Speedskating: Davis aiming for 5 golds at Olympics

Once again, Shani Davis has decided not to skate the team pursuit at the Olympics.

But the speedskating world-record holder does plan to race all five individual distances at the 2010 Vancouver Games -- with a little help from rival Chad Hedrick -- something that hasn't been attempted by an American in nearly 30 years.

"Shani's amazing," said Guy Thibault, the high-performance director for U.S. Speedskating.

Attempting to match the legendary Eric Heiden's five gold medals at the 1980 Lake Placid Games would be awfully tough, but even coming close could cement Davis -- already the world-record holder at 1,000 and 1,500 meters -- as one of the greatest all-around skaters his sport has ever seen. Most skaters specialize in the sprints, middle or long distances.

His decision is sure to stir debate, however.

Davis said earlier this month that he planned to skate the team event in Vancouver, after notoriously feuding with Hedrick over his decision to skip it at the 2006 Turin Games. That appeared to be another step in the peace-making process between the two, who have been more cordial with one another since Hedrick started a family, embraced his religion and changed his attitude.

"It's still Shani vs. Chad again," Hedrick said recently, "but it's a lot different terms now."

The Americans surely would be a top medal threat with Davis in the team pursuit lineup, too.

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Without him, they finished sixth at the Turin Games.

But Davis did not explain his decision, declining to comment on the final day of the U.S. Speedskating Championships at the Utah Olympic Oval on Wednesday, when the rest of the team for Vancouver was finalized but he did not compete.

Unlike four years ago, when federation officials did not announce that Davis had made the same decision in advance of the Turin Games, Thibault confirmed that Davis will skate only the individual events -- and that Hedrick turned down the opportunity to deny Davis one of his spots.

Hedrick held the top qualifying spot in the 10,000 meters, and could have knocked Davis off the team at that distance by claiming it by the end of the day.

But Hedrick had been planning all along to skip his sport's most grueling race in order to focus on shorter ones in which he feels stronger. He wound up sticking with that plan, in part because he has a bad back that "can't handle the stress for that long."

That allowed Davis to claim the spot -- in addition to those at 500, 1,000, 1,500 and 5,000 meters -- while Salt Lake City's Ryan Bedford earned the second of the two American places in the 10,000 by winning the event Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Park City's Nick Pearson and Magna's Rebekah Bradford won their races to earn the final spots in the 1,000 -- Bradford, after being allowed a re-skate following her fall near the finish -- while Park City's Maria Lamb qualified in the women's 5,000. Pearson already qualified in the 500.

"I'm happy as could be," he said.

But Davis' decision to skate five events in the Olympics remained in the issue of the day.

It marked a change from the intentions he expressed barely two weeks ago at a World Cup event at the Utah Olympic Oval, when he said he wanted to skate the team event and had "no ambitions or motivations" to skate the 10,000.

The lure of sporting history might have proved too great, however, and Hedrick did not press the issue the way he did four years ago.

"I don't have an opinion on it at all," said Hedrick, who plans to skate the 1,000, 1,500 and 5,000 in addition to the team pursuit. "We have great skaters. We have great young skaters who are coming up, and I'll skate with them and we'll represent the country the best we can. ... We'll still be in contention for a medal."

While Trevor Marsicano, Brian Hansen and Jonathan Kuck will join Hedrick in the pool for the three-man team event, Davis will embark on an ambitious schedule that will include five finals in 10 days. He has the ability to finish in the top five of any of his races, Thibault said, and the schedule lines up reasonably well, with the 5,000 first on Feb. 13 and the 10,000 not until Feb. 23 -- after his middle-distance specialities.

Thibault didn't have any problem with Davis deciding against the team pursuit, either.

"We respect that," he said. "It's a tough schedule. He's in every event, and he really wants to do well. ... I'd rather know that and work with the guys that we have [in the team pursuit]. We have a strong team."

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Vokoun, Seidenberg To Play In 2010 Olympics

Goalie Tomas Vokoun and defenseman Dennis Seidenberg will compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics for their home country, the Florida Panthers recently announced.

The Olympics will take place February 18th-28th in Vancouver, British Columbia.  

Vokoun, 33, was named to the Czech Republic team as the starter. He led the team to a bronze medal in 2006, and a gold medal in the 2005 World Championships. He is fifth in the NHL with 953 saves this season.  

Seidenberg will suit up for Germany, a team he represented in both the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics. 


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2010 WINTER OLYMPICS: Clukey set to return from neck injury

Question: How is your injured neck coming along?
Answer: My neck's doing really well. I spent the last nine days in Lake Placid and was doing triple treatments a day. I feel almost 100 percent right now. The first test is staying home trying to maintain it myself and obviously getting back on the sled next Monday.
Q: What will you do in the run-up to the Olympics?
A: We still have four more World Cups. The Olympics are a little far out for me. I want to get back into my groove sliding and just take one race at a time and get some good results.
Q: Were you surprised you were a discretionary pick for the team?
A: I wouldn't say I was surprised. I had a pretty good season leading up to my neck injury. It's not always the way you want to be named to the team but given the situation I was happy. To have your coaches have that confidence in you, that's a huge confidence builder for myself.
Q: Besides the competition, what are you most looking forward to at the Games?
A: I think the whole experience is going to be great. It's going to be a huge scene. The U.S. has such a big team and it's really a supported team in general. It's going to be really cool to represent that. It's really the only time that all the sports are in one venue. I have some friends on the ski team that are vying for spots so I hope they make it so I can share it with some of them.
Q: How does the Olympic course at Whistler Mountain suit your style?
A: It's a pretty good track for me. I've had really good training both last year and this year on it. I feel really comfortable on the track. The start is really important there. It is the fastest track in the world but it doesn't get fast until the bottom.
Q: Describe a typical luge run.
A: There's a lot that goes on. The start is the first part and you have to be really strong and explosive. Once you settle into your sled, it's all about being soft and being relaxed and taking the track as it comes. You never have a perfect run, it's all about feeling things out.
Every day when I get to the track I walk the track and look at the ice and look at the curves just to focus my mindset. And right before every run I do a couple of mind runs visualizing my ideal runs. You have a set plan for the course, but you never have a perfect run. That's where experience comes into play.
Q: What separates the winners from the losers in a luge race?
A: The start is really important. You can't compete unless you have a fast start, but after that it's steering as little as possible. You have to really understand how the tracks work and use the natural pressures of the curve instead of trying to drive the perfect line. Basically every time you drive you're cutting into the ice and that creates friction and you're slowing yourself down.
Q: What sort of response have you had since being named to the team?
A: It's been really great. I've gotten a lot of e-mails from people in the community wishing me well. I haven't had a lot of time off. While I'm at home I can really let it sink in a little bit and take a couple of days off from training just to enjoy my family and enjoy the moment.
Q: How long will you continue to compete?
A: I think I'll for sure compete until 2014. I can change at any point because it is such a commitment and my life pretty much. The moment the passion's not there, obviously I'll walk away.
Q: What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
A: In the summer I like to hike and go kayaking a lot. In the season I read a do a lot of puzzles, like logic puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, things like that.
I usually go (to Sweden) a couple of times in the summer. In August we went on a four-day hiking trip, then there's the international start competition that we go to.
Q: What's the most rewarding part of being a full-time athlete?
A: Every day I can set little goals for myself and meet them. There's always something to work on and I'm a very self-driven, self-motivated person. I like just being responsible for myself.
It's obviously allowed me to see a lot of different places in the world I might not have gone to. I've made some good connections. I have a couple of good friends overseas that I talk to regularly and visit. It's kind of opened up my world a little bit.
Q: How have you grown as an athlete the past five or six years?
A: I've grown a lot. I have a lot more confidence in myself and that's come with the time on the sled. After not making the '06 team I took a lot of time and basically planned my next four years right down to my weight room sessions. I write all my own programs. I decided to really dedicate myself to the sport and change the training I needed to do to make myself a better slider.
Gary Hawkins

Unlike 2006, Team Canada Picks a Balanced Hockey Team 2010

On December 30, Team Canada recently announced the Men's Canadian Ice Hockey team for the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. A quick look at the players selected to Team Canada this year shows some major changes from the last Winter Olympics in 2006.

Rather than emphasizing experience, as was done in 2006, when players such as Shane Doan, Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St Louis, and Ryan Smyth were selected, all of them were left off the 2010 team. In their places are players with not nearly as much international experience, such as Eric Staal, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Jonathan Toews.

Forwards:

A good mix of experience and youth, as well as top six and checking line forwards are present in the selection of Team Canada. Canada has three top lines that should shoulder the bulk of the scoring, as well as a solid checking line with players such as Brendan Morrow and Mike Richards.

In 2006, despite a stellar start to his rookie campaign, a notable omission was that of the then 19-year-old Sidney Crosby. This year he'll be counted on to play a very important role as Canada's top center and one of three alternate captains.

Defense:

If there would be any controversial selections, it would likely center around the defensemen picked for Team Canada. However, while some might express surprise at players such as Mike Green, Jay Bouwmeester, Dion Phaneuf being left off the team, it actually makes a lot of sense leaving off players who are routinely among the NHL's highest scoring defensemen.

With the abundance of offense that Team Canada will have with all of their forward lines, Team Canada will be relying on their defense to do one thing and one thing only: play defense. Accordingly, it makes a lot more sense that more "defensive defensemen" such as Duncan Keith, Shea Weber and Brent Seabrook were chosen instead.

Both Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger will try to reproduce the same success in Vancouver that they had together as defensemen in Anaheim when the Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007.

Goaltending:

No surprise here, as Team Canada's goaltending situation has been universally predicted to be Marty Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, and someone else over all of 2009. Marc-Andre Fleury deserves this third spot as he's had a really solid start this year (22-11-1, 2.49 goals against average with a .907 save percentage though December 30).

Other Olympic hopefuls such as Cam Ward (5-13-5, 3.17 goals against average with a .896 save percentage through December 30) and Steve Mason (11-13-6, 3.18 goals against average with a .894 save percentage through December 30) have struggled this year, making Fleury the logical choice.

With such a talented group of skaters up front, no matter who is picked to be the starting goalie for Team Canada will not be required nor expected to "steal games." Rather, a talented team like Team Canada just needs a goaltender who is simply just solid in net.

Predictions for 2010:

Overall Team Canada this year seems like a balanced team. Of course, this team is going for gold and anything less would be a huge failure. With the players selected this year and with no glaring weaknesses, coupled with the fact that the Canadian team is playing in front of their home crowd, a gold medal will very likely be won by the Canadian men's ice hockey team in February 2010.

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Olympic torch lights up Parliament, draws huge crowds in Montreal

The Olympic flame entered the halls of Parliament in Ottawa on Thursday, officially putting its stamp on the final holdout province of its 45,000-kilometre odyssey across Canada, before resuming a tour of Quebec later in the evening in Montreal.

With the Ontario stop, the flame has now visited all 10 provinces and three territories.

“Imagine an 81-year-old gal being asked to carry the torch into the Parliament Buildings,” said figure-skating icon Barbara Ann Scott, who carried the torch onto the Commons floor.

The Olympic gold medallist told reporters she thought Vancouver organizing committee chief executive officer John Furlong was joking when he called to ask her if she was up to the task.

“And then I found out it was for real and I’m thrilled,” said a beaming Scott.

At five-foot-two and about 88 pounds, Scott joked it was difficult for organizers to find a white track suit small enough to fit her.

The Ottawa native earned a gold medal at the 1948 Winter Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. She said her hopes are high that Canada will take home “quite a few” gold medals at the Games, which kick off in Vancouver and Whistler in February.

A carnival atmosphere surrounded the torch’s viewing in Montreal as a huge crowd gathered early Thursday evening in the tony community of Westmount, near downtown.

Andreanne Morin, who rowed for Canada at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Games, and Dick Pound, a swimmer in the 1960 Games who is better known for his work with the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency, were among the torchbearers who were met with loud applause — and plenty of hotdogs and balloons.

“One of the reasons for this extensive relay is the Games are Canadian and for all these people to see the flame and know what the Games are about,” said Pound, shortly before the flame arrived via the official convoy.

“If our kids do as well as we think they will, it’s not impossible that Canada could win more medals than anyone else,” he said.

The crowd was a good mix of people, from over-excited elementary schoolchildren, to seniors in fur hats and one enthusiast in a vintage Calgary 1988 torch bearer’s uniform, the last time Canada hosted a Winter Olympics.

Later in the evening, however, protesters made their voices heard as an incongruous scene played out in Old Montreal moments before the Olympic flame was to arrive at a party.

As a youthful choir sang on stage and scenes of past Olympic performances flashed on a giant screen, police in riot gear pushed a crowd of about 150 anti-Olympics demonstrators away from the stage and off the flame route. No arrests were made.

But as the flame was winding its way through the streets of Old Montreal toward a large cauldron at the base of Jacques Cartier square, protesters were still blowing horns and shouting slogans like “Shame the corporate flame” and “No Olympics on stolen native land.”

“We are here to disrupt the relay to let people know that there is resistance to this propaganda event called the Olympics,” said Pat Cadorette, a spokesman for the protesters.

For the first hour of the party, the protesters outnumbered celebrants. They drew attention to their cause by banging on drums, and playing a tuba and several horns, and shouting speeches into a microphone plugged into a mobile sound system.

Earlier in the afternoon, gusting winds and freshly plowed snowbanks didn’t deter an estimated 9,000 students and hundreds of West Island residents, both young and old, from lining St. John’s Boulevard in suburban Montreal to cheer on the Olympic torchbearers.

“It was absolutely incredible,” canoeist and Olympic medallist Tom Hall said of his 300-metre run with the fire. “There was just so many people, it was amazing.”

Before the run, Hall spoke about how, as a six-year-old, he and his family had cheered on his sister’s best friend who had been a torchbearer in the Calgary Games. “It was a massive influence in my life,” he said.

Students from Montreal school boards who had been bused in for the event lined the streets, stood on snowbanks, waved homemade and small Canadian flags that had been handed out, sang songs, stamped their cold feet — and waited.

“It’s a big deal — it’s not like the Olympic flame comes through your town every day,” said Matthew Donovan as he and his friend, Felix Levesque-Pero, stood along the sidewalk waiting for the flame to arrive.

And it’s not everyday the flame’s smoke billows through the hallowed halls of Parliament.

In fact, Thursday’s visit to Ottawa marked the first time an Olympic torch has entered the House of Commons.

Members of Parliament chanted “Go Canada Go!” and snapped photos as the former skater Scott marched down the middle of the green-carpeted chamber, hoisting the torch into the air.

House Speaker Peter Milliken offered congratulations to the Olympic organizing committee and wished Canadian athletes well as they make their final preparations for the Games.

Already, more than 4,000 torchbearers have carried the flame across approximately 25,000 kilometres on its way to the opening ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games on Feb. 12, 2010.

Ottawa Citizen and Montreal Gazette

Colbert ignores U.S. speed skater who called him a jerk, for now

It's been two days worth of new episodes now and Stephen Colbert has suddenly stopped talking about his beloved Olympic speed skating team. It's a surprise since the man has given more props to his sponsorship of the team than Gatorade does for the Super Bowl.

That may be because team memberShani Davis called Colbert a "jerk" for running his smear campaign against the Canadians, a smear campaign that seemed to get the Canadians to back and give his team practice time on Canada's ice. It even almost seemed as though Colbert was going to address the name-calling in his opening "Who's Attacking Me Now" segment on Monday, but instead went into the comments made byWhite House Recovery Act Coordinator G. Edward DeSeve.

Should Colbert call out Davis for his name calling and more importantly, will he?


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Where to stay near the Vancouver Olympics?

1. 3 blocks to BC Place and the OPENING, VICTORY AND CLOSING CEREMONIES.
2. 5 blocks to OLYMPIC HOCKEY at Canada Hockey Place.
3. 2 blocks to the 2010 ABORIGINAL PAVILION, showcasing the best of Aboriginal culture to the world.
4. 3 blocks to the Georgia Street site for LIVE CITY VANCOUVER, a celebration area featuring free live entertainment, family fun and numerous activities.
5. 1 easy bus ride to Pacific Coliseum for FIGURE SKATING and SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING.
6. 1 very quick rapid transit ride to Hillcrest/Nat Bailey Stadium Park for Olympic and Paralympic CURLING.

Located at Hamilton and Robson in the heart of downtown, this is really the ideal location. You will be within easy walking or transit of much of the Olympic action in Vancouver. No need to rent a car or deal with the stress of trying to drive in an unfamiliar and crowded city. Pedestrian-only thoroughfares pass through this neighborhood, linking event venues and celebration sites.

THE SUITE: 6th floor on the quiet side of the building, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, full kitchen 1044 sq. ft. SLEEPS 6 with 2 on the fold-out couch in the large livingroom. For thawing out after winter sports, there is a gas fireplace in the livingroom and a jacuzzi soaker tub in the master suite. The apartment is wireless internet capable and has a washer and dryer in-suite. Welcome home.

AMENITIES: Get your day started with a session in the building’s gym. If the in-suite jacuzzi and fireplace don’t warm you enough, there is always the sauna andhot tub for relaxing at the end of the day. If you do decide to rent a car, you will have a parking spot in our secured underground garage.

PRICE: All prices are negotiable. $750 CAD/night, $9000 CAD for 2 weeks; 2 week minimum. Longer stays and Paralympic dates are available and negotiable.

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