Canadian Press Voters Really Blew This One!

Gimme a break! Aleksandra Wozniak as Canadian Press female athlete of the year?

No offence against Wozniak, but plenty intended against the voters for the award.

Just how does someone get named the best athlete in the country when she's ranked 34th in the world in her sport?

According to the CP story announcing the award – which really had to go to great lengths to try to justify the selection -- Wozniak was a worthy winner because she “knocked off the reigning French Open champion, beat three other top-15 tennis players and sent a former world No. 1 packing in her swan-song tournament.”

"I was knocking the door at No. 21," Wozniak is quoted as saying.

In case, the voters hadn't noticed, there was a Canadian athlete not only knocking on the door at No. 1, but crashing through it.

How do you pick Wozniak over speed skater Christine Nesbitt?

Nesbitt won a world title in the women's 1,000 metres and a World Cup title over the same distance. She's won six of her eight World Cup races this season including four in a row in the 1,000 metres. She's a key cog in the women's pursuit team that won the world title last March and smashed the world record earlier this month.

We could go on, but we should also start listing the accomplishments of hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, who followed up her Olympic bronze medal with a silver this year at the world championships and also had a career best this season of 12.49 seconds. She was consistently on the podium on the Grand Prix circuit.

Speed skater Kristina Groves was no slouch, either, winning the women's 1,500-metre World Cup title and capturing three medals at the World Single Distance Championships – would have been four if not for a strange disqualification for knocking a plastic puck while smoking the field in the 1,500 metres (No one thought she deserved a DQ, including her competitors.)

When the Lou Marsh Award was being debated earlier this month, there were five finalists considered for the honour eventually won by Sidney Crosby – the only woman was Nesbitt.

Wozniak? Not saying she's not good, but she's no athlete of the year.

Jamie Gregg on the Bubble for Olympics

Despite being Canada's top sprinter on the World Cup circuit this season, Jamie Gregg is on the bubble today to make the Olympic team.

Gregg, who won a bronze for his first World Cup medal in Calgary this season and also had a fourth-place finish, managed only a fourth-place finish in the 500 metres  at the Olympic trials on Sunday.

That means he needs to secure a spot in the men's 1,000 today at the Olympic Oval or be at the mercy of the team selectors, whose hands are somewhat tied because there are only eight men's spots.

“It's not the greatest place to be for him,” said his coach Michael Crowe. “He's got to secure a spot with a really good 1,000. If he's there for the 1,000, then they can't take the 500 away, either. That's what we've got to hope for, that's what we're gunning for, right. We made a few adjustments after (the 500), things he missed on his technique. He's good at coming back, making adjustments.”

Dixon Impresses: Canadian skier Robbie Dixon continues to impress as the Olympics fast approach. His 12th-place finish today in the World Cup downhill in Bormio, Italy, is notable for a couple of reasons. It was a strong result for his first go at one of the toughest downhills in the world. He achieved it after crashing in his last race and didn't seem hesitant at all in attacking the course.

Something to Crowe About: Coach Michael Crowe has had one of the bigger challenges heading to the 2010 Winter Olympics in guiding among others Jeremy Wotherspoon and Cindy Klassen.

Because of the nature of their injuries, neither Wotherspoon or Klassen has been able to train at the level they normally would so it has taken some careful planning to even get them to the stage they're at now, having made the Olympic team and approaching form that could put them back in the medal hunt.

Klassen, in particular, has had to try to become a much more technically proficient skater because she can no longer rely on the power she once had. She credits Crowe with helping her with the transition.

“I have an amazing coach,” said Klassen. “I've learned so much from him.”

Timing Explained: It was mentioned here yesterday about the confusion re photo finishes at the Olympic trials in Calgary, something that led Tamara Oudenaarden to believe she'd qualified for the Games, only to learn later that wasn't the case at all.

Gregg Planert, who knows the sport frontwards, backwards and sideways, and serves as the Olympic Oval's competition coordinator among many other roles, checks in via email with this explanation:

“There are two reasons why the photo finish can be off more than a few thousandths," writes Planert.

“One, the skaters are kicking out at the finish. (All Quebec skaters do this.) Their skate is above the beam at the finish and their back foot is being captured.

“Two, the times that are being read are transcribed wrong.  This was the case yesterday with Rempel and Oudenaarden.  With the closeness of the finish, we went back and reviewed the photos to ensure that the times that were written down were right.  Instead of 38.99, it (Oudenaarden's time) had been written as 38.89.  Thus it was changed to the official time of 38.99.”

Planert also points out there is still a chance that Oudenaarden could be named to the team if some countries don't fill their quotas.

 

Sounds of Silence Help Teammate

Sometimes nothing really needs to be said to put an athlete in the right mindspace before an event. It was that way between Christine Nesbitt and Anastasia Bucsis before the second of two 500-metre races to determine Olympic berths yesterday in Calgary.

At just 23, Nesbitt has become something of a mentor to the 20-year-old Bucsis this season. They often room together on the road and their personalities seem to have meshed well. Perhaps, Bucsis is feeding off Nesbitt's intense and focused approach and Nesbitt has loosened up a bit being around the outgoing Bucsis.

“She really helped calm me before we raced,” said Bucsis, who was a big surprise in making the Olympic team this season. “She's not only a world class speed skater, but a tremendous individual. She just gave me a few very confident and silent nods of encouragement before the race, the kind of silent interaction between friends before an event that can mean a lot.”

Real Heartbreaker: You couldn't help but feel really bad yesterday for Tamara Oudenaarden, 22, who is best friends with Bucsis and also thought she had made the Olympic team.

“This is seriously so exciting,” said Oudenaarden in a phone interview, after apparently finishing third in the 500 metres. “It's very surreal right now. The two of us going together is so awesome. I'm so proud of her. I can't believe I'm going to the Olympics with my best friend.”

But after the photo finishes were reviewed, it turned out veteran Shannon Rempel of Winnipeg had finished ahead of Oudenaarden.

Not sure how the photo finish system works, but a similar thing happened during the World Cup in Calgary earlier this month that moved Jamie Gregg from fourth into his first ever podium finish at that level. The thing is that the times aren't changed by one or two hundredths of a second but usually quite a bit more.

The Canadian Single Distance Championships, doubling as the Olympic trials, continue today with the women's 3,000 metres and men's 5,000 metres.

Vonn Okay: Big scare for the American ski team today when it was thought that star Lindsey Vonn might have broken her arm in a giant slalom race.

It turns out there's only swelling and she may be able to race in Tuesday's slalom in Austria. She had better luck than rising Canadian snowboard star Matt Morison, who broke his elbow in a race the day after winning the opening World Cup parallel giant slalom of the season in Telluride, Colo. Morison, of Burketon, Ont., is expected to recover in time to compete at the Olympics.

Of McKeever, Security Goons and CNezzy Unplugged

Cross country skier Brian McKeever is on the verge of becoming the first athelete to compete in both the Winter Paralympics and Winter Olympics after winning a 50-kilometre Nor-Am race in Canmore, Alta., Tuesday considered as part of the Olympic qualifying criteria.

Here's a feature that appeared in the Star will give you a bit of a idea of the challenge McKeever has faced.

Olympic Security Goons? The Canadian Media Guild is investigating reports that security guards attached to the Vancouver Olympics are manhandling some members of the media during the torch relay.

There was an incident in Newmarket where two Toronto Sun photographers “were vigorously shoved by security while they were trying to get shots of the relay,' according to the CMG, and one of them suffered a concussion after being pushed to the ground.

"We've heard this is more common than you'd think so we need to find out more and take legal action if necessary," says Lise Lareau, president of the CMG. "It's important to establish ground rules before the Games begin in Vancouver."

A colleague of mine from Japan – the sweetest guy you could ever meet -- covered Korean figure skater Yu Na Kim carrying the torch in Hamilton on Saturday night and reported later that he was pushed and yelled at by security. He commented: “They seem to have the same mentality universally.”

But we expect better of ourselves in Canada.

Any media person – you don't have to be a guild member – can report any incidents to the Canadian Media Guild at info@cmg.ca

Cnezzy Unplugged: Christine Nesbitt, aka @CNezzy on Twitter, is emerging as one of the potential standouts for Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. She was a relatively unknown 20-year-old up-and-comer the last time around, so it's nice now to get some glimpses at the person behind the athlete.

Her teammate and sometimes roomate Anastasia Bucsis, who posted this amusing video on her entertaining blog, The Daily A-Buce, and allows us to share it with you here.

Glen Crawford: A Parent's Keen Perspective

Glen Crawford, father of Olympic cross country champion Chandra Crawford and biathlete Rosanna Crawford (she's the really bundled up one with the rifle on her back), has graciously agreed to write occasionally for this blog. Glen's an interesting guy. He's a photographer, a cameraman who works freelance for the CBC at World Cup alpine and cross country races (including a big win by Chandra in Canmore a few years ago), and a documentary maker. He can write a bit, too, as you'll see in this finely crafted entry. The photos are also his. This blog is about a recent trip he and wife Louise Crawford made to Europe to see their kids race. Thanks, Glen.

It’s minus 19 degrees C, we’re in Obertilliach, Austria and the women’s sprint race on the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Cup circuit is about to begin. Most of the Europeans are shocked at having to race in the cold temperatures and even the hearty Canadian girls on the National Team are struggling to keep the feeling in their fingers and toes before skiing off to complete the 7.5 km race.

The great ski prep from the ski techs will make the skiing almost bearable, even though the cold temperatures give the snow about the same feel as skiing on sand. But biathlon is not just cross country skiing, it combines rifle marksmanship with cross country skiing.

So in a sprint race, biathletes have to ski into the shooting range after every 2.5 km., or twice over the course of the race and attempt to hit 5 targets at the end of a 50-metre long range. If they miss, it means they have to put in extra distance and ski the 150m penalty loop.

All season the biathletes practice shooting, with the best precision being obtained by having a bare finger against the trigger. Today it almost seems inconceivable to have exposed flesh against the bare metal of the trigger but that’s what has to be done.

As fans we’re bundled up against the elements cheering on the girls as they speed by in their lycra suits. My wife Louise & I have positioned ourselves on different parts of the course so as to maximize our puny Canadian voice in an arena of European fans.

Well actually, there’s not that many European fans here today, an anomaly as far as biathlon races go, usually they’re out in huge numbers. After all, biathlon is the European winter sport equivalent to North American hockey.

I guess the cold weather has kept them all inside somewhere. So we cheer and yell and then rush to the finish line to give Rosanna hugs. She’s finished with a time of 26:01 and hit 9 out of 10 targets, good enough for a 27th place finish out of 116 finishers. It’s not Olympic qualification but it’s sure a step towards it.

I’m not really a blogger, however, we’re living in interesting times and so it seems like an opportunity to post a few thoughts as parents of children who are winter athletes.

You may have heard that the Winter Olympic Games are about to launch on our doorstep and apparently, the whole world is watching. Or at least in the Crawford circle of family, friends and acquaintances, everybody is certainly watching.

And the question everyone’s asking is, “Are they ready?”

Anyone who has not been following cross country skiing and biathlon over the last four years will be forgiven for not knowing what it is they need to ready for.

As a bit of background, our oldest daughter Chandra, was the surprise winner of the 2006 Olympic cross country sprint race. Actually, it’s better to say that the media and 99% of the spectators were surprised.

We knew all along that we had an Olympic champion!

Our youngest daughter, Rosanna, whose recent sprint race I described above, has been involved in biathlon over the last 10 years and this season, her first year as a senior on the Canadian National Biathlon Team, she’s working extremely hard to earn a spot on the Olympic team.

So are they ready?

Well yeah they’re ready and they’re excited and they’re nervous and they’re trying as hard as they can, to be the best they can be at what they do. And what they do is train and race.

It’s kind of funny that in an Olympic year, lots of people think our girls as athletes, are just putting in their time just getting ready for the Games. And in a way they are getting ready for the Games.

But how an athlete gets ready for one of the biggest races of their career is by doing what they do every other season -- they RACE. So right now that process is full on!

And here Louise & I are, winding up a 10-day trip to Europe where we have been cheering on the girls. It’s what we’ve always done as parents, Olympics or not. But this year it is certainly more intense. All the more reason to be here as the fan club.

Prior to coming to Obertilliach for Rosanna’s race, we were in Davos, Switzerland for a FIS cross country World Cup event. It was a race that Chandra had done well in before.

Back in early February 2006, Chandra was out to make her mark, having just earned her spot on the Olympic team in December ’05. She had a great race and finished on the podium with a 3rd place finish.

This time around in Dec ‘09 there was a huge difference. The difference was that Chandra had missed the last 12 months of racing and training due to injury. I don’t think there’s anything more frustrating to an athlete than not being able to do what it is you do because of injury.

After a year of medical and physiological attention, it was a great relief to see Chandra out on skis and smiling again this season. The catch was that because she had missed a season racing, she wasn’t 2010 Olympic team qualified.

It seemed pretty strange to us that the ‘06 Olympic Champion may not have a chance to defend her title at home in 2010. However, after 14 years of dealing with National Sport Organizations (NSOs), nothing really comes as a surprise.

In Canada, where nordic sports sometimes operate without a very high public profile, the NSOs are often challenged in their efforts to develop and communicate specific athlete criteria. Maybe that just reflects my perspective as a parent, but as I say, you learn to go with it.

This season, the XC World Cup prior to Davos was in Dusseldorf, Germany on the first weekend of December. The qualifying criteria that Cross Country Canada had laid out for Chandra was that she must place top 20 in the early season World Cups to make the Olympic Team.

If she couldn’t meet that standard then she would return home to compete in races in Canada, trial races that to determine who would fill the final Olympic Team spots. No problem we thought, for sure she’ll nail it in Europe. But it is racing and anything can happen.

December 5th was the sprint race in Dusseldorf. As parents of kids who race quite often in Europe, we’ve gotten used to getting up in the middle of the night to check the internet for results from races that are happening eight hours ahead of Mountain Daylight Time.

Such was the case on Dec. 5th; I was up and pleased to see that she had qualified for the heats in 27th place. In XC sprint racing, 80 – 100 racers start and the fastest 30 go on to compete in the head-to-head heats on the same day. Chandra was in the heats, but just barely. It would be another couple of hours before the heats got under way so I went back to bed.

Another strange thing about being parents of athletes racing in Europe is that when the phone rings in the middle of the night, it’s usually good news. I know most parents absolutely dread the thought of the phone ringing at 4 AM for fear that something bad has happened.

For us, it means good news, the kids usually don’t phone if they don’t have good results. Chandra had finished 12th and had guaranteed her spot for the 2010 Olympic Team.

So you see, when people ask “Are they ready?” there is no cut & dry answer. Regardless though, I usually just reply, “For sure, they’re ready!”

Rosanna Crawford and mom Louise after the race

Athletes Who Know How To Give Back

Canada's Olympic athletes don't only know how to give 'er on the field of play, but they know how to give off of it, too. In a big way.

Many of them are connected with and give their time and their own money to some great causes. Would like to list some of them here with the hope you might be able to help out, too.

Because I'm A Girl: Olympic moguls champion Jenn Heil is involved with Plan Canada's “Because I'm a Girl” program, which is committed to creating a brighter, safer future for girls in a world where right now about 20 million of them don't even go to school. As the program notes, right now we are massively failing girls all over the world.

Right To Play: This Toronto-based humanitarian organization is powered by Olympic athletes. Among the many Canadians involved are speed skaters Clara Hughes and Kristina Groves, women's hockey captain Hayley Wickenheiser, kayaker Adam Van Koeverden, skeleton racer Mellisa Hollingsworth, ski racer Emily Brydon and the list really does go on and on. Olympic rowing gold medalist Adam Kreek just returned from a trip to Peru. Right To Play brings sport and play programs to some of the most desolate parts of the world.

Play It Cool: David Suzuki's athlete-driven initiative to stop global warming and counts cross country skier Sara Renner, skier Kelly VanderBeek, canoeist Thomas Hall, rower Kevin Light, Groves and Van Koeverden amongst its many supporters.

Fast and Female: This is the program Olympic champion cross country skier Chandra Crawford started to encourage girls to get active and have fun and to help create the next generation in her sport. Its slogan is "empowerment through sport" and it has great potential for the future.

World Vision: Figure skater Joannie Rochette went on a visit to Peru this past summer to support this charity and see how their programs help impoverished communities.

350: Sara Renner and her husband, former alpine racer Thomas Grandi, are very committed to this environmental group and involved in creative ways to raise awareness about the dangers we face if we don't take the problems in front of us seriously.

Their commitment to more than themselves and their goals is what makes covering these athletes a real treat. I know that sounds corny, but it's true.

Canadian Alpine Team Takes Another Big Hit

You gotta feel for the Canadian ski team right now with their incredible string of injuries.

Another skier, Francois Bourque, apparently suffered a ruptured ACL in his left knee in a super-G race today in Val Gardena, Italy. That's four skiers in five days -- Kelly VanderBeek, Larissa Yurkiw and J.P. Roy were lost earlier this week -- plus world downhill champion John Kucera to a broken leg three weeks ago.

“Some of them are real shots and some of them are longshots, but they're our best athletes," said Alpine Canada athletics chief Max Gartner on Thursday. "Every time somebody goes down, it's definitely going to be a big blow for our team. ... We've tried to develop over the past years athletes who can get to the start gate with good chances in Vancouver, but we don't have that many.”

Gartner is in Val Gardena, Italy with the men's team.

“I watch Jan Hudec come down the last couple of days and I'm just biting my fingernails that he's going to make it down to the bottom and get a little more confidence, because we're trying to get him up to speed for February.” said Gartner.

“Hudec, who is coming back from his fifth major knee surgery, will skip the two toughest downill courses on the circuit in Bormio, Italy, and Kitzbuehel, Austria.

Meanwhile, on the women's side, they struggled with how to manage things after losing two skiers in two days. Emily Brydon was third today in the downhill portion of a super combined event and 28th overall.

“Not to say we're not still optimistic because we've got a couple of great racehorses left still,” said assistant women's coach Roy Boyd. “But I guess now a tough thing for us is how hard do we want to push them. Do we save them for the big show? Can we do that? We've got a little thinking and discussing to do as coaches amongst ourselves and with the athletes.

“If we were to have a bigger team, yeah, you just keep pushing and pushing, but when you only have a few select potentials for podiums do you want to try to save them? But you have to be in the driver's seat and committed for every run.”

New Team for VanderBeek? Kelly VanderBeek's knee is a mess, but that needn't prevent her from being at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

It would make some sense for CTV to add the Kitchener native to their roster of commentators. VanderBeek is bright, personable, a great talker and would have the insights of a current ski racer, something that couldn't hurt their broadcasts. She could supplement the crew they've already put together.

Hot Dog: The Past That Peter Judge Can't Escape

As ceo of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, Peter Judge has done a great job in helping prepare the team for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

He's been forward thinking enough to allow a system where many of the athletes have individual coaches, yet get them to work together when it counts. It's been working superbly and you saw the results, for example, last week as the World Cup moguls season opened with three medals in two days on the women's side.

But there is a past Judge can't escape. An alter ego that follows him to this day.

The past is Hot Dog The Movie, a cult classic among freestyle skiers (Well, some of them.) It's kind of their Rocky Horror Picture Show.

It was a horror all right.

Among the movie's stars was David Naughton (best known for An American Werewolf in London), but the real star was Judge.

Judge was the stunt double for the lead character Harkin Banks. One gets the impression from a few posts on the internet that a guy could score free beer with that on his resume in most ski resorts. Rumour has it that Judge won freestyle skiing's version of the Oscar (The Chappy).

Anyway, time to watch the man's work. It was his strength in freestyle's now forgotten third discipline, ballet, that probably got him the gig in Hot Dog The Movie. (There's actually a Facebook group called “I Secretly Love Ballet Skiing" – it's Russian based and has 160 members. Poor fools. They all love Harkin Banks).

To watch Judge, er Harkin, do his thing, you can start at about the 2:34 mark of this clip. Enjoy.

Matt Morison's "Redneck Vacation"

 

Snowboarder Matt Morison calls it his “redneck vacation.”

The resident of Burketon, Ont., near Oshawa spent the summer with teammate and good friend Pat Farrell of Oakville in the B.C. interior. They equipped themselves in Kamloops with dirt bikes and a little fishing boat that they painted camouflage and, when they weren't training, just had a good time.

You can't underestimate the importance of the fun quotient this past off-season for Olympic athletes. A relaxed and happy athlete is more likely to be a productive one, as Morison showed in winning the opening event of the World Cup parallel giant slalom season on Tuesday in Telluride, Colo.

“I think going to Kamloops for me was one of the best decisions I've ever made,” said the 22-year-old, pictured above winning a bronze medal at last year's world championships. “The lifestyle was right up our alley. They set us up great with the gym at the university and we were in there every day working hard. And then we had the rest of the afternoon off.

“We got a few toys. The boys have to have a few toys. So we had dirt bikes and Pat and I would just go for hours and hours in the Kamloops Mountains and get totally lost, almost run out of gas and just barely make it back. I think the dirt bikes were great cross training.

“You know you pin it on the bike; you pin it on the (snowboard) course, you pin it on the gates. What Pat and I always say is 'Pin it to win it.' That was great.”

Morison and Farrell spent a lot of time fishing in a boat powered by an electric motor that they kept together with electrical tape.

“That thing would always let us down. We never learned to take a paddle. We were always paddling with a sandal or a net or something.”

The fishing was relaxing, but fed more than their souls.

“I think we pretty much survived the whole summer eating trout,” said Morison. “There's hundreds of lakes around the Kamloops area. So fishing was more for relaxation and for the soul, to chill out in the boat and stuff. It was just the ultimate summer for me. Every time I would get back on the snowboard, I'd be in such a good frame of mind from doing things I love to do.”

A wise strategy indeed.

Welcome Addition: Winning her fourth straight World Cup medal of the season wasn't the only good news last week for Canadian skeleton race Mellisa Hollingsworth – she snared a new sponsor in TAQA North Ltd., a global energy company for which her father works.

Their logo will appear on her sled when she competes this week in Altenberg, Germany, and on her uniform in the new year. She will still have her big Right To Play logo on the bottom of her sled.

Check It Out: Just want to put in another plug for the Sport At Its Best website being spearheaded by retired Olympic skeleton champion Duff Gibson. Lot of good stories about the power of sport and a great roster of contributors. It could be a great resource for teachers as they talk about the Olympics to their classes.

Message to Canadian Olympians: Expect the Unexpected

Skeleton racer Mellisa Hollingsworth was mentioning the other day how one of the main messages in the Olympic Excellence Series is that as an athlete you have to expect the unexpected in an Olympic year.

The series is hosted by the Canadian Olympic Committee and has featured past greats like Marnie McBean, Mark Tewksbury and Gaetan Boucher, sharing their experiences on what it takes to win at the biggest show on earth.

Hollingsworth brought it up in reference to the sideshow that has developed on the skeleton team around the issue of Michelle Kelly being pulled off the team twice now and then reinstated as part of a controversy over ineligible runners.

Well, the Canadian speed skaters now have an Olympic season surprise that can outdo the skeleton-ites – one of their coaches is involved bribery allegations related to trying to gain a spot for a skater at the 2006 Turin Olympics. (You can read about it here)

Let's clarify something right off the top: Ingrid Paul is ONE of the Canadian speed skating coaches. Listening to CBC Radio this morning, they made it sound like Paul is THE Canadian speed skating coach. It's been written that way in some quarters, too.

Speed Skating Canada has a large coaching and support staff. The skaters are broken up into training groups. Paul leads one of the groups. The strongest groups are led by Xiuli Wang, Marcel Lacroix and Michael Crowe. Paul's most important role is guiding the world record-breaking women's team pursuit unit, but the only skater in that crew she coaches individually is Brittany Schussler.

Anyway, Canada's speed skaters now face the possibility of questions on this matter, something they couldn't possibly have anticipated in the fall.

But it's there and they have to deal with it. It shouldn't become a distraction if it's handled right. For the most part, Speed Skating Canada has done an effective job of buffering the long track speed skaters from the media. Too much so, in the view of many reporters. But the athletes are not accustomed to a media onslaught and the thinking seems to be that it's better to protect them than try to get them used to it now.

The Paul story is likely to die down pretty quickly here, although it's a huge sensation at the moment in the Netherlands. As someone close to the scene said yesterday, it's a “she said, she said” situation. There appears to be no solid proof, no smoking gun. Paul vehemently denies it. Speed Skating Canada is supporting her, although t they used the qualifier "at the present time."

A Dutch colleague said based on past experience they don't expect anything to come out of the investigation by Olympic and speed skating officials in the Netherlands.

This story was reportedly originally planned to come out a few days before the Olympics. Its impact then would have been much greater.

And while the Dutch national broadcaster NOS decided to air their report earlier, who knows what other surprises are lurking out there for Canada's athletes en route to the Games?

Expecting anything and everything is not a bad approach.