The Heartbeat

This week's edition of The Heartbeat includes events in Québec City (long track speed skating and cross-country skiing), Lake Louise (alpine skiing), Toronto (beach volleyball) Nakiska, AB (ski-cross) and Gatineau (national team volleyball).

Sports being televised include alpine skiing, curling and snowboarding.

Events to meet athletes are being held in Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto, Ancaster, Hamilton and Québec.

If you are participating in or know of an event that could be featured in The Heartbeat, please contact me: suzanne[at]sportcafe[dot]ca or via Twitter @olympichearts.

Alpine Canada
Women's Downhill and Super-G
November 30-Dec 2, 2012
Lake Louise, Alberta
Admission is free.
More info
Competitors include: Larisa Yurkiw, Marie-Michèle Gagnon and Marie-Pier Préfontaine.

Friday, Nov. 30: Ladies’ downhill (12:30 p.m. MT)
Saturday, Dec. 1: Ladies’ downhill (12:30 p.m. MT)
Sunday, Dec. 2: Ladies’ super-G (11 a.m. MT)

Long Track Speed Skating - Canada Cup
November 30-December 2, 2012
Gaetan-Boucher Oval
Quebec, QC
Among the competitors: Kevin Jagger, Suzanne Hamilton, Alexandra Ianculescu, Dustin Miller, Laurent Dubreuil, Muncef Ouardi, Scott Bickerton, Kate Hanly, Alec Janssens, Léo Landry, Richard MacLennan, Lauren McGuire, Tamara Oudenaarden, Kyle Parrott, Tori Spence and Justin Warsylewicz.
Click here for full list of entries and events
More info

Beach Volleyball World Cup Trials
Semi-Finals
Friday November 30th
7:30pm
Olympian Josh Binstock & Maverick Hatch vs Christian Redmann & Matt Zbyszewski
8:30pm
Olympian Martin Reader & Sam Schachter vs  Chaim Schalk & Ben Saxton.

Finals Saturday December 1st
6:30pm
The Hangar, Downsview Park
Toronto, ON

More info

Ski Cross 
National Championships
December 1, 2012 Nakiska, Alberta
More info
Among the competitors: Kelsey Serwa, Georgia Simmerling and Danielle Sundquist.

FIS Ski Cross World Cup - Nakiska Snowdown
December 8, 2012
The first event of the ski cross World Cup season will consist of 190 of the best skiers from 25 nations.
More info

Team Canada Volleyball
Intra-squad match at Full Time Training Centre
November 30, December 21
Centre Sportif de Gatineau
More info
2012-2013 Roster

Sprint Québec
Coupe du Monde de Ski de Fond 
(Cross-Country Skiing World Cup)
7-9 décembre, 2012 Québec, QC
Plus d'infos
More info

Olympic Sports On Television/Internet

FIS Snowboard Magazine: Season Preview 
Monday November 26th 8:30pm EST Sportsnet ONE
repeated Thursday 8pm EST Sportsnet ONE

Canada Cup of Curling
Wednesday November 28th 10am and 3pm EST TSN
Thursday November 29th 10am, 3pm and 8pm EST TSN
Friday November 30th 10am, 3pm and 8pm EST TSN
Saturday December 1st 1:30pm TSN women's semi-final
Saturday December 1st 7:30pm TSN men's semi-final
Sunday December 2nd 3:00am and 6:00am TSN2 women's and men's semi
Sunday December 2nd 10:30am TSN women's final
Sunday December 2nd 3:30pm TSN men's final

Alpine Skiing
Snowtime
Highlighting latest news from World Cup skiing circuit every week
Friday 1:30pm; replay Saturday 12:00am; replay Sunday 3:30pm CBC Bold

Alpine skiing schedule on CBC, click here for schedule.
Alpine skiing schedule on Sportsnet, click here for schedule.
Follow live results here.

Women's Alpine from Lake Louise
Downhill #1
1:00pm Saturday CBC (live Friday 2:25pm on CBC Bold and cbcsports.ca)
Downhill #2
5:00pm Saturday CBC (live Sat 2:25pm on CBC Bold and cbcsports.ca)
Super-G 3:00pm Sunday CBC local (live 12:55pm on CBC Bold and online www.cbcsports.ca)

Men's Alpine from Beaver Creek, USA
(not seeing television coverage of downhill or Super-G)
Giant Slalom 7pm and 11:30pm Sunday Sportsnet ONE
(also various times on Sportsnet Ont/East/West/Pac)

Meet/Support Canada's Athletes

Simon Whitfield - Barrie Shepley McMaster Tri Clinic
70 min Seminar
Talk Seminar & 1 Morning Clinic
Full Day Tri Clinic including Seminar Talk
Saturday December 1st, 2012
Hamilton, ON
More info

Special Olympic Presentation
Adam van Koeverden and Mark Oldershaw
will discuss their path to Olympic glory as well as dragonboat training and racing strategies.
Toronto, ON
Sunday December 2, 2012
More info

Déjeuner des Championnes Rapides et Radieuses
Marie-Eve Croteau (paralympique - cyclisme), Andréanne Pichette (vélo de montagne), Elise Marcotte (nage synchronisée), Audrey Lacroix (nage), Kristina Valjas (volleyball de plage)

Matinée inspirante pour les filles sportives de 9 à 19 ans
9 décembre, 2012
Québec, QC
Plus d'infos

Olympic Bronze Women's Soccer
Christine Sinclair, Karina Leblanc, Rhian Wilkinson and Diana Matheson
Two hour training sessions for young players
Dec 4 and 6, 2012
Ottawa, Ontario
More info

Dec 7, 8, 9, 2012
Halifax, Nova Scotia
More info

Melissa Tancredi
December 22, 2012 - hour long playing session for boys and girls age 9-14
December 23, 2012 - speech and autograph/photo session
Ancaster, Ontario
More Info

Canada Cup Swimming in Toronto This Weekend

Are you near Toronto this week? Swimming Canada and Etobicoke Swimming are hosting a Canada Cup competition where 13 Olympians will be competing in 36 events! This is your chance to support our Canadian athletes!

I am very excited to go and cheer on our swimmers. I was fortunate enough to be a volunteer in the Olympic Heroes parade, walking along with the swimming float. You can read that post here.

I am very happy to have them compete in Toronto so that I now get to see them compete in the pool. It will be interesting to see them compete against each other though. I'll be cheering for them all.

Competitors include 2008 Olympian Jake Tapp and 2012 Olympians Heather Maclean, Savannah King, Alexa Komarnycky, Zsofi Balazs, Samantha Cheverton, Tera Van Beilen, Martha McCabe, Katerine Savard, Sinead Russell, Colin Russell, Tommy Gossland, Andrew Ford and David Sharpe.

Friday November 23 and Saturday November 24, 2012
Heats start at 10am.
Finals start at 6pm
Etobicoke Olympium

Ticket Information
All Session Passes $20.00
Preliminaries only $5
Finals only  $10.00

VIP Lounge
All Sessions $40.00
Preliminaries only $10
Finals only $20

More Info

For full list of competitors and Friday preliminaries list, click here and click here for race start times.
Click here for live results.

Click here for Saturday preliminaries list.

The Heartbeat

This week's edition of The Heartbeat includes events in Lake Louise (alpine skiing), Whistler (bobsleigh/skeleton),  Toronto/Etobicoke (swimming, beach volleyball), Gatineau (national team volleyball) and Québec (cross-country skiing).

Sports being televised include alpine skiing, bobsleigh, skeleton, figure skating, curling and snowboarding.

Events to meet athletes are being held in Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto, Oakville, Ancaster, Hamilton and Richmond.

If you are participating in or know of an event that could be featured in The Heartbeat, please contact me: suzanne[at]sportcafe[dot]ca or via Twitter @olympichearts.

World Cup Skiing at Lake Louise This Weekend

Are you near Lake Louise this weekend? The Alpine Skiing World Cup is making a stop at Lake Louise for the first downhill race of the season. It's your chance to support our Canadian athletes!

There is much excitement for the Canadian team with a few skiers coming back from injury and some great results last season that included five podium appearances.

Erik Guay got our string of podiums started when he finished 2nd at Garmisch at the end of January.  Two races later in Chamonix, we had three Canadians in the top 5 (with only three Canadians competing)! Jan Hudec was 1st, Erik Guay was 3rd and Ben Thomsen who started 50th was an incredible 5th. You can read my blog post about that exciting race here (which includes more background about Ben and Jan).  Thomsen wasn't done there however.  The following week he reached his first podium by finishing 2nd at the 2014 Olympic venue in Sochi. Jan Hudec would later add a podium in Super-G.

These results along with the return of John Kucera and Manuel Osborne-Paradis bodes well for the Canadian Ski Team.

Another reason to be excited for the team is that this season is the year of the World Championships which are held every two years.

In 2009 John Kucera won the race in Val D'Isère and Erik Guay won in 2011 at Garmisch. Can Canada three-peat this season?

Erik Guay is only three podiums away from matching Steve Podborski's 20 podium finishes by a Canadian.  In 2010, he won the Crystal Globe for Super-G, the award given to the overall points leader at the end of the season.

He was injured in training back in September and had surgery to repair the ligament damage.  He had his first day on the snow two weeks ago but you wouldn't be able to tell from his first training run today where he was 4th fastest.

With six "Canadian Cowboys" competing this season (an elite group reserved for Canadian skiers who have earned a world podium), hopes are high for continued great results.

Competing this weekend are Erik Guay, Jan Hudec, Ben Thomsen, Manuel Osborne-Paradis, John Kucera, Conrad Pridy, Morgan Pridy, Dustin Cook and Jeffrey Frisch.

If you're near Lake Louise, wear your red and white and cheer extra loud for me. I wish I was there. I have only skied Lake Louise once but it was incredible!

I haven't witnessed a World Cup race (yet), but I was lucky enough to meet Erik two years ago when he was in Toronto with the Crystal Globe. John Kucera was also there. You can read the post about the meeting here.



Here's this weekend's schedule:
Wednesday, November 21 - Men's Downhill training (11:30 a.m.)
Thursday, November 22 - Men's Downhill training (11:30 a.m.)
Friday, November 23 - Men's Downhill training (11:30 a.m.)
Saturday, November 24 - Men's Downhill (11:30 a.m.)
Sunday, November 25 - Men's Super-G (11 a.m.)

If you can't make it to Lake Louise, you can follow live timing here.

The downhill race will be televised on CBC on Saturday 1:00pm Eastern.

The Super-G race will be televised on CBC on Sunday 3pm local time. It will be shown live at cbcsports.ca and televised on CBC Bold at 12:55pm Eastern.

Bobsleigh & Skeleton in Whistler this weekend

Are you near Whistler this week? The Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Cup is being held November 23 and 24 at the Whistler Sliding Centre. It's your chance to cheer for Canada and support our Canadian Olympians and national team members.

Competitors include Olympic medallists Jon Montgomery, Kaillie Humphries, Lyndon Rush, Lascelles Brown and Canadian Olympians Melissa Hollingsworth and Justin Kripps as well as Christopher Spring who competed for Australia at the 2010 Olympic games, but now represents Canada.

It's an exciting time for the Canadian Team with the season starting with great successes.

Olympic gold medallist Kaillie Humphries has won the first two races this season in women's bobsleigh bringing her total to five consecutive races going back to last season.  Humphries and Chelsea Valois won the season opener in Lake Placid two weeks ago and followed it up with another win at Park City, Utah last weekend. Can they keep it going at home?

Sarah Reid and Melissa Hollingsworth took the first two spots of the skeleton podium in Lake Placid November 9th. Cassie Hawrysh just missed the podium at Park City last weekend in only her second career World Cup race. Can they sweep the podium in Whistler?

Click here to read Melissa's blog post about the Lake Placid race.  Cassie wrote a great blog post about her first World Cup race. You can read it here.

The men haven't been as successful this season...YET! Is Whistler the race that will see them on the podium?

Who can forget Jon Montgomery's amazing skeleton gold in Whistler in 2010? Can he bring those memories back to get to the podium or will John Fairbairn and Eric Neilson who have fared better so far this season be our top Canadian?

The bobsleigh teams are pushing each other with Team Rush (Canada 1) leading the Canadians at the first World Cup in 2-man and 4-man bobsleigh and Team Spring (Canada 2) being the top Canadian team at the second race in 2-man and 4-man.  Canada 3 is led by Olympian Justin Kripps. Click here for full list of bobsleigh team.

Team Kripps' Justin Kripps and Jean-Nicolas Carriere as well as Team Spring have interesting blog posts that you can read here.

If you're in Whistler this weekend, wear your red and white and cheer extra loud for me. As an added bonus, Whistler/Blackcomb opened early for the season and have numerous special events planned this week. Click here for details. It has been too long since my last trip to Whistler. I'm sure that since the Olympics, it's bigger and better than it was the last time I was there. Wish I was there this weekend to catch the World Cup and hit the slopes.

To see the past World Cup performances or to watch the events live online, click here for the skeleton YouTube channel and click here for the bobsleigh YouTube channel. To see it on television, Sportsnet will be broadcasting the events.  Check your local listings for the times.

Here is the schedule for this weekend:

Friday 23rd
Women's Skeleton:  10am
2 Man Bobsleigh:  3pm
Women's Bobsleigh:  6:30pm

Saturday 24th 
4 Man Bobsleigh:  6:30pm
Men's Skeleton:  3pm

Presale General Admission tickets available via Whistler.com for $10. Click here. VIP tickets are $75 and include a gondola pass.
Day of tickets are available at Whistler Blackcomb's ticket kiosk at the base of the Excalibur gondola, or the Whistler Sliding Centre.


Click here for more information.

Go Canada Go!

The Heartbeat

This week's edition of The Heartbeat includes events in Calgary (long track speed skating, bobsled, skeleton), Toronto/Etobicoke (swimming, beach volleyball), Gatineau (national team volleyball), Richmond (fencing) Lake Louise (men's skiing) and Whistler (bobsled, skeleton).

Sports being televised include bobsled, skeleton, figure skating, curling, alpine skiing, London 2012 defining moments and Canadian medal performances.

Events to meet athletes are being held in Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto and Ancaster.

If you are participating in or know of an event that could be featured in The Heartbeat, please contact me:  suzanne[at]sportcafe[dot]ca or via Twitter @olympichearts.

Enough Already!

I can't wait for the NHL lockout* to be over. It's not because I want to see hockey or I want the NHL cities' economies to stop suffering - those are valid reasons.

I can't wait for the NHL lockout to be over because it is driving me crazy to turn on Sportsnet and anytime from 6:00am to 4:00pm one of the Sportsnet stations is showing Hockey Central. On TSN/TSN2, That's Hockey gets almost as much air time.

They talk about hockey every single day, when there is no hockey being played!

Hockey is not my favourite sport but that's not to say that I hate it. I have been to and loved Toronto Maple Leafs games. I travelled to Buffalo for the World Junior Championships a couple of years ago. If the Leafs ever make the playoffs (a girl can dream), I will 100% jump on the band wagon.  So when there is hockey being played, I have no issue with hockey being first on the highlight shows or talk shows dedicated to hockey, even if it's not my thing. Most Canadians love hockey.

I turned on the television a couple of weeks ago while preparing my lunch and started watching Sportsnet. It's a few minutes past twelve and they're talking about the New York City Marathon and whether it should get cancelled or not. I'm quite impressed to be watching a show that is talking about a timely event.  Less than five minutes later, the one host says "I'm so tired of talking about the NYC Marathon" so he ends the conversation. They move on to the next topic which is, you guessed it HOCKEY!

I almost yelled at the television set "aren't you 'so tired' of talking about hockey (when there's no hockey being played)?"

There is a hurricane that hit New York a week before a yearly event, 45000 athletes travel from around the world to compete/participate and there is a debate going on as to whether to hold the race or not. There is so much that could be discussed that is fresh and new, yet the host says "I'm so tired of talking about the NYC Marathon". The host can talk about hockey every day during an 80 game season, but he can't talk for more than five minutes on an event that happens once a year?

I so need a new sports channel that showcases more than the NHL, NFL, NBA and MLB. It's not that I don't love those sports. I watch my fair share of games/highlights/playoffs but there's more to the sporting world than four sports. It's frustrating to see our Canadian athletes competing around the world every weekend with little or no mention on our multiple sports channels.

As the lockout continues, it drives me even more crazy to go to a sports channel and hear them continue to talk about hockey. What can they possibly be talking about? There's a lockout going on. There is no hockey being played. Some days the owners and the players aren't even talking.

So enough already!

Let me know when it's resolved and let's talk about something else until then.

*An earlier version of this blog post called the lockout a strike which has now been corrected. Thx to @EricMacKenzie for pointing it out.

The Heartbeat

This week's edition of The Heartbeat includes events in Victoria (rowing), Toronto/Etobicoke (taekwondo, swimming, beach volleyball), London (boccia) and Lake Louise (men's skiing).

Sports being televised include the ESPN films, bobsled, skeleton, figure skating, curling and London 2012 defining moments.

Events to meet athletes are being held in Toronto and Ancaster.

If you are participating in or know of an event that could be featured in The Heartbeat, please contact me:  suzanne[at]sportcafe[dot]ca or via Twitter @olympichearts.

It's About The Journey

Last week, TSN2 showed a 30 minute program about the 4x100m relay at the London 2012 Olympics.  In a post in August, I explained why I didn't blog during or following the Olympics. You can read it here. I had a lot of thoughts, but once the Olympics were over, I thought it was too late.

Seeing the relay again last week, I was compelled to write my thoughts. It was one of the highlights of London 2012 for me.

I was so excited that Canada qualified for the final. Not to take anything away from the team, but with Canada having only one runner (Justyn Warner) competing in the 100m event, I didn't realize how great our team could be.  I remembered Jared Connaughton from the 2008 Olympics and had seen Gavin Smellie, Seyi Smith and Justyn compete at the Toronto International Track & Field Games in July. You can read the post about that here.

It's sometimes difficult in a 400m race to really know who's leading. You look at the staggers between the lanes to see if there's a runner making up a stagger, but it really only shows the difference between those lanes.

With Canada on the lane to the inside of the Jamaican team, it was difficult to gauge how well they were doing. Jamaica are so strong that they were pulling away from Canada on the back straight, but where was Canada overall?

As Jared Connaughton makes the final turn and passes the baton to Justyn Warner who finishes the turn, we realize that Canada are in about 5th. I was so excited and then Warner passes 4th and is running down the runner in 3rd.  I was jumping up and down watching his incredible run.

For those minutes when we thought they won the bronze, I was so excited. When the disqualification was announced, my heart went out to them and for days and weeks later.

I have often thought of this race since.  You wonder why it happened the way it did.  When I do, I am reminded of the quote: "everything happens for a reason, even if we don't understand the reason at the time".

I also find it ironic that if they had won the bronze medal, there probably wouldn't have been a 30 minute special about the race.  Sportsnet Magazine wouldn't have run a full page story on Connaughton (see November 5th issue).

But then, this is sports: "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat". This is what makes sports so compelling.

The reason we compete in sports and the reason that the Olympics are so special is that the winner is not determined until we compete. The Olympics are every four years.  Dozens of athletes want to win and believe they can medal in dozens of sports. Only three medals are won in each one.  This means heartbreak for hundreds of athletes.

At the Olympic Heroes parade this fall, I was speaking to a swimmer who downplayed his celebrity status. We were discussing whether he wanted to be on the float or walking beside.  I commented that on the float, both sides of the street could see him. If he walked, he should try to be visible on both sides so that if someone is in the crowd was wanting to see him, they would. He made a joke about who would be wanting to see him in particular because he came in 17th.

So much attention is given to medals at the Olympics, but to me (and countless others) it's more than the medals. Each person on Team Canada is an Olympian!! There are millions of people who dream or have dreamed of becoming an Olympian who never did or never will.

People who lined the streets of Toronto to cheer our Olympians' homecoming came to see our Olympic Team, not just our medallists.

Part of the Olympic experience is the journey that gets you there.  I recently thought we had messed up my son's course selection. It looked like he may not get his bilingual certificate at graduation (without some reshuffling of courses). My first thought was, imagining all those years of french courses and he doesn't get the certificate, but it didn't take me long to correct myself. It's not the certificate that's important, it's that he learned a second language. Which brought my thoughts to the Olympic experience.

Competing and training for an Olympic Games is a journey. It's pushing yourself and seeing how great you can be. It's the lessons learned along the way. Being an Olympian is a huge achievement. Performing your best at the Olympics is amazing. Winning a medal is rare and stupendous.

The 4x100m relay team from Canada crossed the finish line 3rd. The disqualification took away the bronze medal, but it doesn't take away the achievement or the journey.

The Heartbeat

This week's edition of The Heartbeat includes events in Calgary (speed skating), Victoria (rowing), Toronto/Etobicoke (swimming) and Lake Louise (men's skiing).

Sports being televised include the NYC marathon, the Steve Nash directed documentary Into The Wind about Terry Fox, The Canada Sports Hall of Fame gala, internet stream of swimming and London 2012 defining moments.

Events to meet athletes are being held in Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg.

Keep reading for more detail.

If you are participating in or know of an event that could be featured in The Heartbeat, please contact me:  suzanne[at]sportcafe[dot]ca or via Twitter @olympichearts.