Thirteen Days to Go

This is my fifth post leading up to the Sochi 2014.


I spent quite a bit of time getting some content together for Olympic stories that we are running in Forever Young Information.  Forever Young is Canada’s Adult Lifestyle Publication (www.foreveryoungnews.com)


The stories ought to be on line and on newsstands just in advance of the Olympics opening.


A lot of research went into putting together the stories.  I learned there is not enough space even in the Sunday NY times to mention all 200 plus Canadian athletes attending the February games.  Especially not when you are trying to provide some items of historical interest for the readers.


Social Media


Many of the athletes are tweeting.  Some are interesting.  Most seem to be thanking sponsors and well-wishers or chatting with fellow competitors.  Nothing wrong with that.   You can pick up the youthful enthusiasm of the athletes from looking at the tweets.

This morning for example Canadian Bobsledder  and self-described “Hawaiian born beach bum” and “carbon neutral athlete” captured his first ever World Cup two man bobsled victory.  You can catch his enthusiasm for his win and the third place finish of fellow Canadian Lyndon Rush at @justinkripps.


Owen Sound’s Larisa Yurikw took this weekend off from World Cup downhill skiing.  She deserves the rest, as you’ll see in my FYI story.  She’s been sick and her battery needs recharging. http://instagram.com/p/jjGxdojYY3/#


Following Sochi 2014


I’ve been thinking of how I’ll follow the Olympics with the nine-hour time difference to Sochi.  A terrific site I came across in my research is sportcafe_ca.  They have new and informed reports daily.


I also found @OlympicHearts through twitter.  Here you can hook up with Suzanne Sewell’s passionate reporting.


Interesting Fact


Meghan Agosta-Marciano (@MeghanAgosta) of Ruthven Ontario is on her third Olympic Hockey team.  In her first Turin in 2006, she notched a hat trick on her 19th birthday.  She turns 26 on this February 12th.  A nice way to celebrate the occasion would be another hat trick, particularly as our team is up against arch rivals the Americans on February 12th.

Our Biathlon Team is Getting Better

(This is my fourth post in a series of posts on the Winter Olympics leading up to Sochi 2014.)


Apparently, every male in Canada is occupied right now with the Men’s Olympic Hockey Team Selection.

Did Yzerman and his team pick the right guys? I have no idea.

I predict, however, there will be no lack of analysis on the matter until, well after it is all over.   The Men’s Quarterfinals begin on February 19^th.

For my part, I’m trying to avoid the palaver and educate myself a bit on the sport of biathlon.  The eight-person team is actually competing in a World Cup event today through Sunday in Bavaria.

There will be five Olympic disciplines with a relay, mass start, pursuit and individual event for men and women.  For the first time there is a mixed relay going on February 19th.  

Here is some basic information on the sport. http://www.sochi2014.com/en/biathlon-about

Eight athletes were nominated last week to represent Canada.  They are:  

*Jean-Philippe Le Guellec – Shannon, Quebec.

*Nathan Smith - Calgary

*Scott Perras - Regina,

*Brendan Green - Hay River, N.W.T.

*Rosanna Crawford - Canmore, Alta.

*Megan Heinicke - Prince George, B.C.

*Megan Imrie - Falcon Lake, Man.

*Zina Kocher - Red Deer, Alta.

The team has been improving.  Le Guellec won a Swedish World Cup event in 2012.  That was the men’s 10-kilometre sprint. He just missed the Podium in an another event in Sweden last year and was sixth at the Vancouver Olympics.  It would seem he should be a contender.  But you have to come up with your best effort on the day of the event.

"There's no miracle recipe," Le Guellec told CTV news recently. "I worked really hard during the summer to put things in place to have a good season, and then during the season I'm putting things in place to have the best performances in Sochi. It all boils down to that essentially. There's no magic."

Calgary’s Nathan Smith is also getting better and had a top ten finish in the 12.5 kilometre pursuit event recently in Annecy-Le Grand Bornand France.

The Women are improving as well featuring a fourth place relay finish less than a month ago in France.  In today’s event they were 11^th. I’m following  Crawford on twitter at @RosannaCrawford.

Read more about the team in this CTV report http://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/jean-philippe-le-guellec-among-canadian-biathletes-hoping-to-reach-podium-in-sochi-1.1615798#ixzz2pp5fcmWC

Long Track Speed Skating

(This is my third post in a series of posts on the Winter Olympics leading up to Sochi 2014.)

I’ve been following the Canadian Long Skating Selection meet that took place in Calgary over the last week.   Intact Insurance sponsored the event.

Given past results, it surprised me that there seemed to be relatively little media coverage.  Did I miss it?

Looking at Ontario athletes there are some good stories.

Christine Nesbitt, the defending Olympic 1000 metre champ, seems to be rounding back into form after a couple of months away from competition.  The London native took the 500, 1500 and her speciality event the 1000 metres.

Ivanie Blondin of Ottawa took the women’s 5 km in 7:18.45 after earlier finishing second in the 3,000.

Toronto’s Jordan Belchos took the 10,000 metres by a large margin but will need another country to give up a spot for him to make the Olympics.

Probably the biggest surprise was  Vincent De Haitre’s victory in a decent time of 1:08.37 in the 1000.  Vincent, from Ottawa, is only 19 years old and amazingly has already captured another national championship (in Clara Hughes fashion) in a different sport.  He’s the Canadian elite I km Time Trial  cycling champ.  It is always amazing to me that athletes can compete at such a high level in different sports.

Two Sport Athletes

Along that line,  Bobsleigh does seem to be getting great TV coverage these days.
This afternoon I watched Russia Olga Stulneva  finish 11^th in the two women bob event from Winterberg Germany.  She is a former Olympic track medalist having been part of the Russian team that finished second in the 4 x 100 metre relay in Athens way back in 2004.  There are a lot of track athletes in bobsleigh these days pushing sleds (American hurdler Lolo Jones was second in Winterberg) but Stulneva is the driver.

Team to be Announced

Back to Skating, the Canadian long-track Olympic team currently has the ability to send 18 athletes to the Games (10 women, 8 men).  Athletes will be nominated by Speed Skating Canada’s Olympic Selection Committee following and announced publicly on Jan. 22 at Calgary’s Olympic Oval.

I’m following some athlete's twitter accounts. You can find Ivanie Blondin at  @IvanieB while Jordan Belchos is at @jbelch89