Randy Starkman's
Olympics blog



  • Want to get a handle on how Canada's doing on the road to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics? You're in the right place. Randy Starkman has covered Team Canada at 11 Olympic Games starting with 1984 in Sarajevo, where he got to see speed skating legend Gaetan Boucher win two gold and a bronze. Starkman's got the inside track on our top athletes and shares it in his blog, as Canada bids to own the podium in Vancouver and Whistler.

del.icio.us

Advertisement


Legal Notice

  • TheStar.com
    Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Toronto Star or www.thestar.com. The Star is not responsible for the content or views expressed on external sites. Distribution, transmission or republication of any material is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.
    For information please contact us using our webmaster form. www.thestar.com online since 1996.

« Did Dylan Armstrong Get Jobbed? | Main | It's A Wrap ... »

August 19, 2008

Alcohol Meat Buddies and Great Eights ...

P8170600_2 My story the other day on the bronze-medal win in the women’s lightweight double by Tracy Cameron and Melanie Kok ended with the anecdote about Cameron playing mini Olympics with older brother Troy as a kid.

“We had a thing where when the other person would win, there was a medal presentation and you had to stop and raise the other person’s hand and declare them world champion,” Cameron said. “And I HATE it because I was always the one raising his hand. Finally, we’d have to call my Mom in and she’d have do the medal presenting.”

After Tracy climbed the Olympic podium, Troy gladly raised Tracy’s hand. (The photographic evidence is here.)

P8170611 On Cloud Eight: The Canadian men’s eight are not only Olympic champions on the water, but you’d be hard pressed to find a classier bunch of guys anywhere. Truly, a great bunch of role models.

Well, it was not hard to figure out why upon meeting some of their parents out at the Shunyi course.

Not only was there the physical resemblance in many cases, but their warm and genuine manner was certainly familiar from the kind of treatment a Toronto Star reporter and photographer got from the rowers and coach Mike Spracklen during a week long visit to their training base in Victoria in April.

Here, you see Ben Rutledge’s Dad being interviewed by the CBC’s multi-talented Nick Purdon. Can’t remember Mr. Rutledge’s name but he does have a good sense of humour. “Do you think this will help the Leafs?” he asked after the gold-medal win.

Alcohol Meat Buddy: Got a chance to grab some supper the other night (Don’t tell the bosses … Ended up working til 2:30 a.m., anyway … I know, start the violins.)

Anyway, I digress. Phil Morrissette, a young McGill student who has studied Mandarin for four years and is working as a volunteer for the organizing committee, was kind enough to be our tour guide once again. He took some of us to a wonderful Chinese restaurant, where he shared a story about how Chinese men have friends that they go out with regularly to drink a lot of beer and then eat meat skewers.

The name for these friends, said Phil, translates as “Alcohol Meat Buddy.”

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341bf8f353ef00e553f10afb8833

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Alcohol Meat Buddies and Great Eights ...:

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

It was definitely a memorable summer Olympics. We saw a strange lip synching controversy, uproars over age restrictions in gymnastics, 8 gold medals for Michael Phelps, the new king of the sprints in usain Bolt, a kick in the face for a poor referee and the list goes on. Now that all of the Canadians have completed their events, I have to get my sleeping back on an earlier cycle now.

CHINA IS THE FIRST IN MEDAL ACOUNT!!

IN ALL TIMES, WHO HAD MORE GOLD MEDAL IN OLYMPICS GAMES WHERE THE FIRST, THIS YEAR JUST BECAUSE THE US HAS LESS GOLD MEDALS, MOST OF AMERICANS JOURNALS SAY USA IS THE FIRST !!! ARE YOU KIDDING??!! ARE YOU REAL JOURNALISTS??!! DONT YOU HAVE SHAME OF THIS??!!!

skorpioxr@hotmail.com

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.