By G.D. Maxwell
Two days after the International Olympic Committee met in Prague and awarded Vancouver the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Pique NewsMagazine had a chance to speak to Ken Read, President of Alpine Canada. During a rambling conversation, he spoke of what the Olympics might mean to Canadian alpine skiing as well as other issues.
Pique:
Tell me what hosting the 2010 Olympics is likely to mean for alpine skiing in Canada?Read:
What the Olympics does is bring focus. Weve been trying to do that the past year with our Podium 2010 Strategic Plan. Were trying to transform our entire system so that were not just focusing funding at the top, were driving it down into the system for development. Were going to try to do this on a sustainable basis so that year-over-year, we continue to produce.What were seeing now is the other half of that equation fall into place. Governments seem to need an endpoint like the Olympics to focus on. Now theyre driven by having this in our country. But youve got to keep that in context. The amount of money we get from government is very small. Wed really love to see it get up to, at a minimum, 15 per cent. Currently it sits at nine per cent. The rest comes from the corporate sector, which is a good thing. Were not as dependent on government, which, until just recently, had been slipping for a decade but seems to have turned a corner and headed back up.
The Olympics help give a lot of existing and potential commercial partners focus too. We, again, are in a fortunate position. We had quite a few who were committed regardless of the bids outcome, so this is a windfall to those who were already dedicated to our effort. Were pretty sure well be able to welcome a few more.
Pique:
What else are you hoping might come out of this?Read:
Well, itll mean more World Cup races in Canada because there will be all the test events for the Games.And were planning on it providing a legacy... a real legacy. Weve been struggling for 15 years to find a legacy out of the 88 games. Were only just now making it happen. There has been no legacy in alpine skiing from 1988 because the alpine ski venue was a straight user-pay affair and was actually more expensive to use than other venues.
None of the snow sports venues snowboarding, freestyle, cross-country, biathlon, alpine really had a legacy specifically put into place to ensure low-cost access.
Ive got to be really careful to make sure Im understood. Im just going to focus on Nakiska because I know it. Its actually a very, very good venue for ski competition. Its quite actively used. The current management of Nakiska are very active supporters of ski racing from entry level right to the Nor-Am level. But its pretty much on a user-pay basis. Fortunately our socio-economic group can afford to pay. But Ive got to be frank its expensive.
At the same time, I cant fault the operator. Theyre a private operator and theyre trying to make a dollar for their shareholders. Its not their fault that the promises made by the government of Alberta were hollow and remain unfilled.
Thats what were looking to change. We want to now be able to get in place dedicated training and competition facilities. Let me use a comparison. My understanding is speed skaters can use the Olympic Oval for a cost of about $150 a year. Thats their basic membership. Theyre overall cost to be part of a high-performance program is, all in, about 10 grand.
When you compare that to what it costs a provincial level athlete in alpine skiing, that runs anywhere from 25-40 grand. Some of those costs are travel and equipment but a lot of the cost goes to pay for lift passes and lane fees. Typically lane fees for a team to train on a mountain for a day are about the same as what Catrina LeMay Doan pays for a year of speed skating. Thats for one day! About $150. Times 100 days. It aint cheap.
So thats where we want to step in. To come up with a mechanism that can work for private operators. We dont want to have to go to a private operator and say, Please sir, can you be benevolent and give us your hill?
My hope would be that we can get something like that in place pretty quickly. That kind of an approach is something we need for the long term health of alpine ski racing.
Pique:
Is that where the new training camp on Farnham Glacier comes in?Read:
When I talked about it taking us 15 years to find a legacy, thats the legacy. CODA has been able to step up with something that didnt exist before and its now going to be able to deliver something thats of enormous benefit to our athletes, not just alpine skiing but freestyle and snowboard as well. To find a similar type of opportunity (to Farnham) we had to travel outside the country. In doing so, we face increased costs but it also wasnt necessarily optimal from a training perspective.Farnham introduces something thats very much in line with what the Austrians or Swiss have at their fingertips and weve never had. We have to take our hats off to CODA. Weve been struggling for many years to find what it is that will make the difference and this is the piece that will make that difference. Its not just CODA but the government of B.C. also, driven by the focus of 2010.
I havent been to Farnham personally. But Burkhard (Schaffer, mens head coach) said its as good as youll find anywhere in the world. His one comment was, because were using a cat to take the skiers back up, its physically harder on them. Now instead of having a break going back uphill, theyre on their skis.
In terms of the slope, the vertical, the type of terrain they have, there was a concern that for the men it might be too easy. But Burkhard came back and said its as good as youre going to find anywhere in the world. Hes very happy. The comments Ive heard from the athletes have been positive, Allison Forsyth and Thomas Grandi and Emily Brydon, all have said its fantastic.
Pique:
Speaking of Burkhard, there have been some major coaching changes both this year and last year. Whats your strategy there?Read
: We had a setup where, effectively, we had six different teams operating World Cup technical, speed and development, for both men and women. There was no overall co-ordination. That essentially resided with our vice president of athletics, who tended to be mostly in Calgary. The purpose of having a head coach for men and one for women is to provide that co-ordinating function so theres one person whos responsible for steering the whole program.Down within the respective team, many of the coaches and staff still remain in place. But now theres someone whos on the ground looking at the bigger picture to ensure, number one, theres co-ordination. When you have all the different teams operating quite independently, youre not being very efficient with your dollars.
Number two, youre not being efficient with your training programs because theres many opportunities where you need to have crossover and you need to have people working together. The disciplines dont break out so nicely that super-G and downhill are exclusive from giant slalom and slalom. That doesnt work and hasnt for quite some time.
In our instance, using the women for example, you have Gen Simard, Emily Brydon, Britt Janyk, athletes who need to go back and forth. If theyre going back and forth, whos their coach? Piotr (Jelen, speed coach) or Jim Pollock (technical coach)? Theres a gap there. By having the one coach on the top, his job is to make sure those athletes dont get lost in the shuffle. So that was the reason why we brought in the head coaches. The outcome is, the athletes are feeling theres someone they can go to for direction and feedback on the overall direction.
Burkhard has the responsibility to determine how the mens program will unfold. In his particular case, he still has the speed portfolio as well as head coach responsibilities. He will be oriented toward the speed side but will be working closely with Dusan Grasic on the technical side.
Pique
: Speaking of whom, why did you replace mens technical coach Thierry Maynet with Dusan Grasic?Read
: We decided a change was needed for the technical skiers. We offered Thierry a different position but he decided to go with the French team. Thierrys done great but there was a feeling something else was needed, a little bit of extra was needed.Burkhard has the responsibility to determine how the mens program will unfold. It was left to Burkhard to structure the team as he saw fit. Thats where he felt Dusan should be moved in, to head the technical side.
Pique
: And on the womens team, you have a new head coach, Stephan Kurz and a new technical coach, Jim Pollock. Howd that come about?Read
: Stephan became available because the Germans restructured their whole program. They decided to go with someone else. Within the Canadian coaching ranks, theres people whove known Stephan, or Shorty as hes known, for quite a few years. The German women have trained regularly with the Canadian women so theres a familiarity there and there was a feeling he could bring something to the program.He was originally brought in to work on speed with Piotr and then when we shifted to wanting a head coach position, the feeling was that he was the ideal person because of his experience with skiing cross-discipline. Hes done it before as part of the machinery the Germans had in place; now he wants to do it with the Canadian women.
Jim Pollock is very dedicated and hard working. Hes worked his way up the Canadian system from clubs and provinces. Hes got good familiarity of what the athletes go through to get to the top. Jim and (former womens technical coach) Mark Sharp were working very closely together. Were confident hes qualified to step into the leadership position and do a good job.
Mark Sharp had accomplished many of his goals. He has a young family and didnt want to continue to do the travelling. We didnt want to lose that wealth of knowledge. Thats why we offered him the job in juvenile development. Weve discovered club coaches from coast to coast are crying out for the kind of information Mark can bring to the development level. Weve never done this in Canada. Marks a great person to do this.
Pique
: Its been just over a year since you took the reins at Alpine Canada. Weve seen some changes and Im sure there are more coming. Whats your plan?Read
: The strategy for the next couple of years will be sticking to our Podium 2010 strategic plan. What I ask of the athletes is to just keep moving forward. At the end of the day, youre not in a ski race to try to come fifth, or 10 th or 25 th , youre in a ski race because you want to try and win it. So we want to teach these athletes to be winners, right from the bottom to the top. And that occasionally means taking a step back so you can learn to be a winner. I think weve made good strides this year in confidence boosting, for the athletes, for the coaches.We want to keep trying to develop a system thats efficient and uses our dollars well. Thats the whole purpose of 2010. When we have competitive teams, were going to do it on a consistent basis. Its not going to be that Canada does well and then you dont see Canada again for another five years. We want to be doing this year in and year out because that is whats truly going to build momentum.
Weve created a momentum this year but realistically, we know theres a little bit of a gift in it. But you take your gifts where you find them and you run. I didnt expect the team to do as well as it did but thats the nature of ski racing. Sometimes you can energize the momentum and things will take off and we just want to keep building on that because we can maintain that momentum. I think weve got the right coaching staff in place to see these athletes succeed. When theyre (coaches) stepping up and saying they want to be around for eight years. Thats quite a commitment.
Its kind of amusing when you have an moment like this where you won the Games and people say, Oh this will inspire the kids. Its amusing because we pretty much know who the team will be and the question now is how to nurture them through the next seven years. Giving them the support, giving them the experience, giving them the leadership.
If you look back at the previous Games and the investment that was made, the Game Plan 76 and Best Ever 88, created what I call the Olympic shadow. In fact the best results came afterward.
Steve Podborski and I were beneficiaries of Game Plan 76. The best years of the Crazy Canucks came between 1978 and 1984. The group that benefited from Best Ever 88 included Karen Percy and Rob Boyd, who had their best years between 1988 and 1994.
Theres already been several years investment in developing the current group of ski racers and if you look further down the system, theres a pretty steady stream of them coming along. So looking forward, well be able to do well in the years leading up to 2010. But from 2010 on, well have a very healthy, vibrant and incredibly successful team for years to come beyond that.
We wont be saying the golden age of Canadian ski racing was in the 70s and the 80s but hopefully, 30 years from now, theyll be looking back and saying the new golden age came in the 2010s.