The Heartbeat

This week's edition of The Heartbeat include events in Québec, Gatineau, Collingwood, Calgary, Apex (BC), Whistler and Vancouver.

Sports being televised or streamed include bobsleigh, skeleton, luge, alpine skiing, tennis, cycling, triathlon, short track speed skating, freestyle skiing and snowboarding.

Events to meet athletes are being held in Calgary, Montebello, QC (near Montreal) and Toronto.

Heartbeat Highlights

It has been an incredible weekend of podiums for Canada in Olympic sports on the world stage. I am counting 19 (apologies if I am missing any). With 375 days before the 2014 Sochi Olympics, these are some of our men and women who will be going for gold for Canada.


Snowboard Cross World Championships
1st Maëlle Ricker
2nd Dominique Maltais


FIS World Cup Moguls - Women
1st - Justine Dufour-Lapointe
2nd - Chloé Dufour-Lapointe

FIS World Cup Moguls - Men
1st - Mikaël Kingsbury


Bobsleigh World Championships
1st Kaillie Humphries and Chelsea Valois
(although not an Olympic event, Canada was 3rd in the Bobsleigh Team Event)

Speed Skating Sprint World Championships
Although the Canadians did not medal in the overall competition (combining times for two1000m races and two 500m races), they were in the top 3 in single races.
Women 1000m (Sat) 1st - Christine Nesbitt (5th overall)
Women 1000m (Sun) 2nd - Christine Nesbitt
Men 500m (Sat) - 2nd Jamie Gregg (4th overall)
Men 500m (Sun) - 2nd Jamie Gregg
Men 500m (Sun) - 3rd Gilmore Junio

FIS Kitzbühel Downhill - Men
2nd - Erik Guay

X Games Snowboard Slopestyle - Men
1st Mark McMorris
2nd Max Parrot
(Mark was also 2nd in Snowboard Big Air which is not an Olympic event)

X Games Ski Superpipe - Women
2nd Roz Groenewoud
3rd Megan Gunning

X Games Ski Slopestyle - Women
2nd Kaya Turski
3rd Dara Howell

X Games Snowboard Slopestyle - Women
3rd Spencer O'Brien

How many of these did you see on television this weekend? There was a lot of sports coverage but not enough to cover everything. The Snowboard World Championships held in Stoneham, Québec were not televised on English television (thanks to TVA Sports for broadcasting it live in French). What an opportunity wasted to not have shown this World Championship event being held in Canada.

The World Cup Moguls being held in Calgary and the Speed Skating Sprint World Championships being held in Utah are being televised next weekend. I was also surprised that the Bobsleigh World Championships weren't shown in a timely fashion (like World Cups often are). The World Championships were shown on Monday morning (except for the women who were shown on Saturday).

Sports are so much better when they're live. Part of the appeal is the anticipation and the excitement of the results. As much as I love to see our Canadians perform, it's not the same when the results are known. It's so much more exciting when we are on the edge of our seat watching it live.

A decade ago, it may have been acceptable to show sports on tape delayed. We weren't as likely to hear the results then. In today's world of social media and instant news, I wish our sports channels would make a stronger effort to show sports live or at least in a more timely fashion. Live online feeds is a step in the right direction but with some events being held in the middle of the night, it's the minority who will stay up or get up to see it live.

Some sports do it right. Bobsleigh/Skeleton have a YouTube channel that show live events and go the extra mile by keeping the videos available for later viewing. The International Biathlon Union offer the same benefits on their website. The sports federations may need to take matters into their own hands in order to publicize and grow their respective sports.

Our athletes are winning world championships. I don't think it's too much to ask to see it live (or at least be able to PVR live coverage).

I look forward to the day when we have a dedicated Canadian amateur sports television station who will do it right and help fans support our athletes year round.

"The Olympics isn't every four years, it's every single day".

Roz Groenewoud - World Champion

Roz Groenewoud won the FIS World Championships in 2011 and is the defending champion for tonight's X-Games competition which will be shown on TSN2 in Canada (10:30pm EST).

I was lucky enough to see Roz in action at the Dew Tour last month where she placed third in the freeski superpipe competition.

Roz may not be a household name in Canada yet, but with Target stores opening across the country in 2013 and with Roz being the first Canadian for them to sponsor, we will be hearing and seeing more of Roz leading into the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The Dew Tour was the first event for Canada's athletes' quest to make the Canadian Olympic team. Two podiums at five designated events (plus a top 16 at the World Championships or Sochi Test Event) will give an athlete early qualification so that during the Olympic season, they can concentrate on peaking at the Games instead of on qualifying.

With Roz earning a podium result at the Dew Tour, another at the X-Games tonight will almost guarantee that she will be in Sochi competing for the first gold medal in her sport.

The Sarah sticker on Roz's helmet is a constant reminder of Sarah Burke's legacy to the sport.

Another Canadian in the competition was Keltie Hansen. She is also competing at the X Games and will be looking to join Team Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Freeski superpipe was Sarah Burke's specialty. Roz being seven years younger than Sarah grew up idolizing her and was coached by her at summer camp. In 2011 at the X Games, they shared a podium with Sarah winning and Roz in third. A few months later, she would beat Sarah at the FIS World Championships.

Last year, a week after Sarah died, Roz Groenewoud won the Superpipe competition at the X Games dedicating her win to Sarah.

Sarah was the pioneer who grew the sport and fought for it to be included at the X-Games (for women) and in the Olympics. Many assumed that Sarah would be the gold medal winner in Sochi but that was not her fate. She opened the door so that others could walk through and shine. Look out for Roz Groenewoud to shine in 2014.

Here's the video of her Dew Tour run.

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The Heartbeat

This week's edition of The Heartbeat include events in Stoneham (QC), Calgary, Port Hawksbury (NS), Collingwood (ON), Kelowna, Whistler and Vancouver.
Sports being televised or streamed include bobsleigh, skeleton, alpine skiing, tennis, curling, track cycling, freestyle skiing and snowboarding.

Spencer O'Brien - World Champion

Spencer O'Brien won the FIS Snowboard Slopestyle World Championships in Quebec this past weekend which leads perfectly into this second post about my trip to Breckenridge for the Dew Tour last month where she finished second.

You can read my first post about my trip here. I wanted to highlight our Canadians in separate posts so I have "saved the best" for these posts - well at least in sentiment if not in photography.

Snowboard Slopestyle will make its Olympic debut in 2014. In order to qualify, snowboarders must earn points on the FIS snowboard circuit. Although most snowboarders prefer to compete on the professional tour that offer courses that are more challenging, athletes competed at Stoneham Mountain in Québec this past weekend for the FIS World Championships where Spencer repeated as World Champion. She is also the reigning world champion on the pro tour.

Next weekend, she will compete at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado with coverage on TSN2 starting on Thursday January 24th at 3pm. 

I was happy to get to see some Slopestyle action at the Dew Tour. After watching the superpipe competition, I did realize that slopestyle is not as spectator friendly live as the superpipe especially if you are inexperienced like I was. 

Wherever you are at the superpipe, you can hear the commentary and the announcement of the athletes. You can also see the whole run.

For slopestyle, you have to pick your spots. You can't see the whole run and unless you're at the bottom of the run, you can't hear the commentary (at least at the Dew Tour this year) which means you don't know who is coming (or when). 

My original plan for the semi-finals had been to walk up from the chalet after lunch to the bottom jump but they wouldn't let people climb up. We had to take the chair lift then walk down. Climbing back up to the superpipe afterwards did make me understand perhaps one of the reasons. It's not easy climbing a mountain at altitude! It was a quiet day, so the other reason of having traffic flow one way wasn't really a factor on this first day of competition.

By the time I took the chairlift (not having given myself enough time for it), I had missed the first run. I still managed to get a couple of great shots of Spencer. She would qualify for the final in fourth.

The next day, I watched the first run where I could see a jump leading to a rail feature which is unique to slopestyle.

After Spencer's first run, I kept walking down the mountain looking for other great spots for photos (and to try to see if I could get close enough to hear commentary). Unlike in superpipe where the skier has your attention for their whole run so that the gap between competitors doesn't seem very long, in slopestyle the gap seems longer because we only see a small part of their run. If you're underneath a jump, you don't know when they're coming so it can get tricky getting shots, but eventually you get used to knowing the approximate gap and knowing great spots to get photos.

I love the following shot contrasting Jamie Anderson against the blowing cloud, the side view of the jump and the man-made snow in the foreground.

The conditions were a lot different for the second run only twenty minutes later. The lighting was a lot darker as can be seen on this unedited shot. The above shots are unedited (except some cropping). The difference in the colour of the sky and brightness of the snow is obvious from the beautiful blue sky in her first run and the dark clouds on this photo. 

(I edited the following shots to brighten them). On her second run, Spencer unfortunately didn't land this jump cleanly.

She was still in the lead from the strength of her first run, but Jamie Anderson's second run ended up being the best on the day. Spencer finished second.

I would have loved to have talked to her and get her thoughts on this season and the next leading to the Olympics as well as the design on her snowboard. 

There was quite a crowd surrounding her with journalists interviewing her and kids waiting for autographs. I was happy to get a glance for this shot.

She may have been second on this day, but look for her to be at the top at the Olympics in Sochi.

Here's a video showing highlights from the Dew Tour competition. Spencer is highlighted starting at the 1:20 mark.

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Dew Tour - Breckenridge

Last month, I had the chance to catch some snowboard and freeski action at the Dew Tour in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Roz Groenewoud of Canada competes in Freeski Superpipe

The Dew Tour is the first qualifying event for the 2014 Sochi Olympics for halfpipe and slopestyle. Snowboard halfpipe was already an Olympic event, but for freeski halfpipe, freeski slopestyle and snowboard slopestyle, 2014 will see their debut.

Canada (unlike the US) is offering early qualification to freeski athletes who podium in two of five designated events (Dew Tour, X-Games (Copper WC for slopestyle), European X-Games-France, Sochi Test Event and World Championships) as well as a top 16 in either the Sochi Test Event or World Championships. Click here for full qualification process for freeski competitions. Click here for the Canadian snowboard qualification process.

For our Canadian athletes, the Dew Tour was especially important in their quest for Sochi 2014.

In my two days at the Dew Tour, I got to see the Men's Freeski and Snowboard Superpipe qualification, as well as the Women's Snowboard Slopestyle and Women's Freeski Superpipe finals.

I will write separate posts for the Men's Freeski and the Women's competitions highlighting the first qualifying podiums by our Canadians. This first post is an overview of the competition and showcases my favourite photos.

I started my first day by watching the Men's Freeski Superpipe competition from the bottom of the superpipe.

This view gave a great perspective of the full run. 

Matt Margetts

Mike Riddle

Noah Bowman

Mike Riddle

It was great to see the athletes' reactions at the end of their runs.

Matt Margetts

It was also the perfect place to be while waiting for the scores to be posted on the scoreboard as well as listen to the commentators during the runs and hear the interviews.

Mike Riddle

Canada was well represented with three men qualifying for the final:  Mike Riddle 1st, Justin Dorey 3rd and Matt Margetts 5th. 

After lunch, I managed to catch some of the semi-finals action for the Women's Slopestyle, including Spencer O'Brien:

I was quite happy with the photos I took of the freeski competition at the superpipe in the morning, but it would prove to be nothing compared to the photos I would get in the afternoon for the snowboard superpipe competition. Unfortunately there were no Canadians in this competition but it did include Olympic gold medallist Shaun White. 

When I arrived at the bottom of the superpipe, the sun was shining right above the pipe making photo taking from the bottom quite challenging. I decided to climb up the side of the superpipe so that the sun would be more behind me.

Although this didn't give me a perspective on the whole run, it made for some spectacular photos.

Starting with the best snowboarder in the world, I managed to catch a few good photos of Shaun White.

I didn't notice it at the time, but I was happy to see him wearing a Sarah Burke armband when I looked at my photos. She was definitely on my mind while I was at the Dew Tour.

Here are more of my favourite shots:

Benji Farrow

Louis Vito

Spencer Shaw

Watching the competition from the side of the superpipe was incredible to experience the speed and the sound of the snowboarders.

With the competition over, I walked back down to the chalet to meet my friends. On my way, I caught some practice action off a jump by some freeski competitors.

Alex Schlopy

I was happy to see some of this practice. Being a guest, I was on my friends' schedule. When they were done skiing and ready to go back to the cottage, I followed. This meant missing the Freeski Big Air competition that ended the day. It was still an amazing day and I couldn't wait for Day 2.

Stay tuned for my next posts that will showcase the women, including Canadians Roz Groenewoud who was third in the Freeski Superpipe and Spencer O'Brien who was second in the Snowboard Slopestyle. I will also post more photos and details about the Men's Freeski Superpipe where two Canadians Justin Dorey and Mike Riddle were on the podium.