Dave Perkins: No columnist does the Olympics better

There were two things you could always count on from Dave Perkins in covering the Olympics for the Star.

The first was that he'd do an absolutely outstanding job in every way – meet each deadline with lively, accurate and clean copy (he was incredible in filing on the fly after the tragic death of luger Nodar Kumaritashvili at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics), write original, clever and often biting columns and be there to help his colleagues in every way.

The other thing you could count on is that the end of every Olympics, he'd say it was definitely his last for the Star, that there was NO way he'd be back for the next one.

Well, he meant it when he said it after the Vancouver Games.

Perky, as his colleagues call him, wrapped up his career as a full-time columnist this week at the Star. Fortunately, he'll still be a contributor but it won't be the same and it's hard to imagine covering an Olympics without him on our team.

It's unheard of for a columnist after he's done his day's work – and it usually took Perky about 30 minutes to bang out a column most of us would die for -- to then ask reporters if he could run and get some quotes for them or if they needed a results sheet. But he regularly made that offer.

But it's his original style that will be missed most of all, the ability to lampoon the stuffed shirts or to come up with angle no one else thought of.

There was so many great ones but one that comes to mind is at the Atlanta Olympics when the local organizing committee was screwing everything up right out of the start gate and Perkins delivered this classic line in nailing them for their ineptitude: “Forrest Gump was a documentary.”

When Austrian ski great Hermann Maier went airborne and crashed through the safety barriers, Perkins calculated that he was in the air longer than the Wright Brothers' first flight.

Perkins was rare as a columnist in that he wrote about Olympic sports even where there wasn't a Games happening. In fact, he's led the way with his coverage of the behind-the-scenes machinations of the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games.

As Barb McDonald of Skate Canada noted in a tweet this week, “Dave's a true pro – and a real friend to Canadian sport!”

(This picture is of Perky at the Great Wall after the Beijing Games. He was like a kid going down that hue aluminum slide afterwards. The photo was taken by Jim Byers, the Star's peerless Olympics coordiator.)

Paralympic runner feels discriminated against at Canadian championships

Jason Dunkerley says he's not trying to stir up trouble, but he can't escape the feeling he's being discriminated against at this week's Canadian championships in Toronto.

Dunkerley doesn't come across as a controversy for the sake of controversy guy. He's a visually impaired runner who has represented Canada at three Paralympics, winning two silver and a bronze so far with guide runner Greg Dailey. They have designs on more in 2012 in London.

His peers think well enough of Dunkerley that he's the athlete representative for the Para-Athletics team. Athletics Canada thinks enough of him that he'll be one of the athletes leading a group of kids through some drills as part of some public relations at the championships.

But Dunkerley says Athletics Canada doesn't think enough of him to respond to his concerns about being excluded from the men's open 1,500-metre event.

This was supposed to be his big chance. He'd enviously watched Rick Ball, an amputee who runs with a prosthethis, run in the men's open 10,000 metre final at last year's championships. He wanted the same opportunity then, but was told maybe next year.

In May, he was told he could run in the preliminary rounds of the men's 1,500-metre open event. On Friday, he got the rubberized track pulled out from under him.

Not enough runners entered for a preliminary round to be staged so it's going straight to semifinals and Dunkerley said he's been told he's not welcome. He said no one's given him a direct reason, but it's been implied it's because he uses a guide runner and might impede the race, which has extra importance because it's being used for Commonwealth Games qualifications.

Ball, meanwhile, is scheduled to race in the open 10,000 metres again, even though his race also has Commonwealth Games implications.

Dunkerley was told his only option was running by himself in his own 1,500-metre race.

“It's a very empty feeling,” said Dunkerley. “The fact is 99 per cent of our racing is in able bodied races that are actually sanctioned by Athletics Canada. It seems a bit of a contradiction that they would say that at the 11th hour. Our entire season has been geared to this race.

“I don't think this would happen on the able bodied side where they would make a change like that at the last moment. I don't think it would be tolerated.”

Dunkerley notes that Athletics Canada is regarded as a world leader on the Paralympic front, but said this has him wondering.

“In one way, I think there's a real commitment to it,” he said. “But when push comes to shove at a meet like this, a higher profile meet, then you get to see that maybe the commitment to it is maybe not full.”

He added: “The meet organizers are making up rules as they go, and I feel they are leveraging the involvement of our Para contingent in a way that is self-serving, to make themselves look good in the eyes of the public and media by showcasing one example of true integration, while asking other athletes to accept inconsistency and to feel like they are second best.”

Athletics Canada directed inquiries on the issue to Ozzie Sawicki, head coach of Canada's Para-Athletics team. Sawicki said he could understand Dunkerley's concerns.

“There is a discriminatory element, but I think our job is not to pursue the discriminatory element, our job is to pursue the education route,” said Sawicki. “The education is what's going to buy us fans, buy us support and and buy us opportunities so that future athletes don't run into those issues.”

Dunkerley said he wished they had an opportunity to educate the officials who ruled against them racing in the 1,500-metre semifinal. He said he and Dailey have never been involved in a collision in 12 years of racing. They use a 10-centimetre tether when they run, each of them wrapping it around one hand and swinging their arms in sync. They run tightly against each other.

“It's never been an issue,” he said.

Giving Mandi Schwartz a Fighting Chance

(I'm on holiday until the end of the month and just wanted to repeat this story about Mandi Schwartz posted on the Star website last month in the hope people will consider trying to help her in her fight. More information can be obtained at becomemandishero.org and onematch.ca)

The gesture was so subtle that some of Mandi Schwartz's teammates didn't even notice it at first.

When the Yale University Bulldogs lined up for pre-game introductions this season, they left Schwartz's customary spot on the ice empty as she battled leukemia back in Regina.

“Some of us didn't even know they were doing it,” said goaltender Jackee Snikeris. “It was a quiet thing that represented how much we still care for her and want her back.”

The 22-year-old Schwartz desperately needs a stem cell transplant to save her life. It's made even more difficult in her case because she's of mixed ancestry (Russian/German/Ukranian) and researchers have yet to find her a 10-out-of-10 DNA match. A worldwide campaign called “Become Mandi's Hero” is underway (becomemandishero.org) to find a perfect match.

Dr. Tedd Collins, a clinical immunologist who lost his daugher, Natasha, to leukemia last August and is an advocate for the Schwartz family, said the best chance for a match is blood from an umbilical cord. He has Schwartz's teammates contacting media outlets and ob-gyn offices in U.S cities with the heaviest concentration of ethnic backgrounds matching that of Schwartz, who has acute myeloid leukemia.

Collins said they need to do a transplant within the next 30 to 45 days in order for her to survive.

“Mandi's very bright. She knows what's going on,” said Collins.“That's a horrible feeling. She knows what happened to Natasha, which is even worse. She knows. And I hate that she knows.”

Schwartz (pictured above with Hayley Wickenheiser) learned June 9 that the cancer is in remission, but is still undergoing chemotherapy in Regina to keep the disease at bay while the donor hunt proceeds. She was originally diagnosed in December 2008 and was able to return to school and her team last year after the initial round of chemotherapy, but the leukemia came back last December.

She recently got engaged to Kaylem Prefontaine, her high school sweetheart at Notre Dame College in her native Wilcox, Sask, where her picture is on a Wall of Fame with the likes of NHL greats Vincent Lecavalier and Curtis Joseph.

It should be a time of celebration for the Schwartz family as younger brother Jaden is touted as a second-round pick in the upcoming NHL draft in Los Angeles (He was picked 14th by St. Louis). Their parents, Carol and Rick, are hoping to be there, but will make a last-minute decision depending on Mandi's health. In the meantime, Jaden is doing his part to help his sister's cause.

“As soon as she relapsed, we explained to Jaden 'You're probably going to be known as the boy in the draft whose sister has leukemia,'” said Carol. “He didn't have any issues with that. … It's been great because I think we've reached a whole bunch of people through his interviews.”

Among those also helping raise awareness is Team Canada women's captain Hayley Wickenheiser, who first met Schwartz about seven years ago.

“There is no doubt Mandi is sick and in need of help, but I think she sees her life past the cancer and with her future husband one day, and that tells me she's a fighter and we should fight for her as well,” said Wickenheiser.

Schwartz's resolve is undeniable. During the initial chemotherapy, she was still skating after each round finished.

“I just went on the ice at every chance I could,” said Schwartz in a telephone interview. “It was amazing. It just encouraged me for the next time I went in the hospital.”

That's no longer possible, but even in Regina this week she asked that a stationary bike be brought to her hospital room so she could do a light workout. She's still feeling the effects of a bout of pneumonia that left her with fluid in her lungs during her last round of chemotherapy and had her hooked up to tubes in the Intensive Care Unit.

Her voice is weak, her sentences are interrupted by coughing, but she remains every ounce the fighter she's always been on the ice.

“I concentrate on getting better at the moment,” she said. “That's my goal and I focus on that and not the negatives. I work on overcoming all the obstacles I have to go through while at the hospital.”

One of the shortest players on the team at 5-foot-5, Schwartz is a gritty in-your-face forward, a quiet leader revered by her teammates. They're devastated by what she is going through, but working as a team with Collins to find her a donor. Players from other teams have also joined them.

“She's so selfless and never asks anything of you,” said Snikeris. “I think that's part of the reason why everyone's got behind her because she's that kind of person and player.”

Collins believes a transplant using stem cells from cord blood is probably her only hope. He said more than 10,000 potential new bone marrow donors for Mandi have come forward through the campaigns launched but there have been no matches. He believes they'd need to get a pool of 100,000 new blood marrow donors to even have a shot.

“Cord blood, on the other hand, does not have to be as perfectly matched not to hurt Mandi but still gives the same upside,” said Collins.

There is a possible 9-out-of-10 bone marrow match in Germany for Schwartz, but Collins said that can still be very problematic. His daughter Natasha died after getting a transplant from a 9-out-of-10 bone marrow match.

Collins said their search has reached beyond North America to Germany, England and Israel. The goal is to collect cord blood from 200 people with her ethnic background and come up with at least two partial matches.

He said more than 50 pregnant women have sent in the form agreeing to donate their cord blood so far. He said they have collected blood from 12 donors and there are another eight women signed up who are expected to deliver their babies in the next week.

“One woman's in labour right now and she just called me to ask if there's anything else she can do,” Collins said. “It's really been like that. People have been touched by this campaign and realize they can save her life, so they're fighting to make this happen. An expectant mother can take something they might otherwise throw away and donate it and help save Mandi's life.”

The Schwartz family was buoyed by some recent good news for another young hockey player from Saskatchewan suffering from the same disease. Luke Boechler, a 19-year-old goalie with the Yorkton Terriers, was scheduled to go for a bone marrow transplant with an unmatched donor, but at the last minute a perfect match was found.

“We're holding out hope that we'll be in those shoes as well, that something's going to come up real soon for her,” said Carol Schwartz.

For more information, you can visit becomemandishero.org