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Athletes share Olympic experiences

Sport Centre wants "to avoid reinventing the wheel every four years" Most sporting organizations in Canada revolve around the Olympics in some way.

Sport Centre wants "to avoid reinventing the wheel every four years"

Most sporting organizations in Canada revolve around the Olympics in some way. While it’s not the only important event on the competitive calendar, it’s the event that matters the most.

A strong Olympic performance can mean more funding, public and private, for a sport. It can draw more media attention for the sport and its athletes. It can also ensure the future well-being of a sport by increasing public interest and athlete participation at the entry level.

But while many of our athletes may compete well internationally before and after the Olympics, in some cases they don’t perform as well as they are capable at the Games. The events may be the same, but the whole atmosphere is different and often distracting.

To get a bird’s eye view of the most recent Olympic Winter Games and learn what worked and what didn’t for our athletes, the Telus Whistler Sport Centre brought together a group of athletes and sport experts for a Post Salt Lake Summit at Millennium Place on April 13.

"We need to learn from the successes and challenges we experience at a Games to avoid reinventing the wheel every four years," says Todd Allison, the general manager of the sport centre. "B.C. athletes will be heading off to the Canada Winter Games in Campbellton next February as well as to Athens and Torino (Olympics) in two and four years time. By bringing together this experience we hope to document their ideas and help move our teams towards further success."

The participants came from as far away as Winnipeg to share ideas at the summit. Some of the local athletes who participated include Whistler Paralympic skier Mark Ludbrook, and Tami Bradley, Andy Capicik, and Kelly Ringstad from the freestyle team. Other contributors included paramedical staff, coaches, and sports officials. More than 30 people participated in the summit.

Marion Lay, the former chair of the 2010 Bid Corporation and the current president of the bid’s LegaciesNow program shared her insight into the 2002 Games as the morning session’s keynote speaker.

Jonathon Geiger from the Centre for Substance Use in Sport and Health also discussed the organization and the tools that are available to help athletes decide if a supplement is fair and useful.

In addition, Sian Blyth from the Whistler Adaptive Ski Program was presented with the Investors Group Community Sport Administrators Award for her work with disabled skiers.

According to Allison, all of the ideas collected will be organized and put together on a CD-ROM that will be accessible to all Canadian sports organizations and athletes in the next few months.

"We had a wide range of ideas expressed, and 34 experienced people in the room, so it would be a shame if all the information to come out of the summit were to disappear," says Allison.

One example is the athlete’s general agreement that it made more sense to stay in the area that is hosting a specific event than in an athlete’s village when there is travelling time involved.

"I think the thing that was most supported was being on-site and out of the distractions of the (athlete) village," says Allison. "It’s good to stay away form the distractions, it’s good for team building. It’s really good to be close to the hill so you don’t have to stress over 90 minutes of travel time. Tami Bradley, who competed at Nagano and Salt Lake City, said she didn’t realize how much 90 minutes really did take out of her day."

The athletes also felt that the Olympic experience, and in particular the feeling of being part of the opening ceremony, is an experience that needs to be shared to inspire other athletes.

"They talked about marching in the opening ceremony, walking through the scaffolding and hearing the roar of the crowd, seeing the Canadian flags out there. They talked about how proud they were to be representing Canada, and the feeling that they were maybe inspiring some kids back home."

Other ideas put forward include:

• Providing consistent medical care. If the team needs a massage therapist for example, then they should bring one rather than trying to find one there. Medical personnel, including sport psychologists, should be familiar with the athletes.

• Team leaders should be organized and have plans for everything. According to alpine snowboarder Mark Fawcett, he was one of the athletes stranded at the transportation hub until midnight after the Salt Lake opening ceremonies because nobody made arrangements for transportation from Salt Lake City to Park City, where the team was staying. "Plan, plan, plan but be ready to think on your feet because everything will happen when you’re down there," explains Allison. "We tore an axle off our van, and ended up having to rent a van, sort out an insurance claim, and chase down whoever owned the open manhole. Things went wrong, but hopefully it didn’t affect the athlete’s too much.

• Athletes and teams should train for the Olympics at every competition. For example, if the coaches have to stand in a certain place for the Olympics, then they should stand there every competition. Rather than look at each event as its own entity, athletes should treat every event like a dry run for the Olympics.