Week in Pictures: March 3rd – March 10th 2010

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 2:54 PM - 0 Comments

Down-home and just plain cozy

By Andrew Coyne - Friday, February 26, 2010 at 8:18 PM - 8 Comments

As big as the Olympics are, they’re still pretty small-time, when you get right down to it. I imagine that’s true of most things. Probably once you get inside the White House or Buckingham Palace it’s no big whoop. Still, it’s an unexpected delight to find how informal the Games can be.

At the Whistler Creekside ski hill for the ladies slalom today, the crowds in attendance are fair-sized, but hardly overwhelming: about 5000. I had expected much Swiss-timing solemnity, but instead there’s a festive air to the whole thing, notwithstanding this is the biggest day of the competitors’ lives.

There’s music playing somewhere, and a pair of announcers talking each of the skiers down, finding something positive and encouraging to say about each (more than 80 in all) of them, in both official languages. The concession stands are busy, face-painted fans are walking around beers in hand, and the cowbells—yes, the cowbells are constant.

This, though the conditions are miserable: fog and rain, turning to snow. You can’t see the top half of the run from the bottom at the best of times because of the hill’s layout, but you can barely make out the skiers even 100 yards up. In consequence, most of the press and spectators are watching the whole thing on a massive screen mounted above the timing stand. Seems a long way to go to watch TV.

The course is kept skiable by an army of support crew, who close in after each skier does her run to sweep and scrape the snow back over the spots that have become rough. Some carry shovels, some—the “slippers”—use their skis. They keep at it until seconds before the next skier comes down, somehow always sensing how much time they have.

Maria Riesch of Germany skis the first run nearly half a second faster than anyone else. She’s the story of the women’s alpine skiing competition already, with four top 10 finishes including a gold in the Super Combined. Apparently that came as a surprise, but it’s evident even to these untutored eyes how much smoother she’s skiing than most of the others. There’s no movement in her upper body, and her turns are fluid and unhurried.

The conditions grow worse as the day wears on. On the second run, Marlies Schild of Austria puts down the fastest time, but Riesch is so far ahead of her from her first that she has only to stay close to take the gold. Her victory is bittersweet, however: her kid sister Susanne, in fourth after the first run, skids out on the second (as do at least a dozen others). There’s a tender shot on the big screen of Maria holding her close, for a long time.

At the press conference afterward, the questions are small-town fawning. “How great does it feel to win a second gold?” A middle-aged German journalist peppers each of the skiers with his adoration: “Maria, you’re a fighter, you have so much guts…” “Marlies, you’ve been such a force on the world cup tour…” They blush and giggle out their answers, in halting English. It’s all quite appealingly unprofessional.

Oh, and the Canadians? Brigitte Action leads the way, in 17th. Anna Goodman is 19th, and Erin Mielzynksi 20th. Not our event, yet, but the oldest of them is 24. There’s time.

Why we stink at ski jumping

By Michael Friscolanti - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 12:56 AM - 6 Comments

If he weren’t so busy being a ski jumper, Eric Mitchell would make one fine Olympic volunteer. Like all those helpful folks wearing the light green uniforms in Vancouver and Whistler, the 17-year-old is polite, chipper and more than happy to answer any question—including this one: Why is your team so dreadful?

“We are a very, very committed group of ski jumpers,” Mitchell says, still smiling. “I know the results don’t look amazing on paper.”

That’s putting it mildly. Canada’s four-man squad came to the Vancouver Games with uninspiring expectations; Brent Morrice, the chairman of Ski Jumping Canada, said even one Top-20 finish would be reason to celebrate. Well, they didn’t come close to that. With a dead last showing in Monday’s team event, our ski jumpers actually performed worse in Whistler than they did four years ago in Turin. Only Stefan Read—the 22-year-old “veteran” of the team—managed anything better than a “Did Not Qualify.” He advanced to the second round of the large hill competition, ending up 46^th out of 50.

“No, I’m not happy,” says Morrice, whose son, Trevor, is one of the four Canadian jumpers. “We could have done better. I don’t know exactly what the key is, but I know it takes four years of preparation, not four weeks, and I don’t think that we had enough focus throughout the last four years to do what we had to do.”

Forgive us, ski-jumping experts, but the results seem baffling. If any country appears destined to dominate the ramp, it’s Canada. We have snow. We have skis. We even have people who like to ski on snow. So what gives? Why aren’t our jumpers landing on the podium? Trevor Morrice, Brent’s son, sums it up best. “Ski jumping died in Canada for ten years,” he says. “And we had to rebuild slowly.”

And it’s still very much a work in progress.

The death of Canadian ski jumping can be traced back to the days of Horst Bulau, the legendary leaper who was blessed not only with talent, but with the greatest name in the history of sports. The Ottawa native spent the 1980s winning World Cup titles and contending for Olympic medals. At the Calgary Games in 1988, he finished 9^th in the same event that Read just placed 46^th. “We took our eye off the grassroots program and we focused mainly on Horst and the national team,” Brent Morrice says now, recalling those glory days. “Eventually, one by one, they quit, and we found ourselves without a team.” The well was so dried up that between 1994 and 2002, Canada didn’t even bother sending ski jumpers to the Winter Olympics.

It wasn’t until the late-1990s that a small group of volunteers in Alberta embarked on a plan to rebuild the sport in Canada. As Eric Mitchell recalls, he was just seven years old when he first saw the advertisement for junior ski-jumping classes at the Olympic Park in Calgary. “I told my dad I wanted to do it,” he says. “He didn’t know what it was, either.” Today, Mitchell’s dad is president of the Altius Nordic Ski Club, the one and only place in Canada that offers an entry-level program for aspiring jumpers. It’s no secret why all four of our Olympians (Read, Mitchell, Morrice and Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes) are all Altius products. There simply isn’t another club to choose from.

Brent Morrice hopes to change all that. Speaking passionately after his team’s forgettable Olympic performance, he said he is working hard to open the old jumps in Thunder Bay, Ont., which were closed a decade ago in the face of provincial budget cuts. He is also in talks with officials in Squamish, B.C., not far from Whistler, to construct their own junior training facility that will be a link to the pair of championship ramps built for the 2010 Games. “Look at this sport,” Morrice says, pointing at the packed bleachers behind him. “It’s a fantastic Olympic event, it’s sold out every Olympics, and people are electrified around here. Even the Canadians are electrified, even though we don’t have a winner. Ski Jumping Canada is committed to getting them winners, and we’re going to do what it takes to make that happen.”

Some dollar bills would certainly help. This season, the team received $125,000 in public funding, a paltry sum compared to the millions doled out for other, much more popular sports. Some of that money came from “Own the Podium,” but because the federal program typically rewards athletes who show promise in other international competitions, the ski jumpers didn’t exactly measure up. “Out of that money we need to pay two coaches, buy equipment, and travel across the world,” Morrice says. “It’s very difficult.” In fact, it may have been impossible if not for the generosity of well-known Vancouver chef Lesley Stowe, creator of the very popular cracker-like snack, Raincoast Crisps. The team’s primary sponsor, she donated $75,000 this season alone.

Indeed, Canada’s ski jumpers are hardly a spoiled bunch. Simon Ammann, who took home two golds this week, is a god in his home country of Switzerland. Sponsors line up at his door, endorsements are endless, and he has one job: to ski jump. Contrast that with Eric Mitchell, who works part-time at a French Connection clothing store when he’s not studying for high school exams. Or Stefan Read, who still lives with his parents and in between training runs waits tables at a golf course banquet hall. “They’re my number one sponsor,” he says of his folks. “We always joke around and say: Put ‘Mom and Dad’ on the helmet. Other guys have Red Bull.”

Read can laugh about it now, but in the weeks to come he will have some serious decisions to make. With two Olympics under his skis, the 22-year-old has more than enough potential to one day compete with the Simon Ammanns of the world. But is it worth the sacrifice? “We have fantastic athletes right up until they are about 17 or 18, but then if there is no future and there is no money, they’ve got to get on with their lives,” Morrice says. “They won’t continue ski jumping if they have to pay to ski jump on the national team. It’s very difficult for a guy like Stefan Read to continue in his 20s.”

Eric Mitchell is already worried about that scenario. He’ll be 21 at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia, and 25 in 2018—when he is certain he will be good enough to challenge for a medal. “I love the sport so much that I am going to commit everything I possibly can to this, but the thing is we don’t have enough of a support system,” he says. “I’m finishing high school this year, and it’s really hard for athletes like me to really carry on in our sport because the next level isn’t very well set up for us. If mom and dad have got me this far, imagine what a full sponsor will be able to do for us. We have the people. We have the motivation.”

All that’s missing are the results.

Another disappointing day for Canada’s alpine skiers

By Michael Friscolanti - Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 7:34 PM - 6 Comments

Emily Brydon didn’t win a medal at today’s Super-G slalom. She didn’t even complete the race, wiping out long before the finish line came into view. But a few minutes later, when the soon-to-be retired skier finally did reach the bottom of the hill, the hometown crowd at Whistler Creekside erupted into a gold-medal frenzy.

Brydon’s Olympic career was officially over—her podium dreams dashed for good—and the fans wanted to acknowledge her efforts. “I’ve never been more honoured to be Canadian,” said Brydon, 29, her watery eyes hidden by a pair of large sunglasses. “The Olympic Games are a very emotional thing. It is so powerful and so full of passion and spirit, and I laid my heart and soul onto that track. And because it didn’t work out, I think it’s even more emotional.”

Sadly, “Didn’t Work Out” has become the unofficial catchphrase of Canada’s alpine ski team, which has failed to snag even a single medal on home snow. What was supposed to be a downhill showcase in our own backyard has been downgraded to a daily discussion about why everything is going so horribly wrong. Yesterday, it was the men who missed the podium at the Super-G. Today, it was the ladies. “It’s frustrating because we know the potential,” said Brydon, 29. “But potential isn’t results, and unfortunately in the world of sports, results matter.”

Today’s results went like this: Andrea Fischbacher of Austria won the gold, with a flawless run of 1:20.63. The silver went to Tina Maze of Slovenia, while American superstar Lindsey Vonn took the bronze, her second medal of the 2010 Games. The top Canadian was Vancouver native Britt Janyk, who finished a distant 17th. Georgia Simmerling, also of Vancouver, placed 27th, while Canmore’s Shona Rubens missed a turn and did not finish. “Obviously, I’m frustrated and disappointed that I didn’t walk away with a medal because I know I could be there,” said Janyk, who placed a respectable sixth in Wednesday’s downhill event. “But I also know it’s not easy. It’s very, very, very difficult in Alpine skiing to win a gold.”

Janyk acknowledged that the Canadian team had ample opportunity to train on the Whistler slopes, and she didn’t try to pin the no-medal blame on unrealistic hype or hometown pressure. “We came in with high expectations, and that’s how we should have come in because we knew that we could be in the medals,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a failure, because we raced hard. We can just ask ourselves to go out and ski our best, and some days it’s tenth and some days it’s first.”

Or, as in Brydon’s case, it’s a nasty spill that left her scraped, bruised, and barely able to crouch for the mandatory post-race urine test. “I won’t forget that one,” she joked afterwards. “It’s definitely not what I’d hoped or envisioned or planned. You know, there are so many possibilities out there for greatness and there are so many opportunities, and it just wasn’t my time. I wasn’t able to capitalize.”

When asked if those Canadian fans cheering in the stands should be disappointed by her team’s performance, Brydon pointed out, quite rightly, that not every race has been a total disaster. Along with Janyk’s top-six finish in the women’s downhill, Erik Guay missed a bronze in the men’s Super G by a mere three one-hundredths of a second. “For sure you want to be the best in your home. That is without a doubt and it goes without saying. But you know what? The best skiers are winning,” she said. “I can’t speak for anyone else but myself, but I gave it my best and I know my best on good days is enough to win. But it just wasn’t here.”

It was for Fischbacher, who—unlike her Canadian competitors—managed to swipe a very large monkey off her entire team’s back. Until today, ski-mad Austria had managed only one alpine medal (a bronze) but Fischbacher’s dominating run ended the golden drought. “It is just crazy,” she said. “A dream is coming true.”

Canada’s alpine skiers have five chances left to snag that same dream, beginning with the men’s Super Combined tomorrow (a two-heat race of downhill and slalom). Brydon will be in street clothes, rooting for her teammates. “You can’t stop believing,” she said. “You can’t. As soon as you stop believing, the results will stop coming.”

But first they have to start coming.

Lindsey Vonn

By macleans.ca - Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 2:22 PM - 0 Comments

Canadian alpine ski team empty-handed: "It sucks"

By Michael Friscolanti - Friday, February 19, 2010 at 10:25 PM - 6 Comments

If honesty were an Olympic event, Robbie Dixon would be wearing a shiny gold medal around his neck. The Canadian skier—fresh off another disastrous run on the slopes of Whistler—was as candid as they come during his post-race chat with reporters. “It sucks. It hurts. I’m pretty pissed.”

Dixon isn’t just peeved about his own performance, a crash and burn during today’s Super G slalom. His entire team has failed to live up to the hometown hype that followed them to the 2010 Games. With four alpine events now finished (two men’s and two women’s) not a single Canadian downhill skier has earned a place on the podium. “It’s a bummer,” Dixon said. “There were definitely very big expectations coming in here, and I think those expectations were legit. They weren’t far-fetched. We had the tools and we had the coaching staff and everything we needed, and the fact that we’ve come away empty-handed, it’s hard to swallow.”

As the Canadians slump, their U.S. rivals are thriving. Bode Miller captured silver in Friday’s Super G—his second medal of the Olympics—while Andrew Weibrecht snatched the bronze. (Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway won gold.) The American skiing squad now has six alpine medals in total, and with six more events to go, that number is almost certain to climb.

And how’s this for adding insult to injury? When asked why the U.S. team is performing so well, Wiebrecht suggested that the Americans feel at home in the mountains of British Columbia. “We’re on North American soil,” he said. “And we always seem to have better results when we’re at home or closer to home.”
That home snow advantage was supposed to be the key to our success on the hills (not to mention almost $2.2 million worth of “Own the Podium” funding for 11 specific skiers, Dixon included). As first reported in Maclean’s, Alpine Canada even went so far as to equip the team with missile-guidance GPS systems during practice, which allowed coaches and racers to dissect every inch of the Whistler course and find the best routes for attacking gates and turns. So much for that.

“I’ve learned that there are only three positions in ski racing that count: one, two and three,” Dixon said. “Fourth and beyond really don’t count. All I can take away from this is the fact that I was able to race in the Olympics for my home country in my backyard—on my home hill. It is something that no one can take away from me and it’s pretty special. But I came here, obviously, to win, and that didn’t happen.”

One Canadian skier did come close to the podium today: Erik Guay. The Quebec native immediately followed Svindal’s gold-worthy run with an impressive performance of his own, good enough for fifth. At 1:30.68, Guay finished only 0.34 seconds behind the winner—and the only thing standing between him and the bronze were three measly one-hundredths of a second. If not for a slight mistake coming around the third gate, Guay may have been just fast enough to redeem the rest of his underperforming team. “There’s not much I can say,” he said. “I’m a couple hundredths from third place, a couple hundredths from second, and three-tenths from the victory. It was in my grasp. It was there today.”

Despite the top-five finish, Guay also acknowledged the obvious: that by this point in the Olympics, people expected so much more from Canada’s alpine team. “It is disappointing for us and I think for Canada also,” he said. “We were here to deliver medals and we wanted to deliver medals, but it just didn’t happen.”

No one symbolizes that disappointment more than Manuel Osborne-Paradis, the 25-year-old who cut his skis on the slopes of Whistler when he could still barely walk. Whether he liked it or not, the B.C. native was the public face of Alpine Canada, the same one featured in that CTV commercial saying “losing is not an option.” Losing, unfortunately, is what he did. Osborne-Paradis placed a disappointing 17th in Monday’s downhill event, and in today’s Super G, he crashed long before the finish line. His Olympics are now over.

Over the past two years, Osborne-Paradis has done his best to downplay the Games, at one point saying he would rather win the overall World Cup skiing title than an Olympic gold. In the lead-up to Vancouver, countless reporters asked him how he was going to handle the pressure of skiing in front of hometown fans. His answer was always the same: I’ll treat it like every other event. This afternoon, standing in front of reporters yet again—his medal hopes dashed—he was asked whether the pressure finally got to him. After a long pause, he answered this way: “I liked the pressure. I liked the fact that people’s eyes were on me and wanted me to do well, because I think I’ve always done better like that. The expectations push you harder. I liked it. There was a lot of it here, and it was more than we’ve ever had, but I don’t think I succumbed to anything. I think it was just a good opportunity, and it was an opportunity lost.”

Do Canadians have a right to be disappointed, not only in you, but the rest of your teammates? “They have a reason to be disappointed,” he said. “Everybody has a reason to be disappointed. That’s what the expectations were—and that was our expectation, too.”

Maria Riesch makes the world forget Lindsey Vonn (at least temporarily)

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 10:42 PM - 2 Comments

Lindsey Vonn lost today, the victim of a very nasty wipeout. But the crash itself wasn’t nearly as painful as what happened a few minutes later, when America’s sweetheart of the slopes picked herself up, clicked her skis back on, and coasted down the rest of the hill. Waiting at the finish line, hugging and whooping it up for the cameras, were the three skiers who did win a medal in the women’s super combined. Vonn had no choice but to slam on the brakes and wait for the victory photo-op to wrap up.

“I tried as hard as I could, but it just unfortunately didn’t go my way today,” said the Minnesota native, who struck gold a day earlier in the women’s downhill. “But that’s ski racing. I wish I could have made it to the bottom, but that’s life.”

To say she choked is a tad unfair, but this was Vonn’s event to win. She finished the first heat (the downhill) with the fastest time in the field, and a respectable showing in the second race (the slalom) would have assured the U.S. star at least a spot on the podium. But after some impressive second runs by her closest rivals—including Germany’s Maria Riesch, the eventual gold medal winner, and American teammate Julia Mancuso, who took the silver—Vonn said she had no choice but to “attack” the course. Unfortunately for her, it attacked back. Coming out of a particularly difficult turn, her right ski clipped one of the slalom gates and sent the rest of her body tumbling toward a very rare DNF (Did Not Finish).

“I wanted to get the gold medal,” she said afterwards. “I won gold yesterday so I didn’t really want to shoot for something lower than that. I knew I was capable of winning. I knew it was possible. I could have skied a safe run and probably still got a bronze medal, but I didn’t really want to do that.”

That bronze went to Anja Paerson, the Swedish skier who suffered her own spectacular crash during Wednesday’s downhill (leaving her with a “bruised butt,” among other bumps and scratches). Until just minutes before today’s first heat, the 28-year-old wasn’t even sure she could compete. “I was pretty scared this morning because it was hurting a lot,” Paerson said. “[But] I got the atmosphere at the start and then I got the determination in my head. I knew I had to go for it.” She certainly made the right choice. Her bronze was her sixth Olympic medal, tying her for most-ever by a female Alpine skier.

But the day ultimately belonged to Riesch, the power-skiing German who finished second behind Vonn in the first heat but roared back with a flawless slalom that pushed her into top spot—and put the pressure squarely on her American opponent. “To win a gold medal, everything must be perfect that day for you,” said Riesch, who was forced to miss the 2006 Games in Turin because of an injured ACL. “And today, everything was perfect for me.”

At the post-race press conference, a reporter asked Riesch if she felt sorry for Vonn, whose crash officially sealed her first Olympic gold. The two women, both 25, are actually dear friends. They vacation with each other in the off-season, and have spent more than one Christmas together. “To be honest, in the first moment you just think: ‘I won the race,’ ” she said. “That’s normal, and I think anybody does the same. I think [Wednesday] she was also happy that I was slower than her and she won the gold medal. It’s normal, but of course I felt bad for her. She has a gold medal from yesterday, today was a bad day for her, and yesterday was a bad day for me. That’s how sports is.”

Riesch was not the only skier who made the world forget Lindsey Vonn (at least temporarily). Amid all the pre-Olympic hype surrounding her teammate—who attracted more than a few new fans by donning a swimsuit for Sports Illustrated—Julia Mancuso has quietly become the most accomplished skier in U.S. Olympic history, with one gold and two silvers. She was so elated by her slalom run this afternoon that she fell to the ground and kicked her feet in the air. “That’s the Julia dance,” she laughed. “It is that moment you wait for as an athlete—the moment that you realize: ‘I have been working so hard for this moment, and anything is possible.’ I just believed and went for it.”

Canada’s female skiers were not so thrilled. Georgia Simmerling, injured in Wednesday’s downhill, was unable to compete. Shona Rubens of Canmore, Alta., was the top Canadian, finishing 12th, while Emily Brydon of Fernie, B.C., placed 14th. Despite the home hill advantage, not a single alpine skier wearing the Maple Leaf—male or female—has stood on a podium this Olympics. “I wish we weren’t in the boat we are in, but we are,” Brydon said. “That’s the reality of it. I don’t think we could have done anything differently to be more prepared.”

Canada’s next chance for a skiing medal comes Friday at the men’s Super Giant Slalom. As for Lindsey Vonn, she’ll be taking the day off—“getting as much therapy as humanly possible” on a famously bruised right shin—in preparation for the ladies’ Super G on Saturday.

Lindsey Vonn wins races—and hops fences

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 3:35 PM - 2 Comments

Lindsey Vonn has a badly bruised right shin. Or so we’re told.

Days before the Olympics kicked off, the U.S. skiing star-slash-swimsuit model said the pain in her leg was so fierce that she may have to pull out of the Games—a nightmare scenario not only for the American squad, but for every man who saw her on the cover of Sports Illustrated and suddenly became a fan of alpine skiing. Yet there she was on Wednesday afternoon, whipping the rest of the field—on the nastiest of downhill courses—for a runaway gold medal.

This morning, after a long night of celebrating, Vonn and her sore right shin were back in championship form, finishing atop the first heat of the women’s Super Combined with a time of 1:24:16. If she can tame the slalom later this afternoon, the undisputed heartthrob of the 2010 Games will also be its first athlete to capture two golds.

So how’s the shin? “It’s not good,” she told reporters after the first run. “It’s really hurting and I’m struggling with it. It’s definitely the most painful it’s been since I started skiing on it, but there’s nothing really I can do. I just have to try to do therapy and try to tough it out today.” That therapy, it seems, includes some fence hopping.

At Whister’s Creekside course, competitors exit the course through a red carpet-style runway lined with journalists and photographers. When she finished her final scrum a few minutes ago, Vonn didn’t bother waiting for someone to unlock the gate and let her through. To the horror of her handlers, she simply climbed over. “Are you sure you should do that?” asked one of the American officials standing with her. By then, she was already halfway over.

Safely on the other side, Vonn smiled for the cameras one more time, clicked on her skis, and glided away. Shin looks fine.

Women's downhill marred by crashes

By Nicholas Köhler - Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 8:12 PM - 3 Comments

[This post has been updated with corrections]

When eight Olympic-level competitors flame out in a spectacular series of falls, false starts and accidental diversions, you have to wonder whether it’s you, not them.

That’s what organizers must be asking themselves after the ladies’ downhill event at Whistler Creekside ended in an avalanche of gasp-inducing spills. The high rate of DNFs is raising questions about the difficulty of the course, icy conditions, and the lack of training time made available to athletes.

In the case of 20-year-old Canadian Georgia Simmerling, the crashes were so violent coaches pulled her from competition.

“RACE UPDATE Georgia DNS the ladies’ downhill due to the course being dangerous due to lack of training runs. Safe and excited for tomorrow!” read an entry on Simmerling’s Twitter page.

Organizers said they would shave down a bump at the end of the course that caused one skier to fly 60 metres before she collapsed at the bottom, and introduce other modifications to improve the run.

But they dismissed suggestions it had been unsafe during competition.

“I think it was acceptable for sure but it was very difficult,” said one International Ski Federation (FIS) official, explaining that moisture over the past few days had super-injected the surface with speed. He added: “I can’t take responsibility for every crash on the hill—it may disappoint you, but I can’t.”

Athletes described an inconsistent, bumpy course of heavy terrain and icy conditions, though some admitted they had taken risks in their pursuit of a medal. One said the women had been “spoiled” by a season of ideal conditions internationally that had left them ill-prepared for the difficult snow on the Whistler run.

“This is probably the bumpiest course that I’ve ever done,” said Lindsey Vonn, who skied through the pain on a bruised shin to win gold medal in the event; her teammate Julia Mancuso took silver, while bronze went to Austrian Elisabeth Goergl.

Poor weather conditions had scuttled training runs and competition over the past days; though FIS mandates two training runs before competition, the women had been forced to contend with one incomplete session.

Canadian skier Emily Brydon said the competition went ahead today to take advantage of the sun in a resort area—Whistler—infamous for variable weather. “You know carpe diem–carpe le solei,” she said.

Brydon, who had been an outside hope for a medal, came 16th, while fellow Canadian Britt Janyk took sixth.

“I felt like the course skied me and I didn’t ski the course,” said Bryden. “It’s probably the most exhausting female course out there. The reason we’re seeing so much carnage is we’re so tired at the end. It’s mentally tough.”

Vonn’s husband Thomas, who is also her unofficial coach, said the course had been difficult to train for because the hill’s surface varied drastically depending on the conditions.

Men's downhill ends in disappointment for Canada

By Nicholas Köhler - Monday, February 15, 2010 at 4:41 PM - 2 Comments

The top Canadian skier, Manuel Osborne-Paradis, ended up with a disappointing 16th-place finish in the men’s downhill event this morning.

The 26-year-old Vancouver-native, whose grandfather James was a volunteer weekend doctor in the early days of Whistler and who grew up skiing Blackcomb, was a favourite to medal in the event, still perhaps the sexiest on offer at the Winter Olympics.

Instead, the middle of the podium went to Swiss skier Didier Defago, a surprise for gold, with silver and bronze going to Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway and American downhill bad boy Bode Miller, respectively.

Osborne-Paradis’s lackluster performance at at Whistler Creekside was emblematic of a dismal day for the Canadian alpine team overall. The introverted Quebecker Erik Guay, 28, emerged with the most accomplished run, finishing fifth. Alberta’s Jan Hudec, also 28, defied a history of knee operations to compete, placing 23rd. And Osborne-Paradis’s Calgary roommate, Robbie Dixon, stumbled and spilled mid-race, failing to finish——a terrible blow after impressive training runs for the 25 year old.

The event came after warm, wet weather postponed a number of training runs for both the men’s and women’s races, then scuttled the races.

Just last week, the arrival of bedbugs forced Osborne-Paradis to change the sheets of his bed. But in the weeks, months and even years heading into today’s race–perhaps spoiling his approach today–Osborne-Paradis was contending with a different sort of pest.

Reporters had long demanded that Osborne-Paradis show some evidence of the pressure that’s been put on him to generate a medal at the 2010 Vancouver Games. This morning he did.

What was the most common question put to him? “I guess how I’m going to deal with all the stress,” he told Maclean’s recently. “But that’s pretty easy. I just kind of deal with it.”

Then Manny, who listens to LA rappers Hollywood Undead and such 80s classics as Poison and Whitesnake before competing, laughs with a gooselike HA!!! adding: “I don’t how I’m going to deal with it.”

In the main Manny has dealt with the spectre of the looming Olympic spirit by treating it like any other race. “If I was going to do anything different then that would mean that I’m half-assing all the World Cup races,” he told Maclean’s. “Why would I do anything different? I’m going to do the exact same thing because it seems to be working.”

It didn’t today——during a scrum after his run, Osborne-Paradis admitted he had been pursuing the top spot, and not just the top 10 he normally aims at in World Cup races.

Indeed, Osborne-Paradis was coming off an impressive run of three World Cup wins in the last 11 months, on a circuit he may hold in higher regard than the flash of the Olympic Games. “It wouldn’t be the most important race of the year if it wasn’t in Canada, because I think Kitzbühel [the Austrian resort that hosts the annual World Cup races] would overrule it. So it’s [the Olympics'] the biggest race and it is not just any race, but at the same time if you treat it like it’s any different–you’re going to fail.

“Your job is not to get wrapped up in the Olympics, your job is to compete,” he adds. “The fans and stuff that pay for the tickets, they can get wrapped up in it”

Dixon, meanwhile had impressed during the training runs by coming in second fastest, behind Didier Cuche of Switzerland, who had been the gold-medal favourite.

Guay, who of late has suffered from back problems, had secured just one podium finish since 2007, when he followed up his World Cup win in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany with four other podium finishes. At 28, he’s a young father looking for the next turning point in his career.

And Czech-born Calgary skier Hudec, himself getting over a knee operation, is part of the team thanks in large part to some unlucky breaks.

Today’s four skiers represent much of what remains of the Canadian alpine team after a string of injuries, perhaps due to equipment and material innovations generated by Own the Podium’s Top Secret R&D program that pushes the limits of the anatomically possible. World downhill champion John Kucera broke his leg at Lake Louise, while Jean-Phillippe Roy and Francois Bourque are also MIA because of mangled knees.

One Moment in Time

By Scott Feschuk - Monday, February 15, 2010 at 4:37 PM - 0 Comments

Olympic athletes invest so much time into such fleeting moments. They trust that years of practice, training and discipline will save them a few hundredths of a second when they need them most.

Spectators and supporters of these athletes make smaller investments of their own. They use up vacation days, spring for airfare and accommodations. They leave their hotels early, take a bus to a shuttle to a security checkpoint, and ultimately to their seats. And they await that same fleeting moment.

When Manuel Osborne-Paradis left the gate for his run in the men’s downhill, it felt as though a Continue…

International Olympians: Party crashers

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 1 Comment

Shani Davis, Speed Skating – U.S.
Looking out for number one, always
To hear his competitors tell it, Shani Davis is a fun-loving free spirit; the veritable life of the party. That may well be true, but it’s not a part of his personality the U.S. speed skater shows much interest in sharing with the press, public, or even his teammates. A two-time Olympic medallist, holder of three world records, and a favourite to capture gold in the ­1,000-m and ­1,500-m—and perhaps hit the podium in two other races at the Richmond Oval—the 27-year-old will be a major story at the 2010 Games. The question is whether it will be for how he skates, or how he behaves.

Raised by a single mother on Chicago’s poor South Side, Davis has the kind of inspiring, made-for-TV backstory that should guarantee him a spot on Oprah’s couch, or a Barbara Walters special. But his accomplishments four years ago in Turin, a gold in the ­1,000-m, and silver in the ­1,500-m—the first individual Winter Olympic medals ever won by an African-American—were largely overshadowed by controversy. When Davis declined to race in the team pursuit, choosing to save his strength for the individual events, teammate Chad Hedrick all but accused him of costing the Americans gold.

(The U.S. ended up coming in sixth. Canada won silver.) Their ill-concealed animosity dominated the headlines, and Davis was labelled a selfish traitor—never mind the fact that he had informed U.S. Speed Skating of his decision well in advance of the Games.

It was the kind of bad news story that Davis seems to find himself at the centre of all too often. When he made the short-track speed skating team as an alternate for the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, there were charges from rivals that Davis’s friends Apolo Ohno and Rusty Smith threw a qualifying race to give him a spot on the squad. (The allegations were dismissed after an acrimonious hearing, but Davis left the team after the opening ceremonies and competed in Europe instead.) And this past December, Davis again found himself in the soup when he called faux-talk show host Stephen Colbert—the main sponsor of the U.S. speed skating team—“a jerk” after the comedian took Canada to task for not allowing American skaters easy access to the Richmond Oval. (Davis trained in Calgary for a number of years and remains very close to several members of the Canadian team.)

In the run-up to Vancouver, Davis has been trying to make nice. He and Colbert buried the hatchet with a mock ­500-m race—Davis won by 13 minutes—that went to air in late January. And he and Hedrick have been conspicuously friendly—shaking hands before races, raising each other’s arms on the podium, praising each other in the press—on the World Cup circuit this season.

But Davis’s decision to again skip the team pursuit in Vancouver, and the recent announcement that he will not race the ­10,000-m—robbing NBC of a Davis-seeks-to-equal-Eric-Heiden’s-five-medals-in-one-Games storyline—are already drawing fire. “I would love to enjoy an Olympics,” Davis wistfully told the Chicago Tribune back in October. “One out of my three would be nice.” He might want to start making plans for Sochi 2014. —Jonathon Gatehouse

Bode Miller, Alpine Skiing – U.S.
Will the bad boy behave himself?
Every sport needs a bad boy, and Bode Miller has long filled that role in the world of alpine ski racing. The hulking New Hampshire native has rightfully earned his iconoclast status. In 2003, while courting sponsors, he sped down the slopes with a “For Rent” sign stuck to his helmet. At the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, he skipped the athletes’ village dorms for his personal motorhome. After he failed to reach the podium—despite hype that he’d rack up more medals than any American—Miller was unapologetic, boasting on 60 Minutes that he had partied “at an Olympic level.”

But Miller isn’t just a circus act. He won the FIS Alpine World Cup overall title in 2005 and 2008­, and, with more than 30 wins, has more victories than any American alpine skier in history. The 32-year-old considered retirement last spring, but by the fall had decided that he wasn’t done with the sport just yet. He then qualified for the U.S. Olympic team, reassuring coaches that this time would be free of antics. Miller is currently ranked 14th in the World Cup standings. And though he suffered a sprained ankle while playing volleyball in December, he hasn’t lost any of his trademark confidence, describing Vancouver as “an opportunity to have the best runs of my life.”—Cathy Gulli

Lindsey Vonn, Alpine Skiing – U.S.
The Michael Phelps of the slopes
Western Canada has always been a lucky place for American alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn. Every time she has competed in Lake Louise, Alta., she’s won—and that’s happened more than half a dozen times since 2004. Now, the 25-year-old is headed to the Winter Games to race in all five downhill and slalom disciplines, and many people are predicting that her lucky streak will continue in British Columbia. Vonn’s optimistic too: “I’ve been working toward this event for the last nine years,” she said last May. “And ever since then I’ve been working on improving every year.”

Vonn’s race results show why this native of Minnesota, a place known more for its prairie landscapes than snowcapped hills, is expected to be the Michael Phelps of the 2010 Olympics. Her first big win was at age 14 in Italy, when she became the only female American to take the prestigious Trofeo Topolino contest. Since then, she’s become one of the most decorated alpine racers in history—Vonn earned back-to-back overall FIS Alpine World Cup titles in 2008 and 2009. Already this season Vonn has triumphed in every downhill event on the World Cup circuit, and she’s ranked number one overall again.

A big part of Vonn’s success lies in her toughness. Last February she had thumb surgery to repair a tendon severed on a broken champagne bottle while celebrating a big win. A few days later, her injured hand was duct-taped to her ski pole, and she competed at the World Cup in France. In early December, while racing in Lake Louise, Vonn’s knee bumped her jaw, causing her to chomp on her tongue. Vonn didn’t miss a beat—she sped through to victory. The post-race shots featured Vonn, smiling, mouth agape as blood gushed down her chin. A few weeks later, she badly bruised her left wrist after a nasty crash on the giant slalom at the World Cup Austria. Vonn strapped on a chic cheetah-print brace and took to the hills again. Her take on the injury: “Hurting my arm is way better than hurting one of my legs.”

he one psychological barrier that may be haunting Vonn? Her past Olympic performances in Salt Lake City in 2002, and then Turin in 2006: both times, she failed to make the podium. She plans on changing that in Vancouver: “One [medal] of any colour will be just fine for me,” she said recently, “and I’m going to work harder than ever to put myself in a position to make that happen.” —Cathy Gulli

The ‘Wang gang’, Curling – China 
How China could rock the house
For every Olympic gold medallist, there is another athlete who finishes last. Dead last. But only a select few from that set have what it takes to be lovable losers—competitors who are so embarrassingly awful that you can’t help but cheer. Jamaican bobsledders. Kenyan cross-country skiers. Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards. Eric “the Eel” Moussambani. (For those who don’t remember “the Eel,” he was “the swimmer” from Equatorial Guinea whose first laps in an Olympic-sized pool occurred at the 2000 Summer Olympics.)

Who will be Vancouver’s version of the Eel? Well, believe it or not, it won’t be the Chinese women’s curling team. In a country with 1.3 billion people—including 1.299999999 billion who have absolutely no idea what curling is—four women with brooms have emerged as a bona fide threat to capture gold in 2010. Not bad, considering that six years ago the same team (all former gymnasts) lost a practice match to a group of senior citizens in Alberta. “We are not as skilled as others,” Bingyu Wang, the Chinese skip, said after that loss. “So we must redouble our efforts.”

They did much more than that. Funded in full by the Communist state—and led by a Canadian coach, Quebecer Dan Rafael—the so-called “Wang Gang” (Wang, Qingshuang Yue, Yin Liu and Yan Zhou) soon became famous for 10-hour practices and late-night strategy sessions. When most curlers were at the bar ordering another pint, the Chinese squad was still on the sheet, plotting a curling coup. In 2005, the team quietly qualified for its first world championship. Three years later, they captured their first medal, a silver. And last year—less than a decade after the team was assembled from scratch—China won its first world title in women’s curling.

If the Wang Gang reaches the highest podium in Vancouver, it will be the next closest thing to a victory by the host country. The Chinese team spends up to eight months of the year in Canada, training and playing in bonspiels. “Of course we miss home,” Wang, 25, said recently. “But this is our job. We have a dream of winning gold at the Olympics so more Chinese people not only learn about, but learn to love, curling.”

Which means that the world’s traditional curling powerhouses—Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and, yes, Canada—should get used to the idea of being lovable losers. —Michael Friscolanti

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, Biathlon – Norway 
Taking a clean shot at history
Just because you’ve never heard of him doesn’t mean he’s not a legend. Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen—“der Meister” to his fans and opponents—is the undisputed king of the biathlon. He has 91 World Cup victories and counting on his resumé. He owns 14 world titles in the skiing and sharpshooting combo sport, and nine Olympic medals, including five golds. And heading into Vancouver—his fifth Games—the 36-year-old has set his sights on matching, or perhaps even surpassing, the record 12 Winter Olympic podiums that his now-retired countryman Bjorn Daehlie attained in cross-country skiing. Would you want to bet against him?

Bjoerndalen’s greatest Olympic moments to date came in Salt Lake City, where he took gold in all four men’s biathlon events. But in 2006 in Turin, coming off a bout of the flu, he was eclipsed by a three-gold performance by Germany’s Michael Greis, managing “only” two silvers and a bronze.

Perhaps that helps explain why the Norwegian is now almost as well-known on the biathlon circuit for his germaphobia as his competitive skills. An avowed teetotaller, he gargles with cognac every morning to kill bacteria. During the season, he limits contact with his wife, and frequently forgoes crowded family Christmas celebrations in favour of solitary training high in the mountains. And he applies hand sanitizer after every shake. Purell may finally have found its Olympic poster boy.—Jonathon Gatehouse

Armin Zöggeler, Luge – Italy 
‘Il cannIbale’ remains the No. 1 threat
When he isn’t barrelling down an icy track at terrifying speeds, Armin Zöggeler works as a police officer. Which is funny, considering that his dominance in luge is borderline criminal. The 36-year-old Italian slider has racked up so many victories and ripped apart so many opponents that he’s earned the nickname “il Cannibale”—“the Cannibal.” (Which is also kinda funny, because he’s a paid pitchman for fruit.) Born in the northern town of Merano, Zöggeler won his first junior title at the age of 14, earned a spot on the Italian national team at 19, and has never looked back. At last count, “the Iceblood Champion” (that’s his other nickname) has captured a record 42 wins on the World Cup luge circuit and a medal in four consecutive Winter Games, including gold in the past two. If he wins a third-straight in Vancouver, he will become just the second luger to ever accomplish that feat. The other, Germany’s legendary Georg Hackl, had his streak snapped in 2002, when Zöggeler won his first gold in Salt Lake City. Another German, Felix Loch, is considered the reigning champ’s closest threat in 2010. But if il Cannibale proves he is still hungry, the young challenger will have to settle for silver. —Michael Friscolanti

Kim Yu-Na, Figure Skating – South Korea
Giving Orser a second chance
Two decades after a crushing defeat at Calgary ’88, Brian Orser is getting a second shot at Olympic gold—this time as coach. He’s a bit thicker, and yes, a bit greyer than the night at the Saddledome. Many consider the “Battle of the Brians” (Boitano and Orser) figure skating’s greatest competition. Just one-tenth of a mark knocked gold from Orser’s hands. Afterwards, he retreated to the dressing room, eyes glazed, and curled up by the showers in his skates, according to gold medallist Boitano. The loss, famously, took him 10 years to get over.

But after all these years, he’s getting a shot at a do-over in Vancouver. There’s just one problem. The brilliant protege he’s pushing to gold at this Olympics is not Canada’s national champion Joannie Rochette, but Kim Yu-Na, a pint-sized phenom skating for South Korea. Kim, who trains in Toronto and, like Orser, enters the Olympics as the reigning world champion, may also take the home ice advantage in Lotusland.

At last year’s Four Continents Cup in Vancouver, Kim shocked media by getting a louder ovation than even Rochette, five-time national champ. Vancouver is a “very international city,” Rochette, who took silver, told Maclean’s at the time. It was “the reality,” no more, no less—though one, Rochette added, she was glad to have the year to prepare for. Kim, who took gold, enters the Games, like her coach before her, the gold medal favourite. —Nancy Macdonald

Dale Begg-Smith, Moguls – Australia
The lost son returns and wants gold
By the standards of sports fandom, Olympic crowds tend to be a civilized lot. But if a smattering of boos rises from the spectators during the freestyle moguls competition at Cypress Bowl next week, there’s a good chance that wayward-but-wealthy homeboy Dale Begg-Smith will be on the receiving end. He’s the closest thing the hometown crowd has to a villain.

Not that he plays the part. The 25-year-old from Vancouver has scarcely uttered a discouraging word about Canada or its ski program since he took leave from both as a teenager, matter-of-factly noting that our sports bureaucrats didn’t like the amount of time he was putting into a start-up Internet company. Australia, which was just planting the seeds of a winter sports team, was more willing to accommodate Begg-Smith’s divided attention. And in 2006, he paid them back in full by winning the gold medal in Turin.

By then, however, Begg-Smith’s Internet start-up had grown into a $40-million enterprise with 100 employees and an office in New York, and it was a matter of time before someone asked how a lad just out of his teens gets rich enough to buy a Lamborghini and flit between international ski destinations. Days after he won in Italy, a Sydney newspaper reported that Begg-Smith had built his fortune by dealing in Internet “spyware,” specialized software that permits the capture of personal data without a computer user’s knowledge. Though Begg-Smith denied involvement in anything more sinister than providing technology that allows companies to monitor the effect of ad campaigns, the revelation cut into his popularity in his adopted country. He has avoided answering questions about it ever since.

No matter, because non-reaction has long been Begg-Smith’s default position, if not his defining trait. When asked once where his primary allegiance lies—Canada or Australia—he answered: “I was happy growing up in Canada, and I was happy to go to Australia.” Good runs, like his second-place finish at last week’s World Cup event in Lake Placid, N.Y., seldom elicit anything more from him than a fist-pump or two, in a sport that quite literally rewards hot-dogging and showboating. And no one should expect a catcall or two from the fans here to faze him, as Begg-Smith’s ability to shut out the distractions has been described by his former coach as “inhuman.” “He never, absolutely ever shows weakness,” his long-time coach Steve Desovich told a reporter following Begg-Smith’s big win in Turin. “He’s absolutely impenetrable.”—Charlie Gillis

Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin, Ice Dancing – Russia 
Will the judges be offended?
Vancouver’s blackface moment will arrive Feb. 21. That’s when reigning ice dancing world champs Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia take the ice at the Pacific National Exhibition to perform their now-infamous Aborigine-inspired dance routine. Last month in Estonia, the duo donned dark-skinned bodysuits, loincloths and “tribal” markings for a 2½ minute dance that felt more like a minstrel show. The number, which saw them stomp their skates to a musical mash-up of chanting and didgeridoos, was roundly trounced as distasteful, offensive and cringe-inducing. The skate world, however—which has come to expect awful and inappropriate costumes from the Russians—barely blinked.

Believe it or not, figure skating has actually entered a newly outlandish phase, with lilac vinyl jumpsuits, sheer tops, off-the-shoulder necklines, corsets, tassels, feathers and fur now all the rage, explains one commentator. “And then,” he adds, “there are the women.” Most blame the Russians, famously fond of fluttery, scanty, studded unitards. (Their ice dancers were also the first to try shredding their uniforms—a change that has inspired yet more tatter and fringe in a sport hardly suffering from a deficit of rips and ruffles.)

Domnina and Shabalin—who, according to media reports, appeared doe-eyed and genuinely astonished by the uproar they ignited at the European Championships—have said their wardrobes will not change ahead of the Games. If nothing else, give ’em the gold for godawful. —Nancy Macdonald

Gregor Schlierenzauer, Ski Jumping – Austria 
Austria’s high-flying eagle
How do you become a heartthrob in ski jumping? Lanky good looks, a touch of hipsterism and a $725,000 tour bus for you and your teammates is a good start. Add a sideline in abstract photography and 31 World Cup victories and you have Gregor Schlierenzauer, a 20-year-old Austrian who has supplanted the alpine skiing legend Hermann Maier as his country’s hottest Olympic commodity. Not long ago, Schlierenzauer was best known as the nephew of Markus Prock, a three-time Olympic luge medallist who now serves as Schlierenzauer’s manager. That changed in 2008-09, when the high-flier won a record 13 events to claim the World Cup title, plus two medals at the world championship in Liberec, Czech Republic.

But Schlierenzauer will be in tough at Whistler, as he currently ranks second in World Cup standings to his Swiss rival Simon Ammann, while his countryman Thomas Morgenstern runs a distant third. With all that competition, perhaps the slogan painted on the side of the Austrians’ gussied-up bus best sums up the event’s potential entertainment value: “Die adler kommen,” or in English, “The eagles are coming.”­—Charlie Gillis

Canada's Olympians: Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Alpine Skiing

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 10:40 AM - 1 Comment

Forgive us, Manny, for pointing out all the pressure you’re facing. But facts are facts.

1) You’re peaking at exactly the right time. With so many of your alpine teammates sidelined by torn ligaments and broken bones, you’ve put together your best World Cup ski season yet, capturing two golds and a silver.

2) Home-hill advantage. Born in North Vancouver, you know Whistler’s twists and turns better than anyone, having cut your kiddie skis on the very same snow.

3) The record book looms. If you clock the fastest time in the men’s downhill event on day two of the
Games, you will be the first Canadian to win an Olympic gold medal in Canada. Yes, that’s right. Our athletes were shut out of the top prize in Montreal in 1976, and again in Calgary 12 years later. But you can change all that, Manny. You can redeem us.

Or blow it. One or the other.
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Canada’s Olympians No. 5: Michael and Britt Janyk

By Ken MacQueen - Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 11:06 AM - 1 Comment

When Britt Janyk was four years old, she and her mother Andrée harboured a deep secret. Britt’s two-year-old brother Mike couldn’t know that she had mastered the two-wheeler, because anything big sister did, Mike would surely try. “I knew he could ride it, that wasn’t the issue,” says Andrée. “It was whether he knew what a stop sign looked like.” Mom held off for a year before letting him catch a glimpse of Britt on her bike. From Mike came the inevitable demand for the removal of his bicycle training wheels, “and off down the road he went,” says Andrée.

As for stop signs, they’ve never figured large in the imagination of either Britt or Mike, Whistler’s World Cup alpine duo and—if life goes according to plan—Olympic teammates. By the time each had turned five, they were skiing double black diamond runs—the extreme, expert-level drops that many skiers will sensibly avoid their whole lives.

Continue…