Patrick Chan ready to skate for a cause

Toronto figure skater Patrick Chan felt pretty helpless watching the earthquakes in Japan and worrying about friends he has on and off the ice there.

On Saturday night at 7 p.m., he will try do his part to help out when he skates in Oshawa Skating Club's Ice Show at the GM Centre in Oshawa. This will be the last public appearance for the reigning ISU Grand Prix champion before the world championships in Moscow beginning April 24.

Of course, the worlds had to be moved from their original site of Tokyo because of the havoc wreaked by the natural disaster in Japan.

Chan is donating half of his skating fee Saturday night to the Canadian Red Cross efforts to help in the Japan Earthquake/Asia Pacific Tsunami aftermath and the other half to a scholarship fund in memory of his late coach Osborne Colson.

Don Jackson, the 1962 world champion who was also coached by Colson, is headlining the show with Chan.

Chan has been on a roll this season and looks ready to move up a notch after winning silver at the last two world championships.

"The wait definitely hasn't changed anything," he said recently. "It has just made me a little more hungry. As I wait longer and longer, I get more anxious and anxious. It's not bad at all. It's just a matter of staying healthy and staying mentally healthy."

Tickets can be purchase on the General Motors Centre website and at the box office.

 (The photo was taken by Mike Cassese of Reuters at Skate Canada in Kingston)

Hailing Jenn Heil one more time

There's been a few tributes on this blog about Olympic moguls champion Jenn Heil, so please excuse one more on this day of her official retirement news conference in Montreal.

Heil delivered one of the neatest quotes you'll see from an athlete at her final World Cup last weekend when she said that two of her proudest moments were being at the top of the Olympic courses in 2006 and 2010.

“It's funny that my greatest moments are at the start lines, not the finish lines,” Heil told Canadian Press. “It's never been about how many medals I can win. Of course, we define success by medals but for me it's always been about testing my limits.”

It's actually pretty remarkable how many of our Canadian athletes feel the same way. What they want is the opportunity to be in that start gate, with all that preparation in the bank, and then take their best shot with that one chance every four years.

Very few have executed better than Heil with Olympic gold in women's moguls in 2006 on the opening day of competition in Turin and then silver on the opening day at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

The second feat might have been even bigger and is perhaps the most underrated accomplishment of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Just picture for a moment the pressure on Heil to deliver Canada's first gold medal on home soil after two home Olympics without one. She was defending champion in her event and a consistent winner. Really, the only athletes with more pressure were the men's hockey team and they got to face it as a team.

Heil isn't the type to admit to feeling pressure – she's never been about excuses -- but a recent comment to the Star about what it was like heading into Vancouver gives you a taste of what she faced.

"Imagine walking around with a huge weight on your shoulders, trying to train with people telling you day in and day out that you will win the first gold medal," she said. "The pressure was enormous. Reflecting back, that is why my silver medal is so sweet. Those close to me were amazed that I was able to get out of bed the morning of the race."

Of course, she never said that before the race.

Olympic champion Duff Gibson, gold medalist in skeleton at the 2006 Turin Olympics, said of Heil under his nom de tweet @sportatitsbest: “Amazing athlete, person. Immune to pressure.”

Not so sure about immune, but she sure knew how to handle it.

This isn't a farewell tribute, by the way. You know she's going to be a huge contributor to Canadian Olympic sport in the future along with her philanthropic endeavours such as Because I am a Girl. It's also going to be exciting to see where her coach/boyfriend Dominic Gauthier goes from here. They've been the driving forces with J.D. Miller behind B2ten, which is helping other athletes reach the podium. One suspects neither one's about to stop doing that – helping others achieve their athletic dreams.

 (The picture of Heil winning silver last week in Norway was snapped by photo ace Mike Ridewood for the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association)

Kyle Shewfelt wants to break mould with festival

Kyle Shewfelt knows all about breaking the mould.

After all, he's the guy who proved that a Canadian gymnast can indeed stand on top of an Olympic podium.

Now, he's hoping to branch out this week in Calgary with the Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics Festival. He describes the two-day event beginning Friday as a "mish mash of all things gymnastics" with 500 athletes ranging from recreational to Olympic champions and aged 6 to 26. There will be a tri-meet between Canada, China and the U.S.

"We wanted to create a place where innovation can happen," said Shewfelt. "We wanted to break the mould, put a new twist on a gymnastics competition – pardon the pun.

"I competed for 21 years and I competed at a lot of meets and I've been to some that are long and boring and I've been to some that are short, fast and fun. I wanted to create that short, fast, fun environment."

Along with DJs, there will be a panel of celebrity judges Saturday featuring Olympic champions Kaillie Humphries (women's bobsleigh), Duff Gibson (skeleton), and Carla MacLeod (women's hockey), multiple Olympic speed skating medalist Kristina Groves, gymnast Adam Wong, luger Regan Lauscher and sprinter Sam Effah.

They will get to judge the gymnasts on a unique scale of 1 to 11, but their scores won't actually count.

Right To Play will be a beneficiary of the event, which is being run in partnership with the University of Calgary Gymnastics Club.

"I wanted to reach a greater scope than just here in Calgary," said Shewfelt. "There's no better feeling than when you're doing what you love to do and making a difference in someone else's life around the world. That's huge. That's legacy building. It's very inspiring."

Shewfelt has been getting help from an organizing committee of parents. The event runs from 9 am to 9 pm Friday and Saturday at the University of Calgary's Jack Simpson Gym. Tickets are $5-$15.

"We're all volunteers," he said. "None of us are making any money. It's for fun and to create an opportunity for the next generation of gymnasts. I think it's the coolest thing to see a kid involved in something they're passionate about and that they love."

Scott Finlay: Please check out my update on the Scott Finlay story. They have raised more than $100,000 so far for a brain injury home in Napanee.

 

Can American doping police really block Block?

American doping authorities are trumpeting the suspension of track and field agent and coach Mark Block for 10 years as proof of how serious they are in their fight against drugs.

Count me as skeptical as to just how they are going to enforce the lengthy ban.

We know the kind of weight such bans have carried in Canada in the past. Swim coach Cecil Russell was banned for life for his involvement in two major drug rings, but to this day other parents watch in frustration as he sits in the stands at meets and is clearly involved in guiding young athletes with the Dolphins Swim Club of Oakville.

How is the United States Anti-Doping Agency going to ensure that Block doesn't stay involved with athletes?

Block was found by a USADA arbitration panel to have given drugs developed by BALCO to his wife, world champion sprinter Zhanna Block. She had a heated rivalry with another prominent BALCO client, Marion Jones. Block's victory at the 2001 worlds snapped Jones' four-year 42-race winning streak.

Block is well known in Canadian track and field circles. As the right-hand man for agent Ray Flynn before venturing out on his own, he worked a lot with Olympic champion Donovan Bailey during his glory days. They had a bit of a good cop/bad cop thing going. Flynn could be very tactiturn, while Block was quite gregarious and had a good sense of humour.

Obviously, he's not laughing now. But whether this means he can't earn a living at the sport for a decade remains to be seen. Undoubtedly, he will try every avenue of appeal. Failing that, how will USADA effectively prevent him from working for his athlete management agency or coaching? The international governing body, the IAAF, is applauding the decision but what measures do they have in place to enforce the ban?

In the past, they have used a “contamination” rule, meaning any athlete who has dealings with Block will face sanctions.

The problem in Canada in the Cecil Russell affair is that none of the governing bodies, Swimming Ontario or Swimming Canada, seems to have any teeth in their legislation or the people to enforce it.

We'll see if USADA has an effective strategy to block Block.

 

Scott Finlay's story remains compelling 33 years later

There's a fine line between ecstasy and catastrophe in downhill racing. Erik Guay was on the right side of it today with his second-place finish in the season-ending World Cup downhill in Norway, another great finish for the world champion in the event.

Scott Finlay, featured in the above compelling video by the Star's multimedia ace Randy Risling, wasn't so fortunate. His life changed in a split second at the 1978 Canadian downhill championships in Lake Louise.

He suffered severe brain damage and was paralyzed on his right side with limited movement on the left. His parents Hugh and Rosemary have looked after him for more than 30 years in their Strathcona, Ont., home.

They are trying to get a brain injury home built in Napanee.

Donations can be made to: Napanee Acquired Brain Injury and Rehab Home; Box 33; Napanee, Ontario; K7R 3L4

Read Randy Starkman's feature about Scott Finlay and his plight here.