Ryan Cochrane shows no mercy on Mercer in tuneup

As a tuneup for his bid for the Olympic podium, it's hard to say just yet what impact his duel in the pool with Rick Mercer will have on Canada's Ryan Cochrane.

Cochrane, an Olympic bronze medalist in Beijing in the men's 1,500-metre freestyle and silver medalist in the event at last year's worlds, definitely enjoyed the CBC satirist's visit to the Victoria pool where he trains ahead of this week's Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Swimming Trials in Montreal.

As this video from the Rick Mercer Report shows, Mercer had to be hooked up to a pulley system to keep pace with Cochrane. That didn't work, either.

“He's pretty funny in person and it's kind of just go, go, go the whole time,” said Cochrane. “I was killing myself laughing because I thought he was drowning beside me when we were doing the racing. He's like 'I have a safe word. So if I yell the safe word, stop. But no matter what else I yell, just keep going.'

“It was awesome. I think it's really great for our whole team, just the publicity from it. I was just happy to get in a world edge-wise because he's a bit of a talker.”

Cochrane's coach, Randy Bennett, was asked about Mercer's potential as a swimmer.

“I thought Simon (Whitfield) summed it up pretty well on the show. When Rick asked if he had any chance of getting better, he said 'No.'”

Soul Searching Trip: Having seen the work Right To Play is doing internationally, Canadian speed skating great Kristina Groves was very interested to see the programs they are implementing in First Nations communities in Ontario. Her recent trip led to a lot of soul searching afterwards and this blog post for CBC that is definitely worth a read.

Here's an excerpt:

On the first night of the trip I was honoured to sit with the Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Shawn Atleo at a dinner organized by Right To Play.  I asked him what the greatest difficulty facing Canada’s Aboriginal people was.  His answer surprised me.  It was not alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, education, healthcare, or unemployment, but rather the very root of all of these problems – a systemic lack of self-confidence.

The basic premise of the Right To Play First Nations PLAY (Promoting Life skills in Aboriginal Youth) program is the development of youth leadership, and by extension confidence, through local community mentors. The youth themselves identify the needs of their own communities and then work together to implement new ideas and activities. There has been steep learning curve. I learned about the challenges they’ve faced in just getting kids to show up, to speak, to engage.  These are early days, but there are already plenty of successes to celebrate.

And then comes me, an Olympic athlete with weird skates and shiny medals, hoping to share and teach and learn. I’m not sure what I expected, but what I encountered was to me a sort of chaos: kids running around yelling, not paying attention, playing silly games.  To the staff this was a thing of beauty – kids running, playing, yelling!! 

Amidst the chaos, while attempting in vain to teach some of the kids to skate, terrified that one of them would fall and hit their head, I wondered to myself if I had made a mistake in being there, talking to kids about the Olympics and trying to teach them to speed skate when they had little hope of understanding my life, in much the same way I had little hope of understanding theirs.  I was doubtful that a connection could be made, in so short a time, across a gap so wide. 

After the community feast in Sheshegwaning First Nation, as we were preparing to drive back to Sudbury, one of the girls I met asked me if I was ever coming back.  I replied that yes, maybe one day I would make it back there for another visit.  Still unsure of my impact I asked the girl why she wanted me to come back.  And she said, “Because nobody ever comes here.” 

 

From the Olympic Games to the Hunger Games

There’s the Olympic Games. And then there’s The Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games is a smash bestselling book series which opens on movie screens around the world Thursday, but the books have been making the rounds among the Canadian women’s rowing team for many months now. According to veteran Darcy Marquardt, about 80 per cent of the squad got hooked on them.

Maybe it’s because they can relate to the book’s dark theme as they fight for spots on the Olympic team.

The first book in the trilogy, The Hunger Games, is described thusly on websites selling it:

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the other districts in line by forcing them to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight-to-the-death on live TV.

One boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and sixteen are selected by lottery to play. The winner brings riches and favor tohis or her district. But that is nothing compared to what the Capitol wins: one more year of fearful compliance with its rule. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her impoverished district in the Games.

“They’re fascinating books,” said Marquardt. “It’s a really interesting story. It’s written for a younger audience I think, but the draw is just the story, the struggles of a teenage girl to find herself and also prove to the world that she’s strong enough to be this heroine they want her to be. I think especially girls latch onto it because of the desire to stand up for what you believe in.”

As Marquardt points out, there’s certainly an element of survival of the fittest to their endeavour. They’ve been in Florida this week fighting it out in the first stage of their selection trials for the women's eight, expected to be a strong contender for the podium at the 2012 London Olympics.

“Sometimes you’re friends, sometimes it’s people in your training group that you know but ultimately there’s only so many of you that can succeed and be on the team, kind of survive say. There may come a point where you have to beat one of your own teammates to get ahead. I see the parallel there. It’s quite timely with this week being the first official step in our selections for our women’s eight.”

At least it’s not a fight to the death like it is in The Hunger Games.

“It’s certainly not to the death, but it’s crushing to the people who don’t make it,” Marquardt said.

Marquardt said the books have been a good distraction.

“It’s not too demanding, it’s a very easy read and things are happening all the time so it keeps your mind off of any other stresses that we tend to have at this time of year with selection looming and ongoing and anticipating even what the day of training will sometimes entail. It’s great to chat about something else.”

For many girls and women who read the book, one of the big questions tends to be Gale or Peeta? They're the two young men trying to win Katniss’ heart.

“I think it’s pretty divided (on the team),” said Marquardt. “One of my teammates, Natalie Mastracci, thinks Katniss has her blinders on for not seeing what a great guy Peeta is and how well he treats her throughout the whole series. I think it’s probably 60-40 with 60 for Peeta and 40 Gale. It’s not a sweep either way.”

The team will likely go see the movie en masse.

“That’s the plan, take up a whole row. I hope it lives up to expectations.”

(The photo above is a still from the movie with Jennifer Lawrence playing Katniss)

Canadian men's water polo team hopes youth is served

Somewhere in his parents’ basement in tiny Drinkwater, Sask., lies a souvenir t-shirt Robin Randall picked up at the last Olympic water polo qualifying tournament held in Canada some 22 years ago.

Randall was 12 at the time, already hooked on the sport, and watching some games in Calgary may well have cemented his future as goalkeeper on Canada’s national team.

“It was one of the things that probably inspired me to take it as far as I have,” said Randall.

Randall and his teammates will soon find out if they’re going to be able to take it as far as the 2012 London Olympics when Canadian hosts the qualifying tournament again, this time in Edmonton from April 1-8.

“It’s a really special opportunity because there hasn’t been an Olympic qualifier since 1992 when it was in Calgary,” said Randall. “I remember that because I was 12. There’s a lot of guys on the team who wouldn’t remember that because they weren’t born yet.”

That’s the thing about this Canadian squad. They’re a young group, average age only 22. But head coach Dragan Jovanovic has been aggressive in getting them battle ready with numerous invitational tournaments and other opportunities.

The team finished a disappointing 11th at the 2008 Beijing Olympics after being a surprise qualifier, their first appearance after 24 years, and Jovanovic believes they’re capable of much more.

The only wildcard for him is the home crowd – these guys aren’t used to playing in front of one.

“For some teams, that’s an advantage,” said Jovanovic. “For this team, I’m guessing we’ll see if it’s an advantage or disadvantage on April 6.”

That’s the date of the quarterfinals. There’s two pools of six teams in the tournament and Canada is happy with their draw and confident they can advance out of their pool as one of the top four teams, maybe even finish first. The teams then cross over for the quarterfinals, with first in one pool playing fourth in the other and so on. A win in the quarterfinal guarantees an Olympic berth.

“I wouldn’t trust my Olympic hopes on the shoulders on anyone else in this world but the 12 other guys on my team, myself and the coaching staff, of course,” said Randall.

The team includes rising star Nicolas Constantin-Bicari, only 20 and touted to have the potential to be a Wayne Gretzky of water polo.

“There’s no one I’ve seen that’s been able to check him and effectively shut him down completely for the whole game,” said Randall.

In fact, Randall finds himself very wistful at times looking around at all the young talent on the team.

“Having had the perspective of being around for a few generations, it’s really awesome to see the potential,” he said. “In a way, sometimes I get a little sad. It’s kind of bittersweet because I know as much as I love the sport, you can’t play forever. You can’t play the kids games forever.

“At some point I’ll have to step down or be asked to leave – hopefully it’s not that – but at some point I’ll move on for sure and I don’t want to do it with all this young, special talent coming up the pipe. It gets me a little emotional sometimes.”

Hopefully, Randall gets to experience some of those emotions in London.

 (Photo of Robin Randall by Todd Korol/Reuters)

Clara Hughes primed for a soup-er Olympic cycling season

If you’ve read any of Clara Hughes’ recent blog entries, you can tell the Canadian Olympic legend is in a good place as she embarks on the road to the London Olympics.

She’s even started posting soup recipes. She’s the self-proclaimed ‘Master of the Soups.' Those lucky enough to sample the results of her kitchen labours would not begrudge her that title.

But the main course is her preparation for the London Games and, according to the man who should know, her cycling coach Chris Rozdilsky, everything is right on target.

Hughes chose Rozdilsky as the architect of her cycling comeback last year after a decade away from the sport after shopping around extensively. He doesn’t sugarcoat things and said from the start "If it wasn't Clara Hughes, I would say it's pretty much impossible."

Well, he thinks it’s very possible right now.

What has Rozdilsky enthused among other things is they’ve been able to streamline her program and tap into a lot of support after trying to do everything themselves in her first season back.

Where Hughes raced as an independent last year and could not get into the big European races against the best cyclists, she’s now with one of the world’s top teams in Specialized-Lululemon. They’ve been racing this week in San Dimas, Calif and she'll soon be off for a bit European swing.

“Ever since that (signing with Specialized-Lululemon), it’s really kind of cleared her head, because now she doesn’t have to worry,” said Rozdilsky. “When she goes to a race, she’s going to be fully supported and she’s going to have teammates who are trying to do the same thing she’s doing at the highest level of sport. It’s a very motivating environment.

“Whenever they go into a race, they’re trying to win the race. It doesn’t matter who wins the race, but they’re trying to win the race for sure. That’s her. That’s what she wants to do. She’s not going into anything to participate. She’s going in to try to win whatever she’s entering.”

Rozdilsky, who works out of the PowerWatts studio in Montreal, said their setup last year “was this crazy matrix of planning and training and travelling and media.”

“That’s what kind of took the edge off her at worlds,” he said. “It was too many external things that at the end of the day it affected her performance -- and we can’t let that happen again.”

Hughes was fifth in the time trials at the world championships in Belgium and finished way back in the road race after a brave attack that provided the big excitement in what was mostly a dull affair.

“After the race, we said ‘Okay, performance was mediocre. Why was it mediocre?’ We went through the exercise of saying we’re going to change this, this, this and this.”

One of the changes is aligning with B2ten, which backed by independent Canadian businessmen helps this country’s athletes with goods and services to aid them in the climb to the Olympic podium. The group is handling a lot of the logistics, planning and management for Hughes, as well as media requests.

“We decided let’s go full speed forward, we need help, we found the people who can help us,” said Rozdilsky, adding it’s enabled him to focus more on coaching.

“We were really able to refine what she needs to do. Her body really responded well. She’s starting the season in really good shape, physically strong, physically lean, mentally ready to do battle. All systems are go.”