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

 

Jan Hudec's longtime physio talks about the medical marvel

Jan Hudec’s battle through six knee surgeries and back woes to win his second World Cup downhill victory in Chamonix, France, on the weekend is an incredible feat.

Among those who really understand what he's been through is former alpine team physiotherapist Kent Kobelka, who helped the Calgary skier through 1,500 days in rehab, give or take a few hundred. (We'll excuse Kobelka for not having an exact count)

We caught up this week with Kobelka, whose duties now include medical coordinator for Hockey Canada, rehab therapist for the Calgary Flames as well as working with Olympic athletes through the Canadian Sports Centre in Calgary (Guess he needed all those jobs to match the workload he had with Hudec.)

“I’m not at all surprised he’s back where he is,” said Kobelka. “He’s such an unbelievable talent. When he gets healthy and he gets some confidence, he is one of the best. I know a lot of people would say ‘Oh, it’s been a long road,’ but when you see what this kid has been through in his life and the things he’s come back from, it’s probably not that big of a surprise.”

Kobelka points out that Hudec has to walk a tightrope that most of his peers don’t.

“It’s hard because this is a guy who can’t do the high volume of training a healthy person can do because his body can’t take it. But he’s also a mature athlete that he’s been through the grind a little bit to say ‘Okay, I know what I need to do and how I need to feel to be prepared to race.’”

Kobelka was there with Hudec through his six knee surgeries, five of them ACLs.

“It was a roller coaster. The one thing I think always pulled him through is every time he came back from an injury, there was a greater success. He had his first win, he injured himself, he then came back and was able to get second in the world championships … Through every injury, he was able to come back and be a little bit better or have a better race.

“I remember at the world championships in Val d’Isere after he blew his knee that race, he called and the first thing out of his mouth wasn’t ‘I’m done.’ It was ‘I’m committed to getting back and I want to do it again.’ That’s not an easy thing. There’s a lot of different people’s opinions out there that would say ‘Should he even be skiing with all these injuries?’”

Kobelka said it’ll be important for Hudec to get through this season in one piece and do the all the little things necessary to stay on top of his issues, something he hasn’t excelled at in the past.

“As far as the back goes, he has bulging disks. When you bend over and everything you do is in a flex position, skiing, sitting, travelling, everything else, I don’t think any of the guys have good backs. Think of being in a crouch position for everything you do. It’s not a very functional position to be in. His back is always going to be an issue. I’m sure he spends a lot time with (team physiotherapist) Julie Harvey on the road.

“His knees, six surgeries, there’s osteoarthritis being built up, cartilage has obviously been affected. In the future, his knees are not going to be probably his most favorable thing. He is probably more poised to have a knee replacement than someone who hasn’t had six surgeries.”

Hudec and Kobelka exchanged messages after his big win.

“There isn’t a nicer guy in the world. He’ll take the time to talk to anyone. It’s just nice to see a good guy get on the top.

(Photos by PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP/Getty Images)

Here's a pic of the 1-3-5 trio of Hudec (R), Erik Guay (plaid), and Ben Thomsen. What a showing!

High school track stars being offered whole new challenge

For a high school track field star in the GTA, the pinnacle has always been OFSAA.

“It’s like the Olympics in high school,” said national team hurdler Phylicia George (middle).

Well, there’s a new kid in town.

Plans were unveiled Monday for the top 312 track and field athletes across Canada to compete on May 12 at Varsity Stadium in the Nike High School Grand Prix.

George helped kick off the event at a news conference with fellow hurdlers Olympic bronze medallist Priscilla-Lopes Schliep, coming back from having a baby, and 2003 world champion Perdita Felicien.

It’s an opportunity Felicien wishes she had as a high schooler.

“I think it will be a great testing ground for athletes,” she said. “Sometimes, you find in high school you’re the biggest fish in the pond. So to kind of expand that pond to go into a bigger pool will be exciting for the athletes to see what they can do against the rest of the athletes in the country.”

Lopes-Schliep said she went to a similar meet in the U.S. when she was in high school and found the challenge of racing against the best helped shape her as a competitor.

“The love for sport and the drive to get better, to push yourself to strive to go after records was very neat because I went out and I was able to break a record there,” she said. “And then to see that this is coming to Canadian soil is just one of the best things we could be doing. It’s going to better the sport, it’s going to better our kids, it’s going to better everything all around in Canada.”

University of Toronto track and field head coach Carl Georgevski believes it will not only help promote the sport, but that it can be a means of unearthing the “diamonds in the rough that are out there in Canada.”

Nike is teaming with School Sport Canada and the integrated marketing agency TrojanOne for the event. The 312 athletes will be culled from 200,000 high school track and field athletes from across Canada.

“I think having something where it’s the whole country, it’s not just the whole province, it creates a new rivalry,” said George.

“I think OFSAA was the first time you really get to see what fast is. Sometimes when you’re just competing locally, you really don’t understand that. And then you step out and you realize ‘Whoa, there are people that are really talented.’ I think it also encourages you to want to train harder.”

Felicien has one suggestion for the organizers, though.

“I want them to actually have a masters category in this meet. Why not? Relive the golden days.”

(Video and photo by the esteemed Richard Lautens. L to R: Felicien, George and Lopes-Schliep)

Inside the Roller Coaster World of an Elite Speed Skater

(As anyone regular reader of this blog knows, Canada’s Olympians are a pretty rare breed. Many of them are also very descriptive writers. One of those is speed skater Anastasia Bucsis, who allows us here to share the email she sent today to some supporters after having to pull out last week of the world sprint championships in Calgary at the last second because of a back injury. This gives you some insight into the roller coaster life these athletes sometimes lead.)

Here’s the email:

Hey guys!

Sorry that this has taken me so long to respond, (and in a mass message) but I've just received so many positives notes/messages that I'd never get the time to respond to all of them!

Yes,... so this past weekend was definitely a game changer in my career. I am sure all of you have heard to some extent what I did... just slightly herniated my L4-L5 disk in my lower back (while putting on my skin suit- something I do at least twice a day, every day!) which then started to touch all of the nerves in my lower back...

I instantly started to go into spasms... got about twenty minutes of treatment done, tried to get on ice... skated one lap, and knew that something was dreadfully wrong. My legs were useless... my knees were buckling with pain and I couldn't bend over to save my life, (which, I've heard, is an important part of speed skating...).

So with that being said, without ever having a serious back problem, I was sidelined and forced to watch a World Championships in my own City, after being so incredibly excited and probably skating the best I ever have. I am never one to really elaborate on how well I feel on ice- but I'm not going to lie, I basically felt better than I ever have. Calm, confident, focused, excited... I was just being a kid and having fun.

I cried for 48 hours straight, but I was also humbled and inspired by the kindness of strangers and the goodness of humanity (does that sound kind of corny? It's true.) I was so touched by how many of my friends/teammates/competitors/coaches/international coaches/physios/parents/strangers...etc... came up to me with tears in THEIR eyes and expressed their well wishes. It was just such an incredibly emotional weekend... it left me drained of energy, but also incredibly inspired.

I've got 4 weeks until I am over in Europe again... trying to recover and then build up my fitness for a few more world cups and World Championships at the end of March. I am keeping positive and listening to my body- but patience is definitely a virtue in this situation... all I want to do is put on my skates and train. I have definitely learnt that the old saying, "you never know what you've got until it's gone" is 100000000% true. But I've also learnt to trust God and that everything happens for a reason... I've just got to keep positive and believe that this happened at this time in my life/career for bigger and better things to come.

Anyways!

Thanks for all of your kind words/prayers!

Hope to be back skating in no time... bigger and better :)

Anastasia

(The photo is of Bucsis racing in the 500 metres at the Vancouver Olympics. It was taken by the Star’s Richard Lautens, great photog and helluva guy)

 

It's a shame Nesbitt had to go outside Canada for key sponsor

When speed skater Christine Nesbitt competed at the world sprint championships last weekend, one of her more prominent sponsors was a Dutch telecom company, Galaxy Group.

You can see them displayed here over her heart and on her left shoulder.

Kevin Jagger, an investment broker turned Canadian long track speed skater, writes about the Dutch deal in his superb blog on amateur sport sponsorship, which is generally written to help out other athletes.

Jagger doesn’t make a big deal out of it that it’s a Dutch company. Quite the contrary. He points out how BCE dropped out from sponsoring the Canadian speed skating team – not an unusual happenstance in the post Vancouver Olympic era – and the absence of the Bell logo meant skaters could get their own deals with telecommunications firms.

Nesbitt is a good fit for the Galaxy Group. She’s a huge name in the Netherlands and speed skating is televised there like hockey is here so they’ll get tons of exposure.

This isn’t unprecedented, either. Jeremy Wotherspoon’s big sponsor at the height of his career was a Dutch company. The Canadian canoe kayak team once had a Hungarian sponsor.

Canadian teams and athletes have to take it where they can get it. There was no windfall even for the Vancouver Olympic gold medallists like Nesbitt.

Nesbitt got a deal recently with a Canadian company that makes compression wear, CEP Canada, but you can bet it wasn't for significant dollars.

One can’t help but wonder what it says about us as a nation celebrating their own that an Olympic champion, world champion, world record holder and winner of countless 2011 Athlete of the Year awards can’t bag a Canadian telecommunications sponsor.

Not only are there Nesbitt’s athletic achievements, but she’s a great role model and one of the country’s big hopes heading to the 2014 Olympics.

Her sponsorship should be a 'Made In Canada' production.

 

Things looking very good for Canada on road to Sochi 2014

It’s just over two years until the Sochi Olympics, but the signs are good right now for another Canadian tour de force showing like we saw in Vancouver.

Canada just finished quite a week on snow and ice, one that shows the country’s had a healthy blood transfusion since the last Games and that many of the stalwarts are as good as ever.

You’ve got to like the attitude of a team that will include speed skater Christine Nesbitt, who set the two fastest times ever in the world in the women’s 1,000 metres but true to her feisty self was not happy with winning the silver medal overall at the world sprint championships in Calgary.

Canada has a reputation for excelling in the new sports at an Olympics and Sochi may prove no exception. Dedicating their victories to teammate Sarah Burke, who played a big role in getting the events into Sochi, Kaya Turski won the gold medal in slopestyle and Roz Groenewoud on the superpipe at the X Games in Aspen. Turski is unbeaten this season.

They weren’t the only Canadians winning gold at the X Games as Chris Del Bosco won the men’s ski cross event followed by Dave Duncan for the bronze and Dominique Maltais won the women’s Snowboard X event. Maltais was a dominant performer heading into the last Olympics but came up short on the big day. Great for Canada that she’s stuck around.

Canada is blessed enough to have enough depth on the men’s moguls freeestyle skiing side that while Olympic champion Alex Bilodeau is missing most of this season to train and focus on his studies, Mikael Kingsbury is lighting things up with victories in all five men’s moguls events this season.

Meanwhile, Olivier Rochon has stepped it up in men’s freestyle aerials in the absence of world champion Warren Shouldice, out for the season with a concussion. Already with a silver medal to his credit this season, Rochon pulled off his first ever victory in a World Cup on Sunday in Calgary.

Then there was the second-place finish by downhiller Erik Guay at what’s become like his home course in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, his first podium in a season where he’s focused on rebuilding his back strength. The cross country skiers have looked, too, this season, headed by Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey and Chandra Crawford.

Then you’ve got the sliders who can be on the podium in any race, luger Alex Gough, skeleton racer Melissa Hollingsworth, and bobsled drivers Kaillie Humphries and Lyndon Rush. Gough has challenged the front-running German women's team like no other luger.

Two years is a long time, but weeks like the one just finished will have us hoping for it to come a lot quicker.

(The picture is of Roz Groenewoud in the superpipe in Aspen: AP Photo/The Denver Post, Kristin Braga Wright)

Tabbing Merklinger to replace Baumann at OTP is right call

Own The Podium isn’t going far to replace departed ceo Alex Baumann – they’ve decided on one of his key sporting lieutenants, Anne Merklinger.

Merklinger, director of summer sports for OTP, was part of an interim committee holding down the post with Ken Read, director of winter sport, and Joanne Mortimore, director of planning and operations.

Consider this a smart move by OTP because Merklinger is truly respected for her leadership and passion in the Canadian sports community and she’s a very astute manager.

She gets it. She knows what’s required. She’s been there as an athlete, a swimmer and a curler, but even more importantly as an administrator. She did a great job in running Canoe Kayak Canada and two of her biggest supporters were a pair of Canadian Olympic flagbearers in Caroline Brunet and Adam van Koeverden, who don’t suffer fools but had all the respect in the world for Merklinger.

Brunet was thrilled yesterday at the news of Merklinger’s hire.

“She deserves it,” said Brunet. “She’s a very hard worker, very professional. I know those are typical words to use to describe someone, but she’s very mature, she would never bad mouth people. She was always a reference for me.

“If you want to know something is for sure, you ask Anne. If she doesn’t know, she won’t bulls—t you, she’ll find out. She has all the right qualities. I’m glad she was around when I was around. I really like her not only for what she did in the job, but as a person.”

If you think that's impressive, here's what van Koeverden had to say:

“Too many executives aren’t good at following through and executing and having good ideas and putting the right people in place to do the jobs that need doing," said the Olympic champion. 'And that’s what Anne’s really good at. She hires the right people and she recognizes talent when she sees it and she gets the job done.

“She’s just a powerful person. She’s smart and motivated and she works harder than anybody I know, including any of the athletes I know. She’s among the hardest working people I know. I have no more faith in any other individual in Canada than I do in Anne Merklinger. I think it’s very, very good for the future of Canadian sport.”

They could have named Merklinger as Baumann’s replacement right after he left for New Zealand for personal reason – and some thought that was the way to go – but kudos to OTP chairman John Furlong and his group for executing a global search before making their decision.

It was the wise move to see if there was a real catch to be had, perhaps someone even of Baumann’s ilk, but obviously that was not to be.

The fear from this corner was that they would hire a big name just for the sake of having one, but that it wouldn’t be the right fit for Canadian sport.

Merklinger is the right fit.

“I’m not an Alex Baumann, I didn’t win two Olympic gold medals and set world records, but I’m fully committed to winning,” said Merklinger in an interview. “I’ve been committed to winning ever since I can remember as an athlete. As director of summer sports, that was my approach and it will continue in my new role as ceo.”

A Canadian sports official told me recently he thought that Merklinger was the perfect choice to take over for Baumann, but he had one major concern.

“We don’t want to lose her as director of summer sports because she’s doing such a great job.”

There’s the rub for sure. Top find leadership talent is pretty scarce in the Canadian sports system.

Furlong and his board were probably looking at that as well in not plucking Merklinger right away. They didn’t want to lose her from a job she’s been doing so well.

Some have wondered if Baumann’s absence would affect the team’s performance in London. It shouldn’t. The athletes who are in medal contention and their coaches are so focused on getting the job done that they won’t be concerned over such a change. Baumann is a big loss, though, because he was a great leader with very little ego.

How many can say that?

Merklinger is cut from similar cloth and will serve Canada’s athletes very well in her new role. Even without those Olympic gold medals.