Simon Says & Athletes Agree: Be Fair to Rare

In once describing her friend Simon Ibell, Olympic cross country ski champion and clean sport crusader Beckie Scott once said: “He's pure gold.”

That's a big part of the reason Ibell has been to recruit an impressive array of Canadian sports celebs – including his good friend NBA star Steve Nash (they're pictured together on the right) – to wear 'Be Fair to Rare' scarves to help publicize the campaign today on International Rare Disease Day. Ibell will also be at Parliament Hill handing out the scarves to every MP.

If you want to get a good idea of what Ibell's about, you have to read this wonderful feature written in the Star by my colleague Megan Ogilive. She's also got a story in today's Star on the 'Be Fare to Rare' campaign.

Ibell has Hunter syndrome, or mucopolysaccharidosis II (MPS II), described in Ogilvie's feature as “one of a group of six rare metabolic disorders. People with MPS diseases lack an enzyme needed to break down long chains of sugars, called mucopolysaccharides, in their cells. Over time, the sugar chains, which are used to build bone and connective tissue, accumulate to dangerous levels. The backlog of waste damages organs and can lead to death.”

But Ibell is not just campaigning for himself. He's a smart and driven young guy who's got the courage and charisma to fight for the approximately 2.8 million Canadians – about 1 in 12 – who are also living with a rare disease.

As Ibell points out, that's more than cancer, HIV/AIDS and heart disease combined. He's not trying to say that less should be done about those diseases, but the shocking thing is that Canada is the ONLY developed country with with NO health care policy to support rare diseases.

Not only is that embarrassing for a country that prides itself on its health care, but it also means there's no funding to help patients get access to the rare disease treatments that are available and there's no funding supporting rare disease research.

You'd be hard pressed to find a better advocate than Ibell, who made a lot of friends while working as a dedicated athlete liason for Right To Play before leaving to start the iBellieve Foundation. Among those joining him in the 'Be Fair to Rare' campaign are Olympic champions Clara Hughes, Hayley Wickenheiser, Adam Van Koeverden, ski racers Emily Brydon and Bryan Stemmle, Ron MacLean of Hockey Night In Canada, Right To Play founder and Olympic legend Johann Olav Koss, and many NHLers and other athletes.

People can visit www.BeFair2Rare.com to:

Sign the petition

Make a donation

Purchase a 'Be Fair to Rare' scarf

Check out the Facebook group

'Be Fair to Rare' can also be followed on Twitter.

Here's Olympic champions Jon Montgomery and Silken Laumann modeling their scarves:

 

Erik Guay's willing to venture into hostile territory

This might not go over big with his neighbours in Calgary, but world downhill champion Erik Guay won't be cheering for the home side in the Heritage Classic on Sunday.

One of the immediate perqs of his victory last Sunday in Germany was a pair of tickets for the big game between the Montreal Canadiens and Calgary Flames at McMahon Stadium, courtesy of the CBC when he dropped in for a visit on a tour through Toronto on Thursday.

Guay moved to Calgary last year to be closer to his teammates and the squad's training base, but the native of Mont Tremblant, Que., hasn't changed hockey allegiances.

"I can never be a Flames fan," said Guay, who was a special guest of the Habs at their home game Tuesday night. "I'm living in Calgary but my heart's in Montreal."

The victory at the worlds came despite an injury plagued campaign that wiped out most of the team. The bad news on the injury front continued this week with the news 2009 world downhill champion John Kucera broke his leg again while in the midst of his comeback.

"I don't even know how to react to that," said Guay. "Johnny's gotta be really down in the dumps."

Perhaps, it's not surprising Guay called it "magic skiing" when he won the world downhill title . After all, he's pulled a rabbit out of his helmet two years in a row to salvage what would have been lost campaigns for the Canadian ski team.

The world championship medal doesn't look as impressive as the Crystal Globe he got for winning the World Cup Super-G title last season, but carries a lot of sentimental value.

"This is same size and weight of the medals they made back in the '60s or so. It's kinda neat. I saw my childhood idols wearing these medals around their neck like (Kjetil Andre) Aamodt and (Lasse) Kjus and (Alberta) Tomba and (Marc) Girardelli and those guys."

Guay was able to get himself into a relaxed state before the race that he'd never quite experienced before and as a result doesn't want to waste too much time before getting back on the boards.

"It doesn't mean I'm going to win all the next races, but it's definitely something I'm going to keep building on and working towards and getting better at," said Guay. "My Dad was funny. I chatted with him yesterday and he said 'You've got to get back on skis real soon. Don't wait too many days. Play with that feeling of being relaxed and in the right spot.' He's absolutely right."

Cool Contest: Olympic and world moguls champion Jenn Heil was also in town this week promoting a contest called smartgirl as part of the Because I am a Girl campaign. Backed by smartwater, the campaign wants people to write short essays about how they are making a difference in the lives of girls or women either in their community, nationally or internationally. The three winners get to travel with Heil to Rwanda in August to celebrate the opening of a girls school. The contest runs through April 30 and is open to anyone aged 16 and older.

Note to Regular Readers of this Blog: This blog is going to appear pretty sporadically over the next month while other things keep me busy, but the plan this spring and summer is to build it into something better than ever before.  Any and all suggestions are welcome. 

Cheers, Randy

 

 

There's a new Team Canada to cheer for

It's still a dream at this stage, but it's a sweet one – a Canadian cycling team in the Tour de France in 2013.

There's a new Team Canada to support and they were on display Friday at the Hockey Hall of Fame here in Toronto. Team SpiderTech powered by C10, headed up by Canadian cycling great Steve Bauer, had their official unveiling in the hallowed hall. It was no coincidence Canada's first professional cycling team to achieve UCI Professional Continental Status was introduced at the home of hockey's legends.

That's because Bauer envisions any future success that the team has will come from successfully recruiting shinny talent. The thing is Bauer was a hockey player before developing the cycling talent that allowed him to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France for 14 days and win Olympic silver.

He talks about the fact there's 5,000 hockey players from single A to junior A in Canada and you can almost see him salivating.

"That's a talent pool that's unbelievable for cycling," he said. "There are guys in hockey that don't know they can race the Tour de France, but we know they're there. We have to go find our young talented guys playing hockey – or other sports – but if you were to pick one pool to pick that Tour de France talent from, why not hockey? Hockey is Canada. We have an amazing pool there so let's go after it!"

Under a development program called "Bauer Power Line," they plan to announce details of a recruitment program in June and begin scouting and testing athletes in July and August. The testing will be carried out by Paulo Saldanha, a top expercise physiologist and creator of a program called Power Watts who's also worked with Olympic moguls champions Jenn Heil and Alex Bilodeau.

"The great thing about cycling is you can test performance within real time," said Bauer. "You can put a guy on a bike and within 20 minutes determine whether or not that guy can win bike races because in real time you can figure out how good or how strong or how fast he is."

Team SpiderTech has junior team alliances in Ontario and Quebec, a good entry level for any hockey player.

"That's how we're going to be a Tour de France team in continuity," Bauer said. "That's the only way we can become a force in cycling."

Guillaume Boivin, a bronze medalist at under-23 world championships world road race last year, was a hockey player until his cousin talked him into trying cycling when he was 15. He beat his cousin on his first try and was soon making the transition to cycling fulltime.

"I'm sure there's a lot of good strong, fast hockey players out there," said Boivin. "Hockey's more about skills. Sometimes you might not have the skills, but you have the power. ... Cycling is hard work and training hard and having good physical abilities and you can make it to the pro level.

"I'm sure there's a lot of young guys like me who could make a good transition to cycling. Who knows? Maybe win a medal at worlds or a yellow jersey."

The neatest thing about this venture is that a Canadian cycling team – backed by Canadian sponsors – are taking a run at the European big boys of the sport.

"It's pretty much a dream come true for a lot of us," said Zach Bell of Whitehorse, Yukon, who is having a great season on the World Cup track circuit. "A lot of us were on teams heading in that direction in the past. To finally amalgamate everyone together is really exciting. There's a different kind of energy here than you get on the other teams, where it's a bit of a job. We're really hoping to do something special."

There certainly seems to be a fellowship of the wheel attitude among the athletes.

"It's a national pride thing," said Bell. "Anytime you have a program that focuses so much on the guys in your country and your talent pool, you're not just riding for your own results, you're riding for the pride of the country."

(The picture above was borrowed from SpiderTech. Certainly beats my iphone picture. The guy on the left is Svein Tuft -- you can read about him here)

 

Jenn Heil's hero has high praise for latest gem

Jenn Heil has often talked about being inspired by 1994 Olympic moguls champion Jean-Luc Brassard.

With Heil adding a world single moguls title Wednesday to her honours in the final season of her incredible career, we checked in with Brassard to get the moguls legend's take on Heil, who was once his teammate.

Jean-Luc Brassard:

"The thing that went through my mind is I remember at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 and she barely arrived on the team, she had to deal with some friction on the women's side. She was talented, she was young, she was cute, she had everything going for her, so that created some circumstances that made her grow so much.

"What I remember on Jenn Heil is this barely teenage girl that joined the team, that was smiling to the world, that was discovering every single rock that she was stepping on and she was thrilled about every single hotel that she was going to. When she joined the team, she was just a little daughter. She was a teenager. Not even a teenager -- she was a child.

"Now, she's a woman who has accomplished a lot of things. When I take a look at everything she achieved, not only on the course – on the hill, it's something – but in life it's another thing. The way that she deals with the media, the way she deals with all the sponsors, the charities. ... She speaks amazingly in front of a big crowd.

"At the end, first of all I'm happy for her as a person. But I'm just amazed at how much she's grown. For me, I don't see her as the world champion or Olympic champion, I'm still seeing her as that little girl from Spruce Grove who was so thrilled to join the Canadian team.

"It's tough when you're at the end of your career and you aim for a tough goal like that, to win the world championship. You know that you won't have another chance – and you make it happen. That was just outstanding. Her competition, Hannah Kearney, is an amazing skier. You have to be better than your competition from A to Z – and that's what she did. She took some good risks and skied great on a tough course.

"The thing I'm amazed is she always kept loving the sport. With such a great image, she will create motivation in other girls who will join the ranks of freestyle skiing. It's amazing to see the strength of the Canadian team. That starts from somewhere. This generation has been affected by Jenn Heil, by Alexandre Bilodeau. It's really up to them to generate another generation and they have done it so well for the past several years. You can just applaud every aspect of her career."

Here's Brassard doing his trademark Cossack move:

 

(Photos by Canadian Press)

Olympic athlete up on the auction block

It's not a typical dream for an Olympic athlete, but Toronto high jumper Nicole Forrester had it the other night – that she was auctioned off for just under $2,000.

Now before you start wondering about Forrester, the dream was not that surprising, given that the seven-time Canadian champion will actually be up for sale Thursday at the inaugural Eligible Inc. Bachelor & Bachelorette Charity Auction for the Canadian Center for Abuse Awareness.

The auction at the Capitol Event Theatre at Yonge and Eglinton features 21 celebrity bachelors and bachelorettes, including baseball player Drew Taylor, boxer Fitzroy Vanderpool and Miss Universe Canada Elena Semikina, at an event emceed by four-time Olympic skier Brian Stemmle. It's $100 per ticket.    

It's a good cause and it prompted this first-time ever question from my end to an athlete: How much are you hoping you'll go for?

"I'm not lying, I had a dream like a week ago and in my dream I went for like $1,830," said the personable Forrester. "If it comes close to that, that would be good. But along with that in being an athlete and we always compete, if I'm in the top three, four or five, then I'd be happy with that."

The 34-year-old Forrester definitely has some brains to go with her beauty. The Commonwealth Games champion is currently working on her doctorate in sports psychology. One of the things she studied as an under-graduate was the issue of abuse.

"I always thought it was interesting that kids who grew up in abused families were more likely to become abusive when they were adults with their family," said Forrester. "You would assume if you grew up in that and you saw how your Mom was hurting from your Dad that you'd be the last person to continue that cycle. But it's a learned behaviour."

It's those types of issues the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness was established in 1993 to help deal with. The organization seeks to reduce the amount and impact of abuse through education and public awareness. It exists solely on private donations and events like these.

"It's sad and unfortunate when you think about how many people are abused daily," said Forrester. "This week I'm dropping off some items at a battered shelter and it's actually for women who have to leave their home and stay in hiding because if they're found their spouse or partner will try to kill them or harm them."

You don't just win a date if you submit a winning bid at the auction -– you get a whole package. Forrester's package includes the chance to train with her for a day, a Toronto International Film Festival package that includes two tickets and red carpet treatment with tickets to two after parties, Oakley sunglasses, a Commonwealth Games team jacket and other paraphernalia from the event, including a Canadian flag signed by all the track and field athletes, and a fitness training package from Striation 6.

Forrester is not expecting to find a guy at the auction, but if it happens ...

"I think you want someone who really values who you are as a person. Not necessarily what you do, but who you are and what you have to offer. They've got to have their own passions and motivations they're striving for in life and you complement each other."