Van Koeverden backing "Be Fair 2 Rare" campaign

On a day where scarves are definitely an asset in Toronto, Olympic world champion Adam van Koeverden would like you to consider buying one with a special message: Be Fair 2 Rare.

Today is International Rare Disease Day, marking the one-year anniversary of the Be Fair 2 Rare campaign launched by the iBellieve Foundation. The campaign, aligned with the Canadian Organization of Rare Disorders, seeks to increase awareness, funds and advocacy for the rare disease community in Canada.

These diseases aren’t as rare as people think when you consider that 1 in 12 Canadians suffer from one of over 7,000 different rare diseases.

Yet Canada is the only developed country in the world that doesn’t have a national health care policy supporting research into cures. Canada also doesn’t support existing therapies, meaning patients can’t access therapies that could save or dramatically improve their lives.

Rare diseases are usually life threatening or life altering – and children represent 75 per cent of those afflicted.

The force behind the Be Fair 2 Rare campaign is Simon Ibell, whose former work as an athlete co-ordinator at Right To Play and friendship with the likes of Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki has created numerous connections in the sports world.

Ibell has Hunter syndrome, or mucopolysaccharidosis II (MPS II), a rare metabolic disorder. In a great feature on Ibell, the Star’s Megan Ogilvie wrote of the disease: “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.”

Also championing the campaign is Olympic and world kayaking champion Adam van Koeverden, who blogged about the cause today. He didn't bring his scarf with him to the team's current training camp in Florida, though.

“I’m 100 percent involved because of Simon Ibell,” said van Koeverden. “He’s a good friend of mine. He’s an inspiring guy. He’s brought to light a lot of very interesting facts and figures and realities about the world of rare disease.

“By nature, rare diseases don’t get a lot of consideration or attention because they’re so rare. But as a group, they’re so significant that they really can’t be ignored. Similar to Simon in that he’s so smart and inspiring and concise in his messaging that he can’t be ignored, either.

“Simon is a great role model for activist leaders, for people who engage athletes and the community of Canadians, as most Canadians do. Simon’s just reaching out to develop some awareness and I think it’s a fabulous campaign.”

The campaign is looking for people to sign the petition to support the adoption of a federal rare disease policy at their website www.befair2rare.com, where donations can be made and scarves can be purchased. The scarves also also be sold at Roots.

 

 

Be Ware: Young diver on the rise as London 2012 beckons

Canadian diver Pamela Ware fared pretty well for someone who didn’t even expect to make the semifinals in her major international debut at the Olympic pool in London.

She almost made it to the podium.

The 18-year-old from Ottenburn Park, Que., pulled off a surprising fourth-place finish Friday against the best of the best in a World Cup that served as a dress rehearsal for the real thing this summer.

Her personal best of 341.39 points also gave her the Canadian Olympic qualifying standard. Veteran Emilie Heymans was a disappointing 10th with 307.35 points.

“To be honest, when I got here I wasn’t even expecting to make semifinals so just making semifinals I was extremely happy,” said Ware.

Nerves weren’t the factor that Ware anticipated they would be.

“It was my first World Cup so I expected to be extremely nervous, but then I started competing and I was only nervous on my third dive of the event, of the prelims, semifinals and finals, because my third dive is my hardest dive for me,” she said. “I was just really nervous and I didn’t want to miss it.”

Nailing that dive set the table for the rest of the competition.

“It loosened me up a lot. I had absolutely no stress after that. I was confident and felt really good in the pool.”

New contenders are always emerging in an Olympic year. Ware is looking like she may be one of them.

(THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Diving Canada, Mike Ridewood)

Canadian ski ace Jan Hudec definitely not napping on the job

Jan Hudec is interrupted by a phone call just before nap time.

What? How the heck can the guy sleep at a time like this?

He’s on an incredible roll with another podium Friday, his first ever in Super-G, a second-place finish in Crans Montana, Switzerland – kayaker David Ford aptly suggested via Twitter that they replaced his legs with bionic ones on his seventh knee surgery.

The Canadian team is also on an amazing run, five podium finishes in five races – the Fab Three of Hudec, Erik Guay and Ben Thomsen have combined for that.

Sure the guy’s earned his rest, but being able to grab a few winks before the medal ceremony in Crans Montana bespeaks of one cool customer.

There’s no question Hudec has got his mojo back after a long time in the alpine wildnerness, plagued by knee and back problems. As he acknowledges, he reckons he can keep it going as long as his body holds up. Right now, he is in the zone.

“I think that’s how it happens in sports for sure,” said Hudec, who kindly agreed to postpone his nap for a quick interview. “Once you kind of get the feeling of what it feels like to be fast, to be winning, it’s something you can kind of recreate day after day or it’s a little bit easier to re-create. You get that feeling. It’s something you wake up in the morning with.

“It was nice to keep it going for the team today and I know tomorrow Erik wants to keep it up and get on the podium (in another Super-G in Crans Montana).”

Make no mistake about it, what the Canadian men’s downhill team is accomplishing right now is something special. They’re a small unit because of injury, battling against the European alpine giants like Switzerland.

“I think people are watching us more closely and seem to be more interested than usual, but so far I think we’re still the likeable Canadians,” said Hudec. “Everyone still gives us the big handshakes and are very friendly. I think a lot of people even in other countries – especially France and Switzerland – are very excited for us to do well. It’s nice to have that support from general ski fans as well.”

As the speed team’s head coach Johno McBride described it, the skiers are thriving on a good energy on the squad and a sense of confidence.

“It’s been fun for the last few weeks because when one guy isn’t completely on top of his game somewhere – like Erik and I in Sochi, for instance – Ben was right there chomping at the bit,” said Hudec, referring to Thomsen’s second-place finish on the 2014 Olympic course. “He took the pressure off us and kept the ‘team momentum’ going.

“Obviously I want to say I can keep it going but you’re up against 80 of the top skiers in the world and about 20 of them can win on any given day. It’s one of those things where you try to do it every day and if you don’t, you hope one of your teammates can. That’s what we’ve been feeding off of the last couple of weeks is feeding off each other.”

Okay, Jan, thanks for this. Now get that nap.

(AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

 

Olympic skeleton champ Montgomery tries Crosby's wild ride

It’s a wilder ride than you’ll get in most amusement parks, but rather than scrambling your brain it’s supposed to help rewire it for the better.

Sidney Crosby has done it many times. So, too, now have Olympic skeleton champion Jon Montgomery and his teammate and wife Darla Deschamps.

With the help of Crosby’s trainer Andy O’Brien, Montgomery and Deschamps were able to get treatment from Dr. Ted Carrick, the man who pioneered chiropractic neurology at Life University in Atlanta.

Deschamps suffered a concussion last December while training on terrible ice conditions in Lillehammer, while Montgomery went to Atlanta to get a baseline test.

Deschamps thought she had a mild concussion but she tested for a major concussion. Montgomery also tested for symptoms of dysfunction in the brain, probably due to 10 years of skeleton runs.

“It was similar to the kind of things they see in wakeboarding and motorcross where they repeatedly wipe out,” said Montgomery.

When Montgomery and Deschamps did exercises where a pattern was introduced in front of them and they tried to follow a moving line or dot, there was no reflex reaction in their eyes.

“Darla’s and my eyes were pretty much flatline – they weren’t moving,” said Montogmery. “It didn’t have that natural reflex.”

Montgomery and Deschamps both got to experience the GyroStim, a gyroscope which turns patients every which way in a pattern that is designed for their specific brain issues. They spun three times a day for four days – Crosby was there at the same time. It was a return trip for Crosby, who first underwent the uncoventional therapy in August.

“I guess the first time that Sid was in the machine, he was not feeling very well at all,” said Montgomery. “He went back to the hotel and didn’t return for more therapy that day.”

Montgomery said Carrick’s therapy is designed to re-train the brain.

“He has recognized ways to build a new grid for the brain or create new pathways to achieve the proper neuro firing patterns that have been compromised in brain,” said Montgomery. “He used an analogy that makes a lot of sense to me. It’s like a busy highway that has a blockage in it, it’s had an accident and been shut down.

“Other doctors would just say you have to wait in traffic until that blockage becomes unimpeded. If it never becomes unimpededed, guess what, you’re never getting through. Dr. Carrick’s approach is he turns on his GPS and finds a new route to get around this pathway that has been shut down.”

Montgomery became a believer after the treatment and from the marked improvements he saw in other patients treated there.

“The brain is an incredibly adaptive piece of equipment and it will find new ways to accomplish the same end result when something’s been compromised,” he said. “By stimulating the brain with this GyroStim machine, they essentially create new pathways for those neuro firing responses to send signals to the desired end location.

“The way it works I believe is there’s one constant in our lives – that’s gravity. By spinning the human body on a multi-place axis and essentially denying the body of the one constant, you’re able to stimulate the brain in a previously unachievable manner.”

Montgomery said he and Deschamps experienced a “massive improvement” in the natural reflex response in their eyes after the treatment. While Deschamps said some of her concussion symptoms came back during the treatment, she showed a huge improvement the following week as her dizziness and nauseousness disappeared and her energy levels rose.

Montgomery knows there’s doubters out there, especially after Crosby was knocked out with concussions symptoms again shortly after returning.

“The reason there’s an element of skepticism out there is simply because people don’t understand it. It’s my firm belief this stuff won’t be fringe medicine anymore. It will be widely accepted.”

Montgomery and Deschamps said it’s also going to be important in moving forward to change the mentality in skeleton racing. She was injured while doing multiple runs – she said four times as many as usual -- on unfavourable track conditions.

“We’ve got to be responsible and say when enough is enough and not be pushed to do more simply for the sake of doing more,” Montgomery said.

 

Priscilla Lopes-Schliep ready to rumble on road to London

Priscilla Lopes-Schliep gets to have butterflies in her belly again.

The Whitby hurdler, who gave birth to daughter Nataliya in September, will have her first post-pregnancy race on the road to the 2012 London Olympics on Saturday at a meet at the University of Sherbrooke.

The way her coach Anthony McCleary describes it, there was just no holding the Olympic bronze medalist and world champion silver medallist back any longer, given how hard she’s worked in practice and the remarkable progress demonstrated.

“She’s ahead of what I actually thought,” said McCleary. “I thought we’d be struggling to get over the hurdle, but we’re not doing that anymore. She finds it pretty easy. She’s pretty much done everything that we’ve asked her to – and better.

“Her mental state is a lot better than where it was and the determination is there. I’m not going to deny her if she says she wants to try it.”

She’s certainly sounding ready.

"I am looking forward to racing, it's been a long time since I've stepped foot on the track in a competitive field,” said Lopes-Schliep in a statement. “I'm up against some of the best in the world on Saturday and anything can happen. This is a stepping stone for me to my ultimate goal of representing Canada at the London Games and pushing for a medal.”

Lopes-Schliep will race in the women’s 60-metre hurdles in an invitiational race at the Quebec university championships. She’ll be up against training partners Nikkita Holder and Phylicia George, ranked ninth and 11th in the world respectively.

This is a big race for George, who needs to run 8.00 to qualify for the indoor world championships. She’s run 8.03, but in Canada the standard is much tougher than the IAAF qualifying mark of 8.18.

“To have a chance to do it on Saturday with three of my training partners pushing me, means all the more,” said George.

Holder has already qualified but said she’s looking to dip under the 8-second barrier against a strong Canadian field.

McCleary said that Holder and George have provided Lopes-Schliep with a great measuring stick in training.

“She has two of the world’s best here with her, which helps her and gives her that drive,” he said. “She’s hanging with them. That’s part of her confidence level. She’s geared up and ready for it.”

It’s highly unlikely for Lopes-Schliep to nail the world indoor qualifying time in her first race back, but McCleary also believes it isn’t out of the question. Generally, she opens the season at around 8.30 seconds, which would suit everybody just fine.

“If she hits that mark, we know we’re on the right track,” McCleary said.

(The photo is of Lopes-Schliep winning at the Diamond League Final in August 2010 -- she was ranked No. 1 in the world at the time)

 

That guy you see running on DVP might be Simon Whitfield

Simon Whitfield’s final tuneup for the 2012 London Olympics will be along the DVP and Gardiner Expressway.

Whitfield was in town Wednesday to help unveil plans for the Toronto Triathlon Festival on July 22 on a course that snakes through the city’s downtown core and along eastbound Gardiner and northbound Don Valley Parkway.

“It’s a showcase event,” said Whitfield. “Chicago has had the biggest race in the world for years. New York City has a big race. L.A. has a big race. Now, Toronto will have this great race. I’m really excited and honoured to be up here. It’s a big thrill.”

Whitfield won’t be doing the Olympic distance in Toronto – he’ll be doing the “sprint,” which at .75k of swimming, 20k of cycling and a 5k run is half the Olympic distance. He sees the Toronto race as a perfect way to get ready for the Aug. 7 men’s Olympic triathlon in London.

“For me, the Olympic year is about keeping the things we can control as low key as possible,” said Whitfield, Olympic champion in 2000 in Sydney and silver medalist with a stirring run in 2008 in Beijing. “This is a great opportunity for that.

“Instead of getting to a race in Hamburg, which is all-on, all-pressure, WCS (World Championships Series) racing. Just to be in Toronto, I find it much more relaxing. Gets you in a great head space for an Olympic campaign, I suppose.”

Those anticipating another big traffic jam – the grumbling over the marathons never seems to cease -- are unlikely to be in that same great head space.

The race is being run by Triathlon Canada and Sports Focused Consulting, run by Jeff Chong, son of former councillor Gordon Chong, Mayor Rob Ford’s righthand man on the fractious subway issue.

Ford once proposed moving all such races off city streets and into parks, but Chong seems to have been able to sell city council on its merits despite being turned down at the public works committee.

Chong said the race was three years in the making and that there is a projected $1.6 million economic benefit to the city and $2.3 million for the province in the first year.

“I also think that as a city we should be at a level that other cities are at that host things like this,” said Chong. “What we’re creating here is going to be a signature event that allows us to play in the big leagues as it were with respect to some of these bigger types of races.”

Chong said the event will start at 7 a.m. and the triathletes will be off the course early “before people on a Sunday morning are going to even know about it.”

“Quite frankly, the city is the show here,” said Chong. “We wanted to show off the best of what the city has to offer. Going through the Gardiner, passing the Air Canada Centre, the CN Tower, those sort of things. The speed you can generate coming down the DVP … those are the sort of things we were looking for.”

Alan Trivett, executive director of Triathlon Canada, said they hope to hold the Canadian championships in Toronto in 2013 and 2014, as well as a sanctioned International Triathlon Union event in 2014 as a test event for the 2015 Pan Am Games.

Whitfield, who turns 37 in May, would like to stick around for a crack at the Pan Ams.

“I’m competitive so I try to forget I’m getting older. I just like racing. Pan Am Games, Toronto. Who wouldn’t want to be there?”

 

Bobsleigh champ Humphries plays avid Leafs’ fan for a night

Yankees slugging legend Reggie Jackson earned the nickname “Mr. October” for his big hits in the playoffs.

Kaillie Humphries could well become “Ms. February.”

Okay guys, get your minds out of the gutter.

The moniker in this instance applies to Humphries’ ability to deliver clutch wins at the big events. Think about it: she won Olympic gold in women’s bobsleigh at just 24 years old and this past weekend in Lake Placid added a world title to her resume. Not only that, she won both times by whopping margins.

Considering that bobsleigh generally tends to favour the veteran pilot, the upside for Humphries as she heads towards the 2014 Sochi Olympics is impressive. Just don’t ask her to explain her ability for clutch performances when the stakes are highest.

“I have no idea,” she said. “I don’t know how I do it. I don’t know how it works. That part I can’t really tell you. I guess genetics, my mental makeup, how I’ve been trained, what I’ve learned. I’m a very pro-active person. If I don’t know something, I reach out to the best to try to figure it out.”

Humphries is in Toronto today with her latest hardware and will be taking in the Maple Leafs/New Jersey tilt tonight at the Air Canada Centre.

She may not want this to reach her friends out West, but she’ll be cheering for the Leafs.

“Born and raised in Calgary, I am a Flames’ fan,” she said. “But I will also say I am a Canucks’ fan because after the Olympics they were very sweet to me. Tonight, I will be a Leafs’ fan because they’re playing New Jersey. I’m Canadian, I’ve got to pick the home team. Tonight I’m an avid, huge Leafs’ fan.”

It’s mentioned to Humphries that the Leafs could maybe use a pep talk from a newly minted world champion.

“That’d be sweet. I’d love that.”

What would you tell them?

“Oh man, I don’t know, I’d have to think about about it. Kick ass? Play your hearts out? An athlete is an athlete. They’ve reached the position they’re in for a reason. You need to believe in that. They need to believe in each other as a team and they need to trust that everyone on the team is going to do their best for that night, for that moment, for that second. You’re giving your best and if everyone gives their best, the team will be the best. Trust in that. Believe in that. Do the job like you know how to do it.”

 

Van Koeverden confident firing won't create choppy waters

Just five months removed from the 2012 London Olympics, CanoeKayak Canada has fired their high performance director, Barney Wainwright.

It’s hard to say what impact – if any -- that is going to have on the team overall.

These athletes all work with their own coaches and any highly motivated individual – take Adam van Koerverden, for example – isn’t going to be deterred in the slightest as he prepares with longtime coach Scott Oldershaw of the Burloak Canoe Club in Oakville.

“It’s pretty big news. It’s pretty unprecedented in our sport at least,” van Koeverden said in an interview from the team training camp in Florida. “All I will really say is I wish Barney the best. He’s a good guy. I appreciate what he’s done in the past 14 or 16 months. At the same time, I think it’s the best thing for CanoeKayak and I’m supremely confident in our team’s ability to perform despite this change.

“I’m really confident in the coaches’ ability to lead the individual athletes. Unfortunately, it will be a small team in London. We know that already. That makes it less necessary to have a lot of administration. Obviously on paper, it looks bad but practically it’s the best thing to do.”

CanoeKayak Canada will launch a search for a new high performance director next month. They’ve got nine coaches on staff who can help plan for the Olympic selections and national team manager Christine Bain is described by van Koeverden as a “rock star” when it comes to logistics.

Wainwright’s selection in November 2010 wasn’t popular with all sectors of the team. Some questioned whether the British-born administrator's background in sport science made him a good fit for the role. It's also felt by some that he never really developed as a solid leader and the funding hit the team took this year from Own The Podium didn’t help him in that regard.

“Through joint discussions, we were unable to agree an alternative role for Barney to contribute to the team, and as a consequence he will be leaving within the next two months,” said CanoeKayak Canada in a statement. “We wish Barney success and thank him for his contribution to the National Team.”

Prior to coming to Canada to work for Own The Podium in August 2009, Wainwright was the senior sport scientist for the British Canoe Union’s Olympic programs (1999-2009).

He worked on the Great Britain support staff for the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and was involved in developing their high performance system at the coaching and scientific levels.

His firing speaks to the leadership void among sports federations in Canada as there is a dearth of qualified and capable people to fill these types of roles. Own The Podium is working to improve the situation, but in the meantime it continues to hurt this country’s ability to develop overall as a sports nation.

(The photo of van Koeverden winning at last year's worlds in Szeged, Hungary, was taken by REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh)

 

Canadians would a more manly men's Olympic downhill

The 2014 Sochi Olympic downhill is being held in a place called Rosa Khutor.

And to hear the Canadian downhill racers describe it, the place is incredible.

Erik Guay: “The area itself is actually really spectacular, very beautiful mountains, nice forest. It’s pretty unique. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it. There’s no coniferous trees. It’s all aciduous leaves. It’s a pretty sweet area.”

Jan Hudec: “It almost seems like the perfect open canvas for an artist to build a downhill track.”

But as far as most downhillers are concerned, what's been done with the course is like painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa. The course setter has made the layout tight and turny so that it’s more Super-G than downhill.

“I think maybe a lot of racers are frustrated because the venue’s so cool here, it has so much potential, but the course setting doesn’t portray the run as well as it could,” said Hudec, who is the athletes’ rep for the race. “Hopefully, they clean that up for the Olympics.”

Let’s hope that they do. One of the things about Olympic courses is that they’ve either tended to be a great test of an athlete’s skill or they get dumbed down so that the guy from Ecuador who’s starting 82nd will be able to make it down safely.

It sounds like the one in Sochi has the potential to be a keeper.

“It has all the terrain you need to make it a manly downhill,” said Hudec, who prefers his downhills manly (He's Canadian, isn't he?). “It’s got enough steeps, it’s got plenty of ice this week but it also has amazing terrain features, possibility for huge jumps.

“One of the jumps we’re hitting is 60 plus metres of flight, but with no issues at all because the landings are steep. I think it can be amazing venue for people to spectate because of the amazing jumps and terrain changes and wide open space.

“But at the same time unfortunately, it also depends on the course setter.”

The course setter works for the International Ski Federation (FIS) His name is Helmut or Heinz Something-or-Other (always is). Hopefully, he gets his act in gear for the big show in two years.

“They can definitely a nice flowing downhill from top to bottom,” said Guay. “It would be a venue to compare with any other venue on the World Cup tour.”

And worthy of an Olympics.

(Photo OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Riveting CTV doc on depression strikes chord for this reporter

The honesty of the athletes featured in Michael Landsberg’s documentary Darkness and Hope: Depression, Sports and Me is remarkably compelling.

Former NHLer Stephane Richer (photo), baseball slugger Darryl Strawberry and Olympic great Clara Hughes lay themselves bare in sharing their struggles with the debilitating mental disease in the show airing Wednesday at 7 p.m. on CTV.

I watched it twice in preparation for a front-page story in the Star’s sports section on Wednesday.

I felt like they were telling my story, too, that I could totally relate to them.

Not to the Stanley Cup rings. Or the World Series title. Or the Olympic medals.

But I’ve battled depression for most of my life.

The multi-million dollar campaign Bell is running using Hughes as a spokesperson to spark more discussion on mental health is a very important one.

It’s called “Let’s Talk” and it’s well named because talking about the problem is critical. How many people are out there staying silent about their pain? The answer is way too many.

This is a disease that affects and potentially destroys families.

Depression is insidious.

It makes you feel worthless, that you don’t deserve the compassion of even those closest to you right at the very time when you need their help and compassion more than ever. As Hughes says of her own depression in the documentary: “I felt really afraid and really alone.”

But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is help out there. Really good help. People are way more understanding than those in the grips of the disease realize. When depression has hold of you, it feels relentless and that the mental anguish is never going to end. But when you get help, you look back on that time and can’t believe you ever felt that way.

Landsberg, whose depression is also detailed in the documentary, said he believes the willingness of successful athletes to share their stories will help de-stigmatize the disease.

“Depression is going to touch someone in some way,” he said. “You may not get it, but someone you care about will and your ability to be emphathetic to them and to be supportive of them and to be encouraging of them to get the help could ultimately make the difference between happiness and sadness for them and, perhaps, life and death.”

Those who think of Strawberry in terms of all the negative headlines he generated with his off-field troubles will gain a whole new appreciation for him as a person. A lot of his problems stemmed from abuse from his father, who continually told him he would never amount to anything.

“As you lay across that bed and you have no shirt on and he’s beating the living crap out of you, you believe that,” he said in the documentary. “I don’t care who you are. I don’t care how great you become.”

Depression strips away so much from you. But you can fight it and carve out a very meaningful life.

There may not be a better face for a campaign like Bell’s than that of Hughes. She’s shared her strengths with us for so many years in the Olympic arena. Now, she’s sharing her vulnerability.

We should thank all these athletes for doing that. It’s a greater act of courage than any on the playing field.

(There will be a live chat with Michael Landsberg and Randy Starkman @ 1 p.m. Wednesday on thestar.com) Click here to Join the Chat