Watch the Torch Relay Live!

I know a lot of you want to watch me run on December 22^nd – heck, some of you may even want to watch someone else. While others just want to watch the torch run and could care less who is carrying it. Well, you are now in luck -- Using a specially-mounted streaming camera on the media truck accompanying the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay, CTVOlympics.ca and Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium are proud to present live coverage of the torch relay as it crosses the country. Want to have a look – go here:

 

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/torch/follow-torch/index.html

 

Enjoy and go Canada!

My Torch to Bear

Well, I've been talking for some time about me running with the Olympic torch, and have previously published some details (Dec. 22 - Paris Ontario - 8Am). Anyways, I'm excited to announce that I received my torchbearer outfit the other night. After reading the accompanying booklet I learned that I should (against my better judgment) try said uniform on just to make sure it fit. So I did. Yes, there is a picture below but I think there is some important facts to relay first:

• I'm currently participating in Movember, whereby one grows a moustache and people sponsor said moustache and the proceeds go to Prostate Cancer. I look terrible in a moustache but it's for a good cause. Actually, that being said - if you care to sponsor me you can do so HERE. Regardless, it will be gone when I run with the torch.

• I'll be carrying the Olympic torch. It is my sincere hope that this fact alone, coupled with the lack of moustache should subtract from the overall dorkiness.

Okay, I've kept you in suspense long enough, I'm not exactly sure I'm allowed to do this but then again I don't remember reading anywhere that I couldn't. I mean, we see the torchbearer uniform all the time on TV now right? OK - here goes nothing:

I know what you are thinking and yes - sorry ladies, I'm taken! I figure if nothing else this outfit will help ensure the torch does in fact reach Vancouver on time. Me - beating the ladies off with one had as I run for my life - it will be a sight to behold! Anyway, there is your sneak peek and thanks for coming by .. you can see future details as they come available by stopping by here or my other place. All the best and GO CANADA GO! Cheers! PS - I almost forgot, for those who actually hope to be there but are not sure how there are a TON of contest running right now and certainly more on the way - check HERE for details.

Torch Relay Bearly Continues

The Olympic flame began its journey to the furthest point north in its history by stopping off first at a town known for the Arctic's most familiar icon - the polar bear.

Unfortunately, the torch relay didn't venture near Wapusk National Park on the shores of Hudson Bay, just near here, where the polar bears congregate in the hundreds this time of year waiting for the ice to freeze so they can go seal hunting for a few months. The convoy with the Olympic flame was, however, briefly interrupted while driving in from the airport when a polar bear crossed the road.

The people of Churchill have a complex relationship with the polar bear, says Paul Watts who, when he isn't volunteering to drive torch relay staff around when they come to town, is studying the polar bear. He has a doctorate in Arctic studies from the University of Oslo.

While it is the largest and most deadly terrestrial carnivore, the polar bear also represents a meal ticket, of sorts. Thousands of tourists descend on Churchill every fall to see the bears as they gather in anticipation of heading out onto the ice fields. For a town of just over 1,000, there are eight hotels - mostly to accommodate tourists.

"When you live here you don't do anything without considering the polar bear," Dr. Watts said. "When you take out the garbage you're aware. When you take your kids to school it's the last thing you tell them - look out for bears.

"There a number of reasons why a bear might come after you: because you've surprised them; because you've come between a mother and her cub; because they're hungry or because they just want to kill and eat you - but you may want to phrase it a little differently than that."

Roberta Wokes, who was born and raised in Churchill and has eight children she looks after, says the surest sign that a bear is roaming around town is when you hear a gunshot.

"Most people have a shotgun with them when they go out because you just never know," Ms. Wokes said. "It's just a fact of life here. Most people don't lock their doors because you never know when someone might need a place to run into."

Dianne Howell remembers the day a few years ago when she came face to face with a polar bear. Fortunately, the bear was on the other side of a glass window.

"But as soon as he saw me he stood up on his haunches and he was just gigantic and I completely froze," Ms. Howell recalled. "I was at the school I was working at and I left the room and started walking down the hall and the bear started following me on the outside. I went into an office and looked out and who was staring right back at me?"

Churchill shut down the famous garbage dump outside town that the bears would come and feast at - and which provided a staging ground for so many photo opportunities for tourists. The town instituted a polar bear alert program that has drastically reduced the number of bear-human interactions.

The town also has a polar bear jail out near the airport. This is where they keep bears that are repeat offenders - bears who insist on wandering into town. The bears are kept inside small cages - accommodations meant to send a message that this is what happens when you stray where you shouldn't. After some time, the bears are taken out to a remote area and released.

In recent years, Churchill has been invaded by wildlife scientists who are studying the polar bear population and looking for signs that it may be in trouble because of the effects of global warming.

Air temperatures in the Arctic have increased, on average, about 5 degrees over the last 100 years. Arctic sea ice, particularly in the Hudson Bay area, shrank 3 per cent between 1978 and 1996. And most scientists believe it may have shrunk another 1 or 2 per cent since the last study period concluded.

The state of the sea ice is particularly worrying for the polar bear. It needs the ice so it can go out and feed on ring seals in the winter. For every week the ice breaks up earlier than normal, the bears come ashore 10 kilograms lighter and in poorer condition. Reproductive success is also tied closely to body condition.

The torch relay was scheduled to leave Churchill yesterday afternoon to head to Alert, Nunavut. Alert is only 500 miles from the North Pole - the farthest north the Olympic flame has ever travelled.

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

Canadian Athletes Acting UnCanadian?

They are worthy heirs to the Rocket's incandescent eyes, which is appropriate given Canada's national short-track speed-skating team has been based at the Aréna Maurice-Richard for the past 14 years.

As the 100-day countdown to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics begins, the Canadian team hosts its international rivals for a World Cup event this week. And if there's a whiff of renewed competitive spirit and, dare we say, swagger, among Canada's Winter Olympic athletes, few embody it as convincingly as the short trackers.

Take François-Louis Tremblay, a Saguenay native who won a pair of silver medals at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

"I don't think there's any benefit to false modesty here, we aren't going to the Olympics just to finish in the top 10," he told The Globe this week.

As befits its namesake, the Richard arena, which slouches in the shadow of the Olympic Stadium in Montreal's east end, is a venue for auspicious occasions. Since its dedication in 1961, the building has hosted such events as Olympic boxing and the founding convention of the Parti Québécois.

But this week is all about short track. And the hometown athletes are keen to make some noise at the World Cup and in their final tune-up next week in Marquette, Mich.

"We want to arrive at the Olympics as a dominant team that everyone else will be watching closely," said Mr. Tremblay, who has been a national team member for 12 years.

That confidence is hardly misplaced.

The Canadian athletes are about to embark on the final stretch of a four-year training and development program that was set out in the weeks after the 2006 Games.

They have been working essentially without pause since April - six days a week, on the ice and in the weight room.

First-time Olympian Guillaume Bastille, a 24-year-old, 1,500-metre specialist from Rivière-du-Loup, Que., has even doubled up his training schedule: He follows the national team training program and also skates with the development team.

"It's been pretty intense, but I need to do a lot of work to feel ready," he said.

Although short track is known for its nonconformists and spirited rivalries, the Canadian team is close-knit and determined to draw maximum benefit from the home-country Games.

"I'd say there are no self-proclaimed leaders here, everyone brings something to the training sessions, we all work with one another, and it raises the level for everyone," Mr. Tremblay said.

He missed a large chunk of the team's off-season training after stepping on a tree root and damaging an ankle; he earned a medical exemption into the Olympic squad. Although just 28, Mr. Tremblay passes for a grizzled veteran presence on a squad that features a gaggle of first-time Olympians.

Short-track skating - so called because the athletes whiz around a hockey-sized rink on speed skates - is something of a frantic pursuit, replete with frequent falls, crashes and disqualifications.

That makes predicting outcomes a dodgy proposition, but Canada's national team has set a goal of winning six medals at the coming Games.

Given this country's past Olympic successes in the discipline - 20 medals since the sport debuted at the 1992 Albertville Games - the target seems reasonable.

Charles Hamelin of Lévis, Que., is the current world champion at 500 metres and is one of Canada's brightest medal hopes in Vancouver. "I feel great, and I think we're exactly where we wanted to be at this point in terms of preparation. ... This week feels like a smaller version of the Olympics, 100 days ahead of time," said the 25-year-old, who won a relay silver in Turin.

Mr. Tremblay and the irrepressible, dreadlocked Olivier Jean of Lachenaie, Que., are also top contenders at 500 metres (they finished third and fourth at the Worlds). Both are also threats at 1,000 metres (as are Mr. Hamelin and his younger brother François) and at 1,500 metres.

On the women's side, world 500-metre bronze medalist Jessica Gregg and two-time Olympic silver-medal winner Kalyna Roberge lead a contingent that will contend for several medals - although they'll have a tall order in trying to overtake China's Meng Wang, the most dominant woman in the sport, for gold.

Although the current World Cup arrives on the heels of an exhausting eight-week conditioning stretch, the Canadians are primed for this week. The energy has been palpable in the Canadian quarter of the Aréna Maurice-Richard.

On Monday, the athletes milled among the television cameras and munched on oranges (it's flu season, after all). "We're at home, so it would be fun to put on a show, but we're not putting any pressure on ourselves," said Marianne St-Gelais, one of two 19-year-olds who will skate in the Olympics. "We're a little febrile, but in a good way."

Ms. Roberge of St. Étienne-de-Lauzon, Que., who also won silver in Turin and, at age 23, will skate in her second Games, said this week's event, which is expected to unfold before a packed house, is a nice tonic for athletes so resolutely focused on February.

"If you're always looking through binoculars at something that's three months down the road it gets heavy after a while," she said.

At the same time, the physical and mental preparations are ramping up.

"We're starting to show our teeth a little in training, you can see it in the relays," Ms. Roberge said.

"The idea that we could find ourselves on the podium with medals around our necks in Vancouver is starting to settle in."

* * * * *

THE PREDICTION

Canada 29, U.S. 28, Germany 28, Norway 25, Austria 18

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