So for my last Olympic post, I’ll address the question that is no doubt a huge debate in Canada right now. Own The Podium, success of failure.

Own The Podium was the Canadian Olympic Committees plan to prepare for the 2010 games in Vancouver. Up until 2010, Canada had the dubious distinction of being one of only 2 countries never to win a gold medal as the host nation. Own The Podium was implemented to change that. In fact the generally accepted goal of Own The Podium was not only to win the first ever gold on home soil, but to lead the medal standings. Notice how carefully I phrased that. Although that’s how the program has been depicted in the media, I couldn’t find anything on the website of OTP that stated the goal of winning more medals than any other country.

For kicks and Giggles, let’s assume that was the primary objective. Assessing the success or failure, is really a lesson in goal setting, and preparedness. Given the objective, the program was a failure, by a lot. 11 to be exact. But when you put it in context, Assessing the success or failure of OTP is much like assessing the success or failure of last years triathlon season.

Consider this analogy. Last year your goal was to win your age group in your local Olympic distance race. Come race day you placed third in your age group, with a time of just under 2 hours and 15 minutes, 10 minutes behind the age group winner. So was your season a failure? Really, you have to look at the bigger picture. Did you set a PB for that distance? How did your swim and bike splits compare with your peers? How did you place overall?

If your result was a dismal 15 minutes slower than the previous year, and 10 minutes out of first for your agegroup this year, the answer is that the season was a disappointment.

But if you set a personal best by 5 minutes, placed top 3 in your age group, as well as top 3 overall, and number 1 was a ringer from out of town who showed up out of the blue to use your local race as a tune up for an upcoming national event, then I would count that as a resounding victory.

So again I ask, Own the Podium, Success or Failure? Well given the final results, third overall behind a US team that blew even their own expectations out of the water, and given that Canada set two records, most golds by a host nation, and most golds overall in the winter games, you would have to label it a success.

For me, the beginning was disappointing, and I was as critical as anyone. But looking back, it sure was fun just to be in a position to be disappointed. Canada had medal potential in every single sport, with the exception of the Nordic events. And even then, Canadian skiers were in the hunt all the way through the team sprint, and missed the gold in the 50k by a mere 1.5 seconds. The montage at the top puts it all in perspective.

As for the lesson in goal setting, when you plan out your season, think about stating a goal that may seem out to lunch, but that is possible given the right circumstances. It may be to place in your agegroup, or set a personal best, the key is to shoot for the stars. If your PB is 2:45, and you set a very ambitious goal of breaking 2:30, and you end up 2:35, that’s still better by 10 minutes. Then you can debate Success or Failure.

Like so many others, I am suffering from an Olympic Withdrawal. So to help in my recovery, I continue to write about the previous two weeks, and shall continue to do so, probably until the start of the Brier.

Today, I remembered a post from September about a Canadian BobSleigh athlete from Prince Edward Island, who was forced to come up with some unique training strategies when the gym near her home was closed.



Turns out that pushing cars works, as Heather Moyse and Kallie Humphries slid away with the gold medal. This was an awesome event, and a great day for Canadians as Moyse and Humphries were the last sleigh. As they raced down the track, two other Canadian sliders were sitting in first. As a result, Canada came away with 2 of the 3 medals. Congratulations to Heather, and Kallie, as well as Helen Upperton, and Shelley-Ann Brown who just got bumped off the top step of the podium by their teammates. Also Elana Meyers and Erin Pac of the United States whose bronze helped the American record medal haul.


Little time to celebrate for Heather. The women’s national rugby team player prepares for this summers upcoming Women’s Rugby World Cup in England.

Again Congratulations and thanks for the memories.

Forgive me for gloating, but for me this was super sweet. I was critical of the roster from the start. I guess you could say I had tempered my expectations. I had picked Russia for gold, Sweden silver, and the USA with the bronze, and Canada losing out in an anti climatic bronze medal game.

Shows how much I know. The Russians and Swedes were no shows in the medal round. As for the USA, I watched a documentary before the games, and I knew they were strong. Names like Parise, Borque, Statsny, and Kessels are front and centre on their respective teams. All the US needed to excel in this tournament was solid goaltending, and did Ryan Miller ever deliver. The Buffalo Sabres must be stoked for the remainder of the NHL season. His performance is the kind that a team can ride deep in the playoffs.

But as good as the USA was, the way Canada performed was magical. Like an old car that has to warm up a while before it gets running on all cylinders. By the time they met the Russians, they were as dominant as any team Canada I have seen.


Then enter the kid. My wife asked me how Sidney was doing. I explained not too good but that he was being checked very closely, so that meant everyone else were getting more chances. True to my words, seconds before the golden goal, Sid tried to break for the net and was promptly turned away by two blue shirts. Then the puck went to the corner, and the rest was history.


And lets not forget Jerome Iginla. In the corner, digging out the puck, from his stomach. That’s about as Canadian as it gets.

Hats off to the USA. When they scored the tying goal, two entire countries hearts skipped a beat. To calm my nerves, I told myself, “Now we will have moment” Either way there would be a tournament defining goal. And how great it was.

If you are not familiar with curling, look at this video. It's shotmaking at it's best.

4 years ago, I was at the St. john's Curling Club for a Red and White party. The tradition is that when a club team makes it to a national championship final, the club is opened up to watch and cheer and hope for another national. Except 4 years ago, the red and white were national colours, and the prize was olympic gold.

Enter 2010 in Vancouver. Kevin Martin is our version of say, Nolan Ryan. Experience, and still able to get the job done.

The significance, this is gold number 13 for canada. tying the record from 1976 by the Soviet Union. That sets up the gold medal game tomorrow between Canada and USA in the ultimate winter sport, hockey.

If your free tomorrow night, watch the game. It will be awesome.

So I have been noticibly absent this week. Work has been crazy, I have been training like mad, and I have come down with a case of VANOC Flu. A rare condition. Maybe only susceptible to it once in a lifetime. Brought on by a severe case of patriotism, scinicism, and a fucked up time zone. Yes four and a half hours is a long delay.

In any event, catch local comedian Shawn Majumder at a press conference with Sidney Crosby. No doubt he thinks Canada will win the gold in Mens Hockey.

BTW Womens curling final tonight, Mens saturday.

Later PEEPS!

This one always cracks me up.


These guys have more guts than an olympic skeleton racer!


Sacre Blue! How Terribly French. Mathieu Crepel.


Whoi says Rednecks can't skate?

I was asked to review the web site for Makaibike. The site is a cycling website that features thousands of bicycle related products including: bicycles, components, accessories, bike frames, cycling clothing, and more.

I have to admit, my initial impression was that it wasn’t for me. The opening page featured some retro looking cruisers which are not my thing. For me, If it’s not part of my extra curricular activities, I am not interested. In other words, if it’s not a road, triathlon, or mountain bike, I am really don’t care.

However, when I started to dig deeper, I found more than I bargained for. As it turned out, this site is huge, and from what I could find, includes most everything you can think of bike related.

There are two links, one for “Road Bikes” and one for “Race Road Bikes” I started through the race road bikes first, and found that it was a combination of every bike you could race, not just road bikes. Then I went to the link for “Road Bikes” and found 7 pages of road specific bikes,. Then the site went dead, and I couldn’t load it up again.

I then went searching through the accesserries. You can get a slew of nick nacks and gadgets from baskets bells brakes, bearings for bicycles, and bike stems. 41 categories in all, on 6 pages. I don’t know who still uses toe clips but if you want em, you can find em. At first, I couldn’t find wheels. However after a little searching, I was able to find them under components.

As for the search window, I managed to get hits on specific items, that then showed links to the sub-categories so you could browse further. Unlike other web sites internal search windows where you type a keyword and get 500 hits of stuff unrelated to what you are searching for.

What I didn’t find was a clearance area, however, there seem to be deals. especially in shoes, and especially mountain bike shoes.

They do offer an affiliate program, but currently are not accepting applications for new affiliates, which is a bummer because given the size of the site, I would have certainly given them a shot since my other cycling banner has netted me a big fat goose egg in the revenue coulumn.

So the good, bad, and ugly? In reverse order

UGLY. The front page. I know there is a sub-culture who think the retro scene is where it’s at, but as I stated in the opening paragraph. Not my thing.

BAD. Couple of thigs, No clearance, Closed affiliate Program, and the size of the site which can be a little overwhelming.

GOOD. Huge! Everything you can think of. Just be sure you have time.

Overall Impression? I am looking at a set of Zip 303’s. How’s that for an impression. This will be the first place I visit when I go to price shop.

Musical Monday. Forgive me for being late. I am a still recovering from the weekend. Olympics in Vancouver? Yeah great idea. That’s a 4 and a half hour time difference. The lighting of the flame was so late, I fell asleep, woke up, fell asleep again, then woke up again. By the time I went to bed, I could have very well got up.

That plus a 2 hour trainer session, while watching the “Bourne Ultimatum” a couples core ball workout on valentines day with my honey, and then a 3000m masters swim on Sunday night. I am still ready for a nap.

By the way, check out my new Olympic blog. It’s my place to cheer or vent for the next two weeks.

Today’s post will be “The Good, The Bad, The ugly,” of the opening ceremonies. Or at least the parts I was awake for.

And the Goodest of the good for me, was K.D. Lang, and her rendition of the Leonard Cohen Classic, Hallelujah. The Shrek song.

Of course, I couldn’t find a clip from Vancouver. I guess it’s property of someone who wants it kept exclusive, but I found another clip of K D, singing at the .

My Olympic blog

After yesterdays post, It’s definitely time to lighten things up. I know it’s a few days premature, but here is some valentine humour.




And don’t forger, today is the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancover. In addition to the opening ceremonies, the first event goes today. The preliminary round of ski jumping on the Normal Hill starts at 10:00 PST.

GO CANADA, and Happy Valentines!

Funny what sparks memories. I remember watching the 2008 Olympics in Beijing with keen interest in the men’s road cycling. The memory that sticks in my mind was defending gold medalist, Italian pro Paolo Bettini, dropping back from the peloton to the support caravan, in the early stages of the race, clinging to his support car as he chatted away with some dude sporting sideburns and chewing gum. Bettini just clung on to the car as the two chatted away.

What struck me was that nobody, including the commentators actually made much of a fuss about it. I guess, hanging on for a ride for a couple of kilometers really is no different than being dragged along in the Peloton, and as long as he gained no advantage there was no problem as long as it didn’t happen for the entire race.

I remember wondering what the heck they were they talking about. Were they discussing race strategy? Was Bettini complaining about what a crappy bike he was forced to ride? Was he talking about how sore his butt was? Or were they discussing what they were going to eat after the race, and where they could score a decent bottle of Chianti in the middle of China? And who the heck was the dude in the car.

Turns out the dude with the sideburns and gum was the Italian national coach, the late Franco Ballerini.

Franco passed away this past weekend after crashing in a car during a local rally. It likely won’t receive much press on this side of the Atlantic, but the cycling world will truly miss the former Paris Roubaix champion. To read more about Ballerini, check out Pez.