Speedy Canucks set for Games
CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/REUTERSShort-track speed skaters are announced to the Vancouver 2010 Canadian Olympic team in Montreal, August 26, 2009. Back row from left to right are Olivier Jean, Guillaume Bastille, Francois-Louis Tremblay and Francois Hamelin. Front row left to right are Kalyna Roberge, Marianne St-Gelais, Tania Vicent, and Charles Hamelin.
Six medals within reach of talented team but beating South Korea, U.S., China will be tough
DAVE FESCHUK - The Toronto Star - Aug 27, 2009
When the 10 members of Canada's Olympic short-track speed-skating team were announced yesterday, the skaters in attendance were called to a riser in the front of a small conference room to be presented with a team jacket.
Such is the popularity of the sport in Quebec that the path to the coveted jacket was blocked by a frothing pack of photographers and TV cameramen. At least a couple of the athletes, momentarily flummoxed by the crush of attention, couldn't find their way to the podium.
Olympic team mixes young, old
ALLAN MAKI Globe and Mail
Valérie Maltais figured there was nothing more she could do. She was either going to crack Canada's short-track speed-skating team for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, her first, or she was going to be watching it all on television.
So she went to Mexico to relax. With her cellphone. "I'm pretty sure they work down there," she said.
Good thing for that.
When Speed Skating Canada unveiled its Olympic short-track lineup yesterday, it not only presented veterans such as Charles Hamelin, François-Louis Tremblay and Tania Vicent. It also announced 19-year-old Maltais had made the cut as a discretionary pick.
Ten skaters named to 2010 team, giving them plenty of time to get ready.
MONTREAL — Own the Podium.
Those three words will be ringing in the ears of every Canadian Olympic athlete as the hype machine for February’s Vancouver Winter Games ramps up its intensity over the coming months.
If competing in front of home fans wasn’t enough to stress these athletes out, Canada’s stated goal of topping the medal standings as the host nation adds an extra dash of pressure.
And if there is one group of athletes being counted on to bring home a good chunk of that medal haul, it has to be the short-track speedskating team that was announced Wednesday at Maurice Richard Arena in Montreal.
Francois-Louis Tremblay wouldn’t have it any other way.
Photograph by: Stoyan Nenov , Reuters
“We have big goals, I understand that, but to be honest I don’t feel any more pressure than I usually would because we’ve all done it before,” said Tremblay, a silver-medallist at the 2006 Games in Turin. “If we win one medal at the Olympics we can’t say we’ll be satisfied, because it won’t be true. The way I look at goals is that you can choose to set safe, reachable ones, but why wouldn’t you choose to set extraordinary ones? If you can get there, why not shoot for that?”
That’s exactly what the Canadian Olympic Committee has done.
Those three words will be ringing in the ears of every Canadian Olympic athlete as the hype machine for February’s Vancouver Winter Games ramps up its intensity over the coming months.
If competing in front of home fans wasn’t enough to stress these athletes out, Canada’s stated goal of topping the medal standings as the host nation adds an extra dash of pressure.
And if there is one group of athletes being counted on to bring home a good chunk of that medal haul, it has to be the short-track speedskating team that was announced Wednesday at Maurice Richard Arena in Montreal.
Francois-Louis Tremblay wouldn’t have it any other way.
Photograph by: Stoyan Nenov , Reuters
“We have big goals, I understand that, but to be honest I don’t feel any more pressure than I usually would because we’ve all done it before,” said Tremblay, a silver-medallist at the 2006 Games in Turin. “If we win one medal at the Olympics we can’t say we’ll be satisfied, because it won’t be true. The way I look at goals is that you can choose to set safe, reachable ones, but why wouldn’t you choose to set extraordinary ones? If you can get there, why not shoot for that?”
That’s exactly what the Canadian Olympic Committee has done.
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