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Grief and greatness mark historic year in sports
Loss of athletes overshadows record accomplishments by national teams
by Andrew Mitchell
Page 5 of 10
• Whistler hosted two bobsleigh and skeleton World Cup events in 2012 at the Whistler Sliding Centre, one of the last races of the 2012 season and one of the first races of 2013, with athletes taking full advantage of home ice to rack up nine medals, including four gold. In February, Melissa Hollingsworth won the women's skeleton race, pilots Kaillie Humphries and Helen Upperton were first and third in women's bobsleigh, Lyndon Rush piloted the winner in men's two-man bob, and then Rush returned to the podium to claim bronze in four-man. This past November, kicking off another season, Whistler hosted another skeleton event. This time Sarah Reid earned a silver medal in women's skeleton, Kaillie Humphries won gold in women's bobsleigh, Lyndon Rush was second in two-man bob, and Chris Spring piloted his four-man team to a bronze medal — the first medal of his career.
• The Whistler Nordics cross-country ski team has been mixing it up provincially and nationally in the last few years, and this past season two athletes, Nicki Murdoch and Joe Davies, finished with overall titles on the BC Cup circuit. Jenya Nordin, Austin Reith and Brent Murdoch were second in their respective categories, while Michael Murdoch and Benita Peiffer were third.
Two-Wheel Wonders
• Ryder Hesjedal placed sixth on the final day of the Giro d'Italia cycling event this year to secure himself the overall win. It was the first time that a Canadian has won a Grand Tour event in cycling, as well as the first Canadian to stand on the podium at the Giro. He went into the Tour de France as a potential favourite, but was taken out early in a massive crash. Nevertheless, his efforts won him the Canadian Press male athlete of the year award, the Lionel Conacher Award, as well as the most votes in the Canadian Cyclist awards.
• The Canadian Press female athlete of the year award, the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award, went to soccer player Christine Sinclair, who scored all three of Canada's goals in a controversial semi-final Olympic game against the U.S. Sinclair, among others, was highly critical of the refereeing and a couple of strange calls that helped the U.S. tie the game twice and changed the momentum of the contest. Her criticisms cost Sinclair a suspension and fine from soccer's sanctioning body, FIFA, and any chance she might have had at winning their female athlete of the year award, even though the team did go on to win the bronze medal with a win over France — Canada's first Olympic medal in a traditional team sport since 1936.
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