Curious departure of Ken Read

Switching over to the Winter Olympic side for a moment, the sudden departure of Alpine Canada boss Ken Read is a bit of a puzzler.

Read is going to announce later this morning that he is stepping down as chief executive officer of Alpine Canada.

On all fronts and it seemed by all accounts, Read had been doing a superb job in his role, helping to turn the program around from a laughingstock at the 2002 Winter Olympics into a contender for medals heading towards the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

The apparent reason for his leaving is that he can't be the boss while his son, Erik, winner of a silver medal in the 15-16 age class at the world junior championships, is a member of the program.  The Alpine Canada rules state that's not allowed.

But one would think if Alpine Canada's board of directors was truly happy with Read, they might find a way to deal with this issue other than letting the leader of the program leave just over a year away from the big show. It's not like they wouldn't notice if suddenly half the funding was dumped into the junior program.

It's also not like relatives working together is unprecedented in Olympic or other sports. Right now, Scott Oldershaw coaches his son Mark on the Canadian Olympic canoe-kayak team while also guiding Olympic champion Adam Van Koeverden.

Still, one can't fault Alpine Canada's board if this is truly about sticking to principles, if that is really what this is all about.

But Read is the kind of guy who has made his enemies along the way. Some regard him as arrogant and overbearing. Amateur sport organizations can tend to be personality driven, with volunteers often running the show and often at the expense of the sport, but Alpine Canada seemed to have risen above that. The organization, with Read's leadership, has shown a professionalism that many associations still lack.

That's what make this turn of events so curious.