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First Person - Delivering Olympic-sized legacies

Telus Whistler Sports Centre invests in athletes of today and tomorrow

The Pique sat down with Todd Allison, a former member of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Team and the current manager of the Telus Whistler Sports Centre to talk about the 2010 Olympics and the opportunities to build lasting legacies for our athletes.

When he was given the job in 2001 as part of LegaciesNow, Allison hit the ground running, meeting with leaders in national sport organizations and finding out how he could help. The Centre now offers support and funding to a wide variety of athletes who are at or on the verge of competing at the international level, and the organizations that make athlete development possible.

Whether they know it or not, many of the Canadian athletes to take the field when Whistler hosts the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and the Paralympic Winter Games, will have Todd Allison and the Telus Whistler Sports Centre to thank.

Pique: Tell me about the Telus Sports Centre. How did it come into being and what is its purpose?

Todd Allison: It came into being as a result of LegaciesNow. (This program) is the first time an organization bidding for the Olympic Games has invested in sport before they had the chance to win. Organizers have invested somewhere between $4 and $5 million dollars into sport right from the grass roots up to high performance… right up to the national training centres.

What we were chartered with doing was supporting the local athletes and then doing province wide sport development.

But the one thing that has come up since then is the need to be almost a concierge desk for the teams that come to town. It is nice to have someone on the ground, an envoy or someone who can be here and answer the questions. We can find the nutritionists, find a physiotherapist, find them a contact for a hotel and just do those little things that they need to have done on the ground.

The Telus Sports Centre is a virtual place. We do have office in Museum Library building. But it is more phone and email so the athletes can get to the information that they need.

Pique: What types of things does the centre do for athletes?

TA: Well one of the things we would do is an information session. It would be to supplement what the coaches are doing. Coaches are great at technical side of things and most of them are jacks-of-all-trades. They can give you the basics on nutrition, psychology, on preparing for performance but it’s tough if they want to be doing everything for everybody. And they still need to be able to have their own lives.

We are trying to supplement a need so if the snowboard team needs their athletes to understand nutrition, or mental skills around the game then we are able to bring in the critical mass of snowboarders and then invite the rest of the athletes in the valley and bring in an expert on that subject.

With that they are able to lean more and it takes the pressure of the coaches. Also, if an athlete is injured we are able to put them into a network of doctors.

Pique: What has happened to LegaciesNow?

TA: It has extended its mandate and it has been significantly expanded. They have expanded from LegaciesNow and now include ArtsNow, CultureNow, VolunteersNow, and RecreationNow. It has the mandate now to coordinate sport in the province. At the provincial level the branch has been downsized and will be focusing on policy rather than programs. The programs will all be delivered out of LegaciesNow groups. (They are under development and details are being worked out over the coming weeks and months. We expect to have more information about programs and program delivery next fall.)

Pique: Tell me a little bit about your background?

TA: I was born in Calgary and my dad was quite happy to have a son who was going to play in the NHL. When I was about 11-years old I announced to him that I was no longer going to be a goalie, I was going to be a freestyle skier. He had no idea what a freestyle skier was but I had seen it on TV and I just decided that that was for me.

After that I became an athlete in the sport. I competed for years and then I got a break made the national team and competed for four years on the national team (1989-1994), then I retired in 1994 and coached the national development team and got coaching education as I went along.

Ballet skiing was my specialty. Alberta healthcare sent me a thank-you card when I retired from aerials – well not really – but they didn’t use to refer to my file, they referred to my drawer. Ballet skiing is like figure skiing on the snow. It is to music and it is flips and jumps.

Then I went to the National Sports Centre in Vancouver and was the athlete services manager. I was there for almost a year before I was recruited back to freestyle to be the high performance director. That meant running the whole national team program, so I was in charge of the coaches and helping them to understand what their priorities were for the national team, how we are going to fund the athletes, select our teams, and operate the whole national team system. That was 1999-2000.

Then this opportunity opened up in Whistler (Aug 2001) and having the opportunity to live and work in your home town, well that was exciting… and to be able to contribute to all of the athletes rather than just the freestyle athletes was exciting too.

Pique: What drew you to freestyle? What was it about the sport that made you decide that the NHL was not for you?

TA: It was the movement on snow and seeing people trying new things and being innovative. I saw them flipping over their skis. I thought it looked like a lot of fun - exhilarating and creative at the same time.

I had never skied as small child. I started at 11 (years old). My parents and I made a deal. I had a paper route and they bought half the skis and I bought half the skis and I went out and just started skiing and had just a great time going out there after school. I put a Walkman on and just headed out. I am embarrassed now by the music I had to listen to in 1977 – that was the time of Staying Alive. In fact I was back in Calgary looking at some of the old ski fashion from when I was on the Alberta team and national team and I sure am glad it is in cupboard in my mom’s basement.

Pique: Were you at the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002 with any of our athletes?

TA: I was in Salt Lake as the team leader for freestyle. So I helped them both from a sports centre standpoint and we did logistics and … helped them leading up to Salt Lake.

Pique: Tell me about competing and what it has given you as far as what you are hoping to achieve now with our athletes.

TA: It has given me a perspective of understanding all elements of the sport. So for example knowing what it is like to be a struggling athlete trying to get into the Olympic program.

When I started the sport Freestyle wasn’t even in the Olympic program and then in 1988 it became a demonstration event and in 1992 it was full mogul event and 1994 they added aerials. 1994 was the year I was the top Canadian athlete in ballet and they dropped it from the program and that was the deciding factor for me to move on.

It was always seeing that uphill battle of trying to make the team, trying to get funding, trying to be able to afford to pursue your dreams. But I can say every dollar I ever spent and every lost opportunity was worth it just to be able to see the world and see other countries while I was pursuing my goals.

It also helps me help others to understand it is a choice. You choose not to go to university. For the most part as a winter athlete it is just too tough to try and even hit a spring session. But the education you get as an athlete is also valuable. Just the education in time management, on setting goals, setting priorities, on dealing with people and the interpersonal relations and problem solving you have to do is just so important for the rest of what you are gong to be doing in life. And I have found that that in itself has helped me so much moving through life

Pique: How are our young athletes doing now? Do we have a strong slate of them coming up for the Torino 2006 Olympic Games and the 2010 Games?

TA: That is something we are actively working on now for all 19 sports of the Olympics and Paralympics. And it is really encouraging to see both those athletes that are getting ready for Torino and 2010. I think we have a really good chance of performing well in Torino. There are a couple who will be in Torino who may be a little long in the tooth in 2010 but seeing the people who could be qualifying for Torino is really encouraging.

In at least eight of the 19 sports it is really looking hopeful.

Pique: You’ve just been to Torino for the World Cup (March). How is it looking as it prepares for the Games?

TA: Well everything inside the fence looks just amazing. It is so different. (But) when you are used to the customer service level of people here in Whistler and the levels of service that are demanded by Intrawest and tourism here then you go there and trying to solve a problem it’s an eye-opener. The train may come or it may not come. The printed timetables everywhere are just a suggestion.

But if you can step away from the competition to enjoy a glass of wine or a cappuccino or a plate of pasta it is such good food in the region.

Pique: What is the most important thing you are doing now?

TA: The primary thing we are focusing on is making sure we are filling that transition time between the completion of the bid – and now that John Furlong is in place – and moving into the organizing committee stage.

And we need to secure funding. Right now we are good until the end of June and we anticipate being able to move forward and it is just a mater of negotiating and getting commitments from LegaciesNow.

One of the initiatives we are working on is trying to find more summer skiing space for our athletes.

Pique: It is pretty obvious to Whistler how you get youth involved in Alpine or Nordic events but how are you going to identify future bobsleighers in B.C.?

TA: By being able to take the kids in Abbottsford, or Kimberly or Comox and put them on a real luge sled and say this is how you turn it. We say okay, you have the minimum physical requirements, let’s send you to Calgary. Right now we are really working closely with Calgary because of the ski jump facility, the bobsleigh-luge facility, and the skeleton facility. So with ski jumping, bobsleigh, and luge we are doing direct outreach.

Pique: What do parents think when you say you would like their child to leap off a ski jump or nip down a skeleton track?

TA: The parents are excited. There is very little fear. We are obviously very careful about what we are exposing them to. However, the second question is how much is this going to cost, how are we going to be able to afford this and where can we do it. And that is the biggest stumbling block. So when we went to Abbottsford and talked to a crew of kids who were very talented it was too tough to sustain them. We couldn’t afford to send them to Calgary every weekend. But when you are on the eastern edge of B.C. you are within a three-hour drive of Calgary. This is one of the challenges we face.

We do also have natural track on Mt. Washington on the Island at Comox.

But it is a challenge for us as we battle about how do we deliver ski jumping right now.

We’ve got the starting of a talent-scouting program through LegaciesNow and if we can go and at least help kids understand that may make a difference. Right now sport in the province it is under-resourced in that there are not the people to go out there and say, ‘who wants to be a luger, and who wants to be a Paralympic Nordic skier.’ If we can get out there into the schools and help youth understand there are options for both summer and winter sports too that will be great.

Pique: When you put those kids in the luge and you see them running down the street and jumping in what are you thinking?

TA: Well, after I worry about what can go wrong because I feel really responsible for every kid that we are working with, the next thought is that I am opening their dreams. To be able to just open the door for these kids, to allow them to dream and whether it is dreaming to be an athlete or dreaming to be a volunteer or be performing in the opening ceremonies it’s a great feeling.

Pique: What do you see the next couple of years looking like? Will they be quiet or will they be busy for athletes?

TA: They will be huge for athletes and this is the time where they really need to build their intensity or put the work in the bank and then they can refine the work in the three years leading up to the Games. If you are not on the national team in two years then it will be a challenge to be proficient on the national team and qualify for the Olympic team and qualify with the hopes of winning a gold medal.

Because that is what (B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell) has indicated is wanted. He wants to see gold medals from B.C. athletes and he has made a commitment to putting more money in the B.C. sport system, which is fabulous. But now it is up to the sports system to make it possible for the athletes to excel.

Pique: When you left freestyle why did you stay in the field of sport?

TA: Well I was gong to be a chartered accountant – a goalie and a chartered accountant – that’s what my dad told me. But I realized after a year of university that I just didn’t enjoy accounting… And I realized I could actually work in an industry I loved. To be able to take the perspective I got from all four areas whether it be as a volunteer – I sit on the international ski federation’s sport development committee – as an administrator, a coach or an athlete, – and to be able to go in and talk to a group and say, ‘here is what we need in the sports system’ and be able to make an impact on 19 sports I find it just very rewarding.

Pique: What is it about sport that inspires people to compete and work so hard?

TA: You put a lot of pressure on yourself to represent those people who have helped you whether it is a sponsor, a community, or a family and to be able to go and represent your constituency internationally or nationally and be able to bring that sense of pride back is a phenomenal feeling.

Pique: What do you see Whistler being like in the next few years?

TA: I really see it as continuing to be the summer home of the athletes because there is just so much opportunity here. And I would say that any athlete that is either skiing or riding on a national team has been through Whistler and has spent time on the glaciers up here whether it was at a summer camp years ago or sped camp and I see that as being the centre of winter sport development so that we will continue to help the mountain athletes.

Pique: Tell me about your experience with the Calgary Olympics.

TA: I was an alternate in freestyle but there was no chance really that I would end up skiing. (But I was offered a job as a sports commentator) making more money that I have ever made in my life for something I would absolutely do for free. They gave me an outfit and put me in the judge’s tower and said tell us what you know about freestyle skiing and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. For the poor struggling athlete to do that and get a paychecque and be in the best seat in the house was just incredible.

I remember looking out and it just hit me what the Olympics were.

Canada Olympic Park was also referred to as Cancelled Or Postponed because of all the wind and challenges they had and so one day they were running everything – they were running the bobsled, ski jump, and freestyle aerial events and I looked out at the crowd from the judge’s stand, which was one side of aerial site, and all I could see was people. I have never seen that many people in one place in my life, and I said there has got to be 40,000 people out there. Someone said, ‘have you been out the backdoor? Well I was only looking a third of the people and it was estimated that there were 100,000 people on site.

Just to see what draw the Games had was such an inspiration for me and to ski on the courses and set up the cameras it was like, wow, this isn’t Mickey Mouse this is the real thing and that is something I have always felt.

Pique: Do you feel differently about the Olympics having been involved in Calgary?

TA: I learned about the importance of the sport side in Calgary but once I went to an Olympic Academy and learned more about the Olympic movement it changed everything I do and what I believe in about the Olympics. The important part is the participation and the striving for excellence, not necessarily the achieving of excellence.

My views are more holistic where as so much of the Canadian sports system is focused on medals. I would really like to see that rather than winning 16 medal instead of 14 gold medals I would rather see that we touched two million extra Canadians and had them have a part of the Games and the dream.