Perdita: P is for Picking Your Spots ...

Heading into the 2004 Athens Olympics, all a reporter had to do was send Perdita Felicien an email and they’d usually get an enthusiastic response the same day.

The former world champion from Pickering realized she can’t continue to operate that way, which was a big part of the reason she didn’t speak about her injury until an interview published in the Star today.

“To give that much of yourself when you’re preparing for something big, it takes a lot of your energy, you’re giving it to something else,” Felicien said. “I decided I had to learn from the past.

“My thing now was I’ve talked too much, I’ve focused on other things, and it’s not allowing me to focus completely on healing, getting better, healing psychologically, emotionally and physically to be ready for whatever is next for me. And I made that call (not to talk as much).

“I’m not trying to be difficult, I’m not trying to elude anybody, but I think there’s a time for everything and I think that was a time for me just to be silent and take care of me for once.”

Bet Despatie would rather have a medal ...

Alexandre Despatie's ankle has been in the news as he rehabs his injury for the Beijing Olympics, but his legs are getting a lot of attention, too.

It turns out the Olympic silver medalist has won the male half of a razor company promotion to find out who has the best legs in Canada, while Shania Twain took honours on the women's side.

Despatie got 18 per cent of the national vote (48 per cent in Quebec) to beat out actor Keanu Reeves (14 per cent) and basketball star Steve Nash (13).

Maybe it's something he can put on his resume as he pursues an acting career down the line.

Beijing Games Lost in a Haze?

There was the news this week that cars were being pulled off the streets in Beijing to try to improve the badly polluted air ahead of the Aug. 8-24 Games. Toronto shooter Avianna Chao, who was born in China and will compete for Canada at the Olympics, will undoubtedly be glad to hear that.

The Canadian team's environmental physiologist, Dr. Jon Kolb, said back in March he was more concerned about humidity than pollution. But Chao, who was in Beijing with her coach/boyfriend Patrick Haynes and mother, Lien Chao, for a World Cup event in early May, isn't so sure.

Here’s Chao she had to say about the pollution then:

“That’s somewhat scary. I’m hoping it gets better in August, but I don’t really know how because it’s only going to be warmer. Just the haze.

“When we first arrived, we thought it was fog – or I thought it was fog. Patrick was like ‘Omigod, look at the pollution!’ I actually got angry at him because I’m like ‘Why are you being so judgemental, sort of defending China a little.’

“And then after three days, I was like ‘You know what, Patrick, ummm, I hate to admit it, I think you were right. It doesn’t look like fog, it hasn’t cleared in three days.’

“Some people said in the spring it always gets like that, because I guess there’s some mountains nearby and stuff flys in and kinda gets trapped in the mountains. I don’t know.

“The first week I would say I was not quite comfortable and I was worried about getting sick. But then you kind of get used to it.

“I certainly don’t envy the people living there. You can just tell from the cars on the road. They all have this film over them. There are no cars that are sparkling clean. You think ‘That’s what the cars look like. What do my lungs look like?’”

Watch Lopes in Action: If you want to see Whitby hurdler Priscilla Lopes, featured in the Star today, and a number of other top Canadians compete in last week's Harry Jerome Track Meet in Vancouver, you can find highlights of the action here.

Hayden Gets Good News on the Back Front ...

World champion swimmer Brent Hayden got some encouraging news regarding his wonky back recently after getting it checked out by some specialists in Vancouver.

“It doesn’t seem like that disc is, in fact, bulging,” said his coach Tom Johnson. “It seems like it’s a soft tissue injury and a rib that was pinching and setting that nerve off. I mean it was real and everything, but it’s not as serious as we had thought originally. So it’s a good thing.”

Hayden was barely able to get to the start blocks at the Canadian Olympic trials in April and, after qualifying in the 100 metres where he’s co-reigning world champion, he had to pull out of the 200 metres.

But Johnson, who’s also head coach of the Olympic swim team, said things are slowly coming together for the Mission, B.C. native.

“The back thing seems pretty much under control,” Johnson said.. “He’s able to dive, he’s able to turn. The back is holding up. The rehab program has paid off.”

Hayden was encouraged by his performance two weeks ago at the Janet Evans Invitational in California, where he raced pain-free in the 50 and 100 metre freestyle and posted a time of 48.99 seconds in the 100-metre preliminary. He was a tenth slower in finishing third to American Jason Lezak in the final.

But Johnson attributed that to Hayden trying too hard after seeing that his co-world champion Filippo Magnini of Italy won in Rome earlier that day in 48.35, ahead of Australian Eamonn Sullivan and world record holder Alain Bernard of France, who tied for second in 48.41.

“He (Hayden) didn’t wear the suit to go 48.9 and the other guys were all dressed up,” said Johnson. “You can take some positives. We’ve still got work to do. But he’s in the picture, right, he’s in the hunt.”

Swedish roots are news to Canadian rower ...

Canadian rower Scott Frandsen is aware of some Danish ancestry going back some four generations; it’s his Swedish background he’s not so clear on.

Turns out that Frandsen’s buddies like to have a little fun now and then with his wikipedia biography. They’ve been known to dip into and add some inside jokes.

His bio on the popular site starts off by saying he’s a “Canadian rower of Swedish and Danish descent.” The Kelowna, B.C., native said the name Frandsen is Danish and comes from his Dad’s side, but the Swedish blood is news to him.

“I don’t know where that came from,” said Frandsen, who qualified for Beijing in the men’s pair with David Calder this week. “I better go in and change that or learn more about my ancestry.”

His pals from his rowing days at the University of California, Berkeley, apparently like to spice up his bio every now and then.

“At one point, it included that I was leaving rowing to go on to competitive windsurfing,” laughs Frandsen.

Might want to keep an eye on Frandsen’s bio as he heads towards Beijing. The thinking here is his friends could get a lot more inventive.

Can't Keep A Good Vaulter On The Ground ...

Kelsie Hendry of Saskatoon has cleared a Canadian record height of 4.55 metres in the women's pole vault again – and this time it looks like she’s going to get the official record, too.

Hendry (seen here in her low flying days) managed the height last month at a meet in Provo, Utah, but it didn’t count as a record or an Olympic qualifying jump because she was the only competitor in the event.

Last weekend, she did it again at the provincial championships in Prince Albert, Sask., against a field of five athletes and in front of family and friends – and now she’s just waiting for official ratification of the mark from Athletics Canada.

“It feels like a big relief,” she said. “For me, too, it gave me some confidence to know I have some consistency. Anytime you do something once, you probably have it in you to do it again. I know if I want to jump at the Olympics and jump well, I have to be jumping at those heights.”

Hendry just needs a top four finish to get a Beijing berth at the Canadian Olympic track and field trials July 3-6 in Windsor against a field that will be missing Dana Ellis of Kitchener, the previous record holder at 4.51 metres. Ellis has asked for a medical exemption because of Achilles problems.

“It’s really too bad she’s had these injuries,” said Hendry today. “She was well on her way to breaking it, too. We would have had a bit of a showdown at the nationals.”

A nod to Bob Turton at beijingolympicsathletics.com for pointing out that Hendry did it again.

Poor Chickens: Starting to look like dining in China might not be as much fun. They taken “chicken without sexual life” off the menu.

Simon Says, Post Away: It turns out Olympic triathlon champion Simon Whitfield has had a change of heart about letting people post on his entertaining blog – but will have a moderator, someone named Dano, a ruthless character, no doubt.

Strategy paying off for women's rowers ...

The Canadian women’s sweep rowing program put all their eggs in one basket – or rather one rowing shell – in this Olympic season. It’s starting to pay dividends.

Canada decided to place all their best heavyweight sweep rowers into an eight, which qualified today for the Beijing Games by winning race at a last chance qualifying regatta in Poznan, Poland.

The men’s pair of David Calder of Victoria and Scott Frandsen of Kelowna, B.C. also won to earn a trip to Beijing. They pulled off a big win in Lucerne two weeks ago. Also qualifying were Douglas Vandor of Dewittville, Que., and Cameron Sylvester of Caledon, Ont., in the men's lightweight double.

The women’s crew includes Buffy Williams, a member of the Olympic bronze-medal winning team in Sydney in 2000, and former world champion pair Jane Rumball and Darcy Marquardt, plus veteran coxswain Lesley Thompson-Willie, who’ll be in her seventh Olympics.

Thompson, a school librarian, is kind of the Chris Chelios of women’s rowing, but a lot tougher.

They’re an interesting group of women and you can meet them and a bunch of other Olympic rowers past and present – including three-time Olympic gold medalist Marnie McBean as the emcee – at a fundraiser in Toronto on Wednesday, June 25. It’s $200 per ticket, which can be ordered here.

Riding a Wave of Emotion to Beijing ...

It was really an incredible moment on the weekend in Duisburg, Germany, when Canada’s Thomas Hall pulled out his best race in the biggest moment of his career.

The guy wins his first World Cup gold, slashes three seconds off his personal best and knocks off a legend in three-time Olympic champion Andreas Dittmer of Germany to earn his trip to the Beijing Olympics.

To get an idea of the emotion that fueled that performance, check out this website that Hall’s family, friends and teammates at the Pointe-Claire Canoe Club in Quebec set up for him, which he was gracious enough to provide us access to. It’s really worth checking out.

Hall credited that support with buoying him in a pressure-filled time.

As he wrote in his blog on the website in a post entitled “We Did It!!!!” after his big win: “For those of you who know me well, you know that I’m not the most outwardly emotional person around. Well I’m not ashamed to say that looking at your posts brought me very close to tears. There was so much love and support, it gave me chills.”

Now, if he can just carry some of that into Beijing.

The Guy Can Write: Not only is Adam Van Koeverden in fine form on the water, the guy’s showing a deft touch in his Sportsnet blog. His last entry before the Duisburg regatta was quite entertaining. Van Koeverden and Hall were teammates on the 1999 world junior team.

Not so sweet for Sweetland ...

It turns out that teenaged triathlon phenom Kirsten Sweetland was competing at last weekend's world championships with a broken foot -- and the injury will keep her from racing at the Beijing Games.

Sweetland broke the news on her own blog, The Diary of a 19 Year Old in Sport.

That means the women's triathlon team for Beijing will be composed of Lauren Groves of Vancouver, Kathy Tremblay of Montreal and Carolyn Murray of Edmonton.

Sweetland will attend the Games as an alternate, which should be a good experience for an athlete who based on her progress should be a medal contender at the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

Simon says: No more nasty posts ...

Triathlete Simon Whitfield, who’s been waging a neck-and-neck battle with Kyle Shewfelt for king of the Olympic blogsters, notified all potential posters to his site today that he’s not accepting comments anymore.

It seems there was a lot of nasty stuff directed his way recently, including one post calling Whitfield “an Olympic cheater.” Things got pretty heated among Canadians competing for Olympic spots heading into last week's world championships in Vancouver.

Whitfield's not the first Olympian to feel wrath on the web. Kayaker Adam Van Koeverden took a real beating on his blog for Sportsnet when he commented on the calls for a boycott.

Can’t blame Whitfield. It is pretty amazing some of the stupid comments that get posted in places, such as the CBC’s Olympic website. Some are just plain ignorant. Criticism is one thing; giving fools a forum to spew nonsense is another matter.

That being said, this blog could do with a few more responses. Keep it clean now.

Gym Flap: The recent story on Olympic medal hopeful Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs having to go off to Beijing without her coach Carol-Angela Orchard prompted missives from a couple of gymnastic supporters saying that the real injustice was done to Kristina Vaculik of Oshawa, who came third and isn't going to the Games.

They believe that Vaculik, coached by Elena Davydova, is the top female gymnast in Canada and that the Olympic selection points scoring system was totally flawed and shortsighted. Some gymnastic observers in these parts are even comparing it to the Salt Lake City figure skating scandal and they’ve started an online petition to support Vaculik.

On another note: Triathlete Kirsten Sweetland, the 19-year-old phenom still hoping to get named to the women's team when it's decided in the next few weeks, explains what happened with her injured heel ... Clara Hughes rode her bike in competition last week, but she's sticking to speed skating.