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."

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THE PREDICTION

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

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