apparel was gone, ordered off the shelves by store officials who said they had no idea they were selling counterfeit goods.

Bill Cooper, director of commercial rights for local Games organizers, pointed to the incident as a "significant win for us" in the organization's stepped-up struggle to combat a rising tide of phony merchandise as the Games near.

"The threat is real. We are seeing a growing number of cases," Mr. Cooper told a national anti-counterfeiting conference here Thursday.

"[Olympic counterfeiting] is happing in significant numbers.

"It's happening in great variety ... and it's national in scale. It isn't beyond what we planned for, but those trends are definitely happening."

More than 30,000 fake Olympic items have been uncovered and seized to date, mostly clothing, but also glassware, mugs, key chains, pins and even official 2010 maple syrup, Mr. Cooper said.

Customs officials have confiscated several shipments of counterfeit products at the border, while others were discovered by what the VANOC official called "our eyes and ears across Canada."

VANOC has called on anti-counterfeiting specialists Kestenberg Siegal Lipkus for assistance in its battle to ferret out fakes.

"We are doing regular sweeps across the country ... from Victoria to Halifax," Mr. Cooper said.

While Canada is hardly awash in unauthorized Olympic merchandise as was Beijing during last year's Summer Games, when hawkers brazenly sold cheap Games T-shirts from cardboard boxes just outside the main media centre, Mr. Cooper said that vigilance is vital nonetheless to protect the Olympic brand and Canada's international reputation.

As well, too many unauthorized sales could eat into the $500-million VANOC expects to reap from Olympic-branded merchandise and harm its 41 official licensees, who have paid for the right to market official 2010 products.

Please Mum vice-president Stephen Lee said the presence of copy-cat goods at Liquidation World was a shock to the 20-year-old Vancouver-based firm, which has about 80 stores across Canada.

The fake, $5 Olympic T-shirts were very crude counterfeits of children's wear that Please Mum sells for $24, Mr. Lee said. "It looked the same, but the quality was poor. When you see something like that up against your brand, it's disheartening."

He said the theft ripping off of its Olympic design was a first for the company. "They say copycatting is the sincerest form of flattery, but that sure doesn't make it very exclusive."

Liquidation World president Seth Marks said the retail chain in no way condones the sale of counterfeit goods. "We take the matter very seriously. When we found out about this [from VANOC], we immediately recalled all that merchandise off the floor."

Mr. Marks said the company accepted the T-shirts in good faith from a long-time supplier, without knowing they were unauthorized.

Liquidation World is pursuing legal action against the supplier, which Mr. Marks would not name. "We had never had a problem with them before, so we are extremely disappointed."

He said only several thousand Olympic T-shirts were put on sale "but whether it's one or a million pieces, that's not what we're all about."

Mr. Cooper said no criminal charges have been laid in any of the 40 or so seizures of merchandise with unauthorized Olympic logos, with VANOC preferring to work out private settlements with offenders.

He added that no one has been able to track any counterfeit goods to their original source. Much of the trade in fakes comes from-offshore, Mr. Cooper said. "Typically, in the counterfeit industry, there are many layers."

 

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

 

Carrying a Torch

It's official - I'm now special in an Olympic way. I mean, I suppose it was official before but it really sunk in as reality when I saw the following in my email inbox this morning: You will be participating December 22, 2009, which is Day 54 of the relay. On this day, the Olympic Flame will travel from from Brantford to Chatham. Visit vancouver2010.com for complete route details. That's right - for those who did not already know I will be running with this in my hand in only a few months time ... ... but wait - there's more! Yep - that's right, I get to keep the thing when I'm done. Pretty cool, eh? I'm not going to go into the whole deal about how I actually won two opportunities and had to turn one down - mainly because it just seems like tooting my own horn. (Toot toot!) The long and the short of it that I do realize just how lucky I am to have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, even though in my rare case it just happened to come twice. Anyway, what I do want to ask if that you put a beer on ice for me on December 27th (2009) and get ready to cheer for me if you by chance live in any of the following Ontario communities: Brantford, Paris, Scotland, Simcoe, Delhi, Courtland, Tillsonburg, Aylmer, St. Thomas, Oneida of the Thames, Chippewas of the Thames, Munsee-Delaware, Rodney, Ridgetown, Blenheim and/or Chatham. Sadly I won't be running through all of these wonderful places - only one of them - which sadly I do not get to choose. I'll release details as they become available but if you live in any of these places I strongly urge you to start chilling those beers now. Nothing works up a thirst like jogging through a brisk Canadian winter day. Well, that is all I have for now - its a LONG weekend here, as I suspect it is many other places - but I wanted to briefly take a break from drinking beer to share my update. I hope you all have a wonderful close to summer and wish you all the best. CHEERS! PS - to all CIRA members or those who hold a .ca domain -- I have been nominated to be part of the 2010 board and would appreciate it if you would show me (Lincoln 'Canucklehead' McCardle) your support HERE.