Ah, how familiar this sounds.
The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) has internal "rules" for who can be selected for an Olympic or OWG as well. How well I remember the days when Canadians met the Olympic standard (particularly in athletics) but were not selected to attend the OG.
This illustrates that Canada isn't the only country that has its own rules about who can atttend the OG or OWG.
---------------------------------
January 30, 2010
(from the NY Times)
An Olympic Qualifier, but Not in Israel’s Eyes
By MASADA SIEGEL
Israel has its first Olympic qualifier in women’s figure skating — but the country’s Olympic officials will not let her compete at the Vancouver Games.
Tamar Katz, the three-time national champion, met the International Skating Union’s standards for Olympic eligibility. But the Olympic Committee of Israel has a rule that says a skater must place among the top 14 at the European championships to earn a trip to the Olympics, the group’s president said. Katz finished 21st at the recent championships in Tallinn, Estonia.
“This issue is not about resources or gender — it’s purely professional,” Efraim Zinger, the secretary general for the Israeli Olympic Committee, said in a telephone interview. “We set the target about two years ahead of time for our athletes. Those who don’t make it must stay back. Some countries’ main goals are to participate, some send their athletes to win. We are interested in our athletes reaching the top.”
Katz, 20, was born in Dallas and practices at Sport-o-Rama in Monsey, N.Y., under her coach, Peter Burrows. Her skating career started in Rockville, Md., and when the family moved back to Israel, they decided to live in Metulla, near Israel’s only regulation ice rink. She moved back to the United States on her own at 15 so she would have access to better coaches, she said.
“If the Israeli Olympic Committee is concerned I’ll place last in the Olympics, they don’t have to worry — even if I don’t skate my best, I can place in the top 20,” Katz said in a telephone interview. “I am not talking about a medal, because it is not just about medals, it is also about representing your country with honor and respect.”
Katz gained Olympic eligibility by finishing seventh at a competition in Oberdorf, Germany, in September.
In explaining the decision not to send Katz to the Vancouver Games, the president of Israel’s Olympic Committee, Zvi Varshaviak, said: “We have internal rules for our athletes. She needed to be in the top 14 at the European championships. She came in 21st, and it’s not good enough.”
Israel will send three athletes to Vancouver: a team of ice dancers and a skier. The country has never won a medal at the Winter Olympics.
“It’s the first time an Israeli woman had the chance to go to the Olympics,” said Boris Chait, president of Israel’s skating federation. “If I said it was a good call, I would be lying, but the rules don’t allow her to compete. I made a personal plea from Tallinn to the I.O.C. I stated my case and appealed, but they did not see it my way.”
Israel sent its first Winter Olympic team to compete in the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway. Its national Olympic committee has modified its qualification rules over the years. The group has 10 people who decide the requirements for athletes in the Summer and Winter Games.
Apparently, there was not a consensus in the group on how to handle Katz’s situation. Alex Gilady, a member of the Israel Olympic Committee as well as a member of the International Olympic Committee, said he disagreed with the ruling.
“I was trying to help Tamar and wrote a letter asking, why don’t we send her to Vancouver as a future Olympic hopeful, because she is young and talented,” Gilady said. “However, they decided against it.”
Two weeks before the European championships in Estonia, Katz came down with a viral infection. She was off the ice for two weeks but recovered a few days before the competition. On the day of the short program Katz failed to execute her triple-lutz-double-loop combination, which would have been her highest-scoring element.
“Because of it, I missed qualification for the free program by half a point,” she said. “Had I been able to skate in the free program portion of the event, I would have been able to pull up from my current 21st position.”
Burrows, Katz’s coach, objected to the committee’s decision.
“The fact that she competes internationally also means she generates money for the Israeli figure skating organization,” he said. “In all my years of coaching I have never seen anything so ridiculous.”
Varshaviak sees the situation differently: “It’s about winning medals while also making your country proud. We like Tamar Katz, she’s young and we hope to see her compete for Israel in the next Olympics.
For now, Katz is planning to finish the season and compete for Israel in the world championships in March.
“It’s my dream to hear the Hatikva,” she said, referring to hearing Israeli’s national anthem at the Olympic Games.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
13 DAYS TO GO !
Canada will be led into the stadium by Clara Hughes, and excellent choice.
Gary mason of the Globe and Mail is floating the idea that Wayne Gretzky will be lighting the Olympic flame on Friday night.
Mason thinks that all Canada will be thrilled with this. No, all Canada won't think this is great!
Gary mason of the Globe and Mail is floating the idea that Wayne Gretzky will be lighting the Olympic flame on Friday night.
Mason thinks that all Canada will be thrilled with this. No, all Canada won't think this is great!
Friday, January 29, 2010
14 DAYS TO GO !
Today is the day that the Canadian Team will be officially named, and the Opening Ceremony flag bearer. Lots of speculation that it will be CLARA HUGHES, competing as a long track speedskater. She would be an exellent choice, although my choice is HAYLEY WICKENHEISER.
The Toronto Star sure is promoting Hughes to carry the flag!
The Toronto Star sure is promoting Hughes to carry the flag!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
15 DAYS TO GO
Getting ready to be a couch potato!!
Mike Danton, convicted criminal, played for the St Mary's Huskies hockey team last night. Why do I object? This fellow went to St Mary's after Christmas, to be a student and an athlete. The coach said he'd get a chance. That's ok, but....the rest of the team had to "try out" and earn their place on the team in the fall. This fellow comes in well after the start of the season, and displaces another student on the team. This isn't fair. He should have had to wait till next season, try out for the team, and if he made it, then he'd be on the team. One athlete is now sitting in the stands, Mike Danton having taken his place. This is unacceptable. The CIS should not allow this.
Mike Danton, convicted criminal, played for the St Mary's Huskies hockey team last night. Why do I object? This fellow went to St Mary's after Christmas, to be a student and an athlete. The coach said he'd get a chance. That's ok, but....the rest of the team had to "try out" and earn their place on the team in the fall. This fellow comes in well after the start of the season, and displaces another student on the team. This isn't fair. He should have had to wait till next season, try out for the team, and if he made it, then he'd be on the team. One athlete is now sitting in the stands, Mike Danton having taken his place. This is unacceptable. The CIS should not allow this.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
16 DAYS TO GO !!
Patrice Cormier is going to appeal his suspension from Junior hockey. Where did he get that advice? Time for him to emerge from the "hockey cocoon" anhd listen to what people are saying about hockey violence, especially the 'planned' kind, like his hit on Tam was.
Randy Starkman, The Star in Toronto, writes about the human part of athlete lives, and especially about Canada's 2010 Olympians. Check out his columns daily. Good stuff.
Football fans are amazed at how the NFL does OT. Imagine any game that is determined by the toss of a coin. In the NFL the coin toss winner is the only team that gets posession of the ball. Now, it that fair? The tunnel-vision NFL could take a page out of the CFL and do OT the way it does it. Both teams get a chance to score: a field goal or TD. Most points in the OT period (yes, a pre-determined amount of time) gets to win. The NFL OT rules stink.
Randy Starkman, The Star in Toronto, writes about the human part of athlete lives, and especially about Canada's 2010 Olympians. Check out his columns daily. Good stuff.
Football fans are amazed at how the NFL does OT. Imagine any game that is determined by the toss of a coin. In the NFL the coin toss winner is the only team that gets posession of the ball. Now, it that fair? The tunnel-vision NFL could take a page out of the CFL and do OT the way it does it. Both teams get a chance to score: a field goal or TD. Most points in the OT period (yes, a pre-determined amount of time) gets to win. The NFL OT rules stink.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
17 DAYS TO GO
QMJHL athlete PATRICE CORMIER received a well-deserved season suspension for his deliberate elbow/hit in a hockey game last week. He is finished for the regular season and the playoffs.
Might have received a longer suspension, if I had been dishing out the penalty.
Might have received a longer suspension, if I had been dishing out the penalty.
Monday, January 25, 2010
18 DAYS TO GO!!!
Torch Relay Illuminates debate on journalism
January 24, 2010
The Toronto Star
A year ago, Alice Mawdsley lay in a coma after a snowmobile accident in the Northwest Territories. She recovered and ran with the 2010 Olympic flame in Edmonton this past week.
Fifty years ago, Doreen Ryan was the first woman to compete in speed skating for Canada at the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif. Bill Brese raises money for children's homes in India; Rosanna Saccomani raises money for children in Alberta.
They all ran in the torch relay in Edmonton. I sat next to them on the torchbearer bus and thought to myself: Why am I here?
There's been much controversy in recent months over the fact that at least three dozen journalists and broadcasters will run with the 2010 Olympic flame.
"Did these people have a procedure involving the brain that went badly wrong? Or are they just naturally soft?" wrote former Globe and Mail columnist William Houston on his Truth and Rumours blog after CTV, the official Games broadcaster, announced 27 of its broadcasters would carry the flame.
"They're supposed to be journalists. ... They are not supposed to be part of the Olympic cheerleading torch procession."
My spot came as an invitation from the International Olympic Committee, which also invited a number of other Vancouver reporters on the Olympic beat. Several declined.
Vancouver Province reporter Damian Inwood wrote in his blog that he turned down the offer, not because he was worried it would colour his reporting, "but there might be a public perception that it had. And that's what matters."
The debate about journalists carrying the Olympic torch is an important one – a public example of the types of questions about conflict and special access that reporters deal with on a daily basis.
When the Canadian military decided to allow reporters to report on the war in Afghanistan by staying on base and accompanying soldiers on missions, the idea of "embedding" caused great consternation in newsrooms across the country. Living among soldiers would surely taint the coverage, some argued, despite the fact it was the most practical and presumably safest way into the story of the war.
During my two stints as a war correspondent in Afghanistan, being an embed helped me get to know soldiers not as faceless fighting units, but as people.
Could running with the torch be considered the same?
Houston said no.
"The torch relay is an event used to promote a business enterprise, the Olympics," he wrote in an email.
But after discussions with my editors, the decision was made that being in the relay was an opportunity to get unique access to the workings of this massive national event.
The traditional rules of journalistic ethics are changing for both good and bad reasons, Stephen Ward, a former bureau chief for The Canadian Press who is now the director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told me when I wrote seeking his counsel.
The bad reasons are when reporters simply want to sell news at all costs. Good reasons, he said, are "when journalists want to get closer to the events in their community and not be aloof."
The word aloof rang in my ears.
For two years I've been covering this story and still have not really grasped the power of the Olympics.
The Games are costing Canadian taxpayers more than $2 billion. Just over $14 million is being spent by the federal government on the relay alone. But there's little clarity on where it's all going. VANOC's zeal in protecting its image has at times gone to seemingly absurd lengths – the committee even refuses to allow reporters to interview the people who suit up as official mascots on the ground the mascots are "real" people, they just can't speak.
With thousands of homeless people on the streets of Vancouver, it's easy to understand why spending billions on a 17-day sporting event can incite so much anger.
Yet there's no other event in the world that sees people from countries committed to blowing each other to bits shake hands across a finish line. What is it that creates so much joy?
Prior to the run, my group of torchbearers was given an evangelical pep talk about how seriously we should treat carrying the flame – that it would change our lives and that "if every person on Earth had a chance to carry the flame, war would end."
As I sat there in my free uniform, clasping the torch I paid $349 plus tax to buy, I wondered if this would in fact be the moment I could finally understand the message Games organizers work so hard to sell. If I felt, even for a moment, the power of the flame then I could put myself in the shoes of the public who believe in it. That emotion could inform my stories as much as my experiences speaking with people whose lives have changed for the worse because of these Games.
My actual run with the torch is a blur. I smiled and waved and marvelled at all the people lining the route. I didn't feel inspired or uplifted – I felt uncomfortable.
I was flummoxed by children asking me to sign their arms thinking I was some kind of celebrity. I'm not.
I felt ashamed knowing my spot likely meant someone else didn't get a chance. Nor did I really learn all that much about the actual running of the relay that would inform the public about these Games any more than they already know.
So, was the story I got from running in the relay worth compromising my ethics? No.
But running in the relay did force a healthy debate about what journalism means in today's rapidly changing media environment and how far is too far to go for access to a story. If that's what Olympic organizers mean by the power of the flame to inspire, I can say that for me, it worked.
Stephanie Levitz is a Vancouver-based reporter in The Canadian Press.
January 24, 2010
The Toronto Star
A year ago, Alice Mawdsley lay in a coma after a snowmobile accident in the Northwest Territories. She recovered and ran with the 2010 Olympic flame in Edmonton this past week.
Fifty years ago, Doreen Ryan was the first woman to compete in speed skating for Canada at the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif. Bill Brese raises money for children's homes in India; Rosanna Saccomani raises money for children in Alberta.
They all ran in the torch relay in Edmonton. I sat next to them on the torchbearer bus and thought to myself: Why am I here?
There's been much controversy in recent months over the fact that at least three dozen journalists and broadcasters will run with the 2010 Olympic flame.
"Did these people have a procedure involving the brain that went badly wrong? Or are they just naturally soft?" wrote former Globe and Mail columnist William Houston on his Truth and Rumours blog after CTV, the official Games broadcaster, announced 27 of its broadcasters would carry the flame.
"They're supposed to be journalists. ... They are not supposed to be part of the Olympic cheerleading torch procession."
My spot came as an invitation from the International Olympic Committee, which also invited a number of other Vancouver reporters on the Olympic beat. Several declined.
Vancouver Province reporter Damian Inwood wrote in his blog that he turned down the offer, not because he was worried it would colour his reporting, "but there might be a public perception that it had. And that's what matters."
The debate about journalists carrying the Olympic torch is an important one – a public example of the types of questions about conflict and special access that reporters deal with on a daily basis.
When the Canadian military decided to allow reporters to report on the war in Afghanistan by staying on base and accompanying soldiers on missions, the idea of "embedding" caused great consternation in newsrooms across the country. Living among soldiers would surely taint the coverage, some argued, despite the fact it was the most practical and presumably safest way into the story of the war.
During my two stints as a war correspondent in Afghanistan, being an embed helped me get to know soldiers not as faceless fighting units, but as people.
Could running with the torch be considered the same?
Houston said no.
"The torch relay is an event used to promote a business enterprise, the Olympics," he wrote in an email.
But after discussions with my editors, the decision was made that being in the relay was an opportunity to get unique access to the workings of this massive national event.
The traditional rules of journalistic ethics are changing for both good and bad reasons, Stephen Ward, a former bureau chief for The Canadian Press who is now the director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told me when I wrote seeking his counsel.
The bad reasons are when reporters simply want to sell news at all costs. Good reasons, he said, are "when journalists want to get closer to the events in their community and not be aloof."
The word aloof rang in my ears.
For two years I've been covering this story and still have not really grasped the power of the Olympics.
The Games are costing Canadian taxpayers more than $2 billion. Just over $14 million is being spent by the federal government on the relay alone. But there's little clarity on where it's all going. VANOC's zeal in protecting its image has at times gone to seemingly absurd lengths – the committee even refuses to allow reporters to interview the people who suit up as official mascots on the ground the mascots are "real" people, they just can't speak.
With thousands of homeless people on the streets of Vancouver, it's easy to understand why spending billions on a 17-day sporting event can incite so much anger.
Yet there's no other event in the world that sees people from countries committed to blowing each other to bits shake hands across a finish line. What is it that creates so much joy?
Prior to the run, my group of torchbearers was given an evangelical pep talk about how seriously we should treat carrying the flame – that it would change our lives and that "if every person on Earth had a chance to carry the flame, war would end."
As I sat there in my free uniform, clasping the torch I paid $349 plus tax to buy, I wondered if this would in fact be the moment I could finally understand the message Games organizers work so hard to sell. If I felt, even for a moment, the power of the flame then I could put myself in the shoes of the public who believe in it. That emotion could inform my stories as much as my experiences speaking with people whose lives have changed for the worse because of these Games.
My actual run with the torch is a blur. I smiled and waved and marvelled at all the people lining the route. I didn't feel inspired or uplifted – I felt uncomfortable.
I was flummoxed by children asking me to sign their arms thinking I was some kind of celebrity. I'm not.
I felt ashamed knowing my spot likely meant someone else didn't get a chance. Nor did I really learn all that much about the actual running of the relay that would inform the public about these Games any more than they already know.
So, was the story I got from running in the relay worth compromising my ethics? No.
But running in the relay did force a healthy debate about what journalism means in today's rapidly changing media environment and how far is too far to go for access to a story. If that's what Olympic organizers mean by the power of the flame to inspire, I can say that for me, it worked.
Stephanie Levitz is a Vancouver-based reporter in The Canadian Press.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
19 DAYS TO GO !
Canadians are really something. We have donated over $80 million to Haiti relief and re-build. Even though the federal government acts like a dictatorship, Canadians have hope and much caring for others. How poorly the PM understands our values.
Curling team Kevin Martin was challenged in the semis of the BDO Classic Canadian Open (who thinks up these names???) by Norways's Ulsrud. Martin is going to meet his match in Vancouver.
Martin plans to go to Vancouver 8 days before his competition. Bad idea.
Curling team Kevin Martin was challenged in the semis of the BDO Classic Canadian Open (who thinks up these names???) by Norways's Ulsrud. Martin is going to meet his match in Vancouver.
Martin plans to go to Vancouver 8 days before his competition. Bad idea.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
19 DAYS TO GO!
X-C skiier BRIAN MCKEEVER has raised questions about the Olympics and Paralympics.
MCKEEVER has qualified for both the OWG and the Winter Paralympic Gaesm, this year being held shortly after the Vancouver games.
MCKEEVER is legally blind. He has a disease that is similar to macular degeneration, in which the macula of the eye does not function, and the person has only peripheral vision.
Is there any reason that he shouldn't compete in both Games?
Are the "definitions" of disabilities for athletes in the Paralympic Games sufficient/accurate?
MCKEEVER has qualified for both the OWG and the Winter Paralympic Gaesm, this year being held shortly after the Vancouver games.
MCKEEVER is legally blind. He has a disease that is similar to macular degeneration, in which the macula of the eye does not function, and the person has only peripheral vision.
Is there any reason that he shouldn't compete in both Games?
Are the "definitions" of disabilities for athletes in the Paralympic Games sufficient/accurate?
Friday, January 22, 2010
20 DAYS TO GO !
Some not-so-well-known info:
- It is reported that at least seven athletes and/or personnel that represented Haiti at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing have lost their lives.
- No athletes from Haiti are entered in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games
- Members of the Canadian team will officially be announced on January 29th. Even though some sports have "named" their team, after athletes meet their sport's criteria for selection, those names are forwarded to the COC, and it names the team. One of the "responsibilities" of a NOC.
- The flag bearer for the Opening Ceremony will also be named on January 29th. that person recieves the James Worrall Award, instigated in 1991, for the persons who carry the flag at the Opening and Closing of the games. james Worrall carried the flag for Canada at the opening of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. In Canada, each sport may nominate someone from their sport to carry the Canadian flag at the opening. Figure skating has indicated that they have not nominated anyone.
21 Days To Go!
A few bits of trivia......
- Ski Cross is a new event, added for the Gen-Xers. Check it out!
- over 2000 dope tests will be done by CCES and WADA
- Canadian team not announced yet, but there will be close to 225 athletes this time
- 40 MORE CDOs have been trained
- a small lab in Vancouver will be a legacy of these games
- Russian ice dancers are using Australian aboriginal music! The Aussies aren't pleased, since they think there are non-authentic steps in the routine. Besides, the Russians have never been to Australia! Would Canadians be upset if czechs (or any other skaters) used First Nations' music?
- Alan Abrahamson is one of the Olympics' most respected bloggers. Can't figure out why he's not blogging already. He blogs for NBC. http://blogs.nbcsports.com/home/archives/alan_abrahamson_1/
- Other Olympic bloggers: http://vancouver2010.blogs.nytimes.com/
- You gotta love it: skiiers wear helmets, of course. You can vote for the design of USA Alpine skiier Lindsey Vonn's helmet online! Kind of like a goalie's helmet! Neat idea!
- Quatchi is the most popular of the 3 mascots.
- 2010 pins are selling at Loblaws for (gasp) $6.99 and $7.99. Considering that each pin probably costs less than one dollar, they are a money-maker!!
- Some IFs want to get a discipline into the Olympic Winter Games, but unless they use ice and/or snow, it won't happen (check Dick Pound's speeches). There are only 4 sports indoors in the OWG: curling, figure skating, ice hockey, and speed skating. All other events are outdoors.
- 92 countries accepted the invitation to participate in the 2010 OWG. That includes Turkey and Cyprus.........
- 1994 was the first OWG out of the historical 4-year cycle. Now, there are Olympics every 2 years.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
22 Days To Go!
Things are heating up for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
Randy Starkman had an interesting column in The Star a couple of days ago, in which he says that it's time Canadians differentiated between "medal favourites" and "medal hopefuls."
How right he is.
A good example is the two curling teams. Until the women's team was chosen, and the skip commented on their success, one would have said they were "medal favourites." Same with the men's curling team.
But, both skips have lessened their chances of a gold medal, and possibly any kind of medal. Both skips say that their teams will go to Vancouver ahead of the games "to soak up some of the atmosphere."
If there are two things that sport psychologists agree upon, it is that athletes should not go too far ahead of the start of their event, and definitely should not get involved in the "stuff" of a games.
Going early to see the sights, visit venues, take in the cultural events and get into pin trading are definite NO-NOs.
Let's hope that their psychologists tell them not to be foolish. There are plenty of examples of Canadians faring poorly when they went to "soak up the atmosphere" and enjoy it with their families.
Randy Starkman had an interesting column in The Star a couple of days ago, in which he says that it's time Canadians differentiated between "medal favourites" and "medal hopefuls."
How right he is.
A good example is the two curling teams. Until the women's team was chosen, and the skip commented on their success, one would have said they were "medal favourites." Same with the men's curling team.
But, both skips have lessened their chances of a gold medal, and possibly any kind of medal. Both skips say that their teams will go to Vancouver ahead of the games "to soak up some of the atmosphere."
If there are two things that sport psychologists agree upon, it is that athletes should not go too far ahead of the start of their event, and definitely should not get involved in the "stuff" of a games.
Going early to see the sights, visit venues, take in the cultural events and get into pin trading are definite NO-NOs.
Let's hope that their psychologists tell them not to be foolish. There are plenty of examples of Canadians faring poorly when they went to "soak up the atmosphere" and enjoy it with their families.
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