Canada’s prospects at the upcoming Olympic Winter Games look pretty good. Aside from hockey, where we’re looking at another pair of repeat gold medals, we have strong athletes in almost every event.
Our speed skaters are setting new records, our bobsled, luge and skeleton athletes are bringing home medals every week, Becky Scott is even faster on her cross-country skis than she was in 2002, our freestyle team is bringing home four medals a week, our snowboard team has solid podium contenders in every event, the new figure skating crop is pretty good (or so I’ve heard), and we’ve qualified more skiers for the alpine events than ever. And our national curling teams? Forget about it!
Of course the Games are about a lot more than medals, and any normal person should be able to dredge up at least a little happiness for the winner, wherever they may be from. It takes 10 years of hard work to get to the Games, or so they say, and all the athletes are deserving of our respect.
The best part of the Games is always the stories. A lot of the athletes come from small towns, and had to overcome a lot of obstacles to get where they are.
For example, Janica Kostelic of Croatia dominated the women’s alpine events in the last Winter Games with a record four medals – even though she hails from a country without a real ski hill, grew up training Rocky IV style on a farm by balancing on wood and throwing logs around, occasionally driving through the night with her father and brother to ski slopes in Austria, sleeping in the car when they could stay for two days or more. Her Olympic dreams came true.
With the time lag between Italy and B.C. – Italy being nine hours ahead – it will be a little awkward watching events on television. For instance, to watch the men’s gold medal hockey game live, you’ll have to either get up at 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning or stay up all Saturday night.
That’s how the Internet comes in handy – you’re going to need to do a little planning in advance to stay on top of things.
www.torino2006.org, www.torino2006.org
This is the official site of the 20 th Olympic Winter Games in Torino. There are a few feel-good stories on the homepage, but you’re going to click on the link for "Competitions and Schedules" and look for the "Programme" link. From there you can make a short-list of the contests you want to watch, tape, TiVo, or whatever.
www.timeanddate.com/worldclock
Once you know the times in Torino you can visit this site to get an idea of what that means for people living Pacific Time. This is also a good site to bookmark to figure out World Cup soccer games, plan flights and vacations, and make late night drunken phone calls to friends living around the globe.
www.hockeycanada.ca
Although the media generally does a good job covering events, you always get a little more from the source. This is the official site of Hockey Canada, which is organizing the trip to Torinto for the men’s and women’s hockey teams. They’ll have all the game schedules, box scores, and other in-depth coverage you won’t find anywhere else.
www.csf.ca
This is the official site of the Canadian Snowboard Federation, with bios of team members and news stories. Six of the halfpipe athletes live in Whistler, and several others are based in Vancouver but do most off their training here.
www.canski.org
This is the official site of Alpine Canada Alpin, the central authority for all things ski racing in Canada. Their in-house PR department is amazing, so you can expect a huge volume of info on the racers, race schedules and results, along with a link to photo archives.
www.freestyleski.com
The Canadian Freestyle Ski Team has solid contenders in both men’s and women’s moguls and aerials, and is qualifying more athletes for World Cup finals than ever. This could have their best Olympics yet. If you’re watching the moguls, you should also watch out for Dale Begg-Smith. Dale grew up in Whistler and is a Canadian citizen, but couldn’t commit to the national team schedule because of his booming Internet and software business. Not wanting to give up on the sport, he checked out a few other national programs and went over to Australia a few years ago. Now he’s on the podium almost every week.
www.cccski.com
Becky Scott gets the most attention, but Sara Renner is also poised for great things in the world of cross-country skiing. Our men’s program is steadily improving, and when one Russian ex-pat gets his Canadian citizenship we’ll have solid contenders all around in one of the most difficult and physically demanding Olympic sports.
www.olympic.ca
For links to all other sports organizations, and a bird’s eye view of the Games, visit the Canadian Olympic Committee’s home page.
www.cbc.ca/olympics
CBC may have lost the rights to broadcast the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, but will still be the national source for news and sports from Torino. Check this link for the latest news, some video, and schedules for all major events.
www.piquenewsmagazine.com
We will be filing daily updates from Italy during both the Olympics and Paralympics. For a Whistler perspective on the Games, and the latest on Whistler athletes at the Games, check out Pique online.
