There Are People Who Make The Olympics Special

There was quite a bit of reaction on yesterday’s CTV torch bearers post. Read the comments if you get a chance, they're quite interesting. Also had many people in the Olympic community tell me they totally agreed with me -- off the record.  These things are pretty tough for those in the fray, unfortunately.

But the ridiculousness of 27 “media celebrities” carrying the torch really struck me yesterday afternoon when I attended a Special Olympics event to celebrate the launch of a book commemorating the 40th anniversary of the movement in Canada.

Looking at the volunteers, coaches, athletes/kids in that room, I thought ‘These are exactly the kind of people who should be carrying the torch.’

One of the readers, Nigel, posted a request for contacts at CTV and RBC where he could provide feedback on the issue.

For RBC, it’s Matt Gierasimczuk, media relations manager, Royal Bank of Canada, 416-974-2124 or matthew.gierasimczuk@rbc.com

For CTV, contact Dan Zaiontz at dan.zaiontz@ctv.ca

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Duff Man Delivers: Olympic skeleton champion Duff Gibson not only pulled off his promised feat as part of the Stephen Lewis Foundation’s A Dare to Remember, but he more than doubled his fundraising target to pull in more than $19,000 for the cause. (They are still accepting donations.)

Gibson and several of his fellow fire fighters and friends each carried a 20-litre jug of water approximately 12 kilometres from Canada Olympic Park in Calgary to his older son’s Gedion’s school.

Gibson and his wife Jen adopted two young boys, Gedion and Taye, from Ethiopia last year and have asked that the funds they raise be used in that region.

Gibson got the idea for his dare watching a documentary on television that showed a young girl who every single day of her life walked two hours to a well and filled up what appeared to be a 20-litre container of water.

His fundraising goal was $7,500. One generous couple who chose to remain anonymous doubled that total once he reached it.

Among those doing the walk with Gibson was Olympic speed skating champion Clara Hughes, fresh from the World Cup trials in Richmond. Hughes also chipped in a donation -- she gave $10,000 to Right To Play after her Olympic win in Turin -- wisely chose not to lug the 20 litres of water.

“I can’t carry that much weight right now because I probably wouldn’t be able to skate for two months,” Hughes told Kristen Odland of the Calgary Herald.

Here’s a cute video of Gibson and his sons leading up to the big trek:

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AKSEL BEATS IT: Speaking of cute videos, you’ve got to hand it to Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, one of the top skiers in the world who wasn’t afraid to poke fun at himself by filming this Michael Jackson tribute with some teammates during a training camp in Portillo, Chile.

Svindal is a great friend of the Canadian team and was training with them at that camp in Chile. So the question lingers: Where is the Canadian ski team music video?

Canadians tend to be a shy bunch. Take our video today on Cindy Klassen. When we asked her if she did any imitations, she sheepishly admitted she did one of her pet budgie.

After much prodding, she still couldn’t bring herself to do it – on or off camera.

She just wouldn’t budgie!

(Better leave on that note)