Thursday, July 26, 2012

Canadian Swimmers at 2012 Olympics

Wondering who will be swimming for Canada and in which events in London?

Here is a list of our swimmers, their events and the date. If there is more than one date, the medal race will be on the last day with preliminaries and/or semis on the first day.

Our medal hopes include Ryan Cochrane, Brent Hayden, Richard Weinberger, Martha McCabe and Erica Morningstar. Other swimmers could follow Mark Tewksbury's lead saying "Why Not Me?" and be surprise medallists as well.


Brent Hayden

50 m freestyle - August 2-3
100 m freestyle - July 31 - Aug 1

Blake Worsley
200 m freestyle Aug 29-30

Ryan Cochrane
400 m freestyle - July 28th
1500 m freestyle - August 3-4

Charles Francis
100 m backstroke - July 29th-30th

Tobias Oriwol
200 m backstroke - August 1-2

Scott Dickens
100 m breaststroke - July 28-29
200 m breaststroke - July 31-August 1

Joe Bartoch
100 m butterfly - August 2-3

David Sharpe
200 m butterfly - July 30-31

Andrew Ford
200 m individual medley - August 1-2

Alec Page
400 m individual medley - July 28th

Thomas Gossland
Brent Hayden
Richard Hortness
Colin Russell
4×100 m freestyle relay - July 28th

Tobias Oriwol
Alec Page
Colin Russell
Blake Worsley
4×200 m freestyle relay - July 31st

Joe Bartoch
Scott Dickens
Charles Francis
Brent Hayden
4×100 m medley relay - August 3-4

Richard Weinberger
10 km open water - August 10


Victoria Poon
50 m freestyle - August 3-4

Julia Wilkinson
100 m freestyle - August 1-2

Samantha Cheverton
200 m freestyle - July 30-August 1

Barbara Jardin
Savannah King
400 m freestyle - July 29

Brittany MacLean
Savannah King
800 m freestyle - August 2-3

Alexa Komarnycky
Sinead Russell
100 m backstroke - July 29-30

Julia Wilkinson
Hilary Caldwell
200 m backstroke - August 2-3

Sinead Russell
Jillian Tyler
100 m breaststroke - July 29-30

Tera van Beilen
Martha McCabe
200 m breaststroke - Aug 1-2

Tera van Beilen
Audrey Lacroix
100 m butterfly - July 28-29

Katerine Savard
200 m butterfly July 31-August 1

Erica Morningstar
200 m individual medley - July 30-31

Julia Wilkinson
Stephanie Horner
400 m individual medley - July 28

Samantha Cheverton
Heather MacLean
Victoria Poon
Julia Wilkinson
4×100 m freestyle relay - July 28th

Samantha Cheverton
Barbara Jardin
Brittany MacLean
Amanda Reason
4×200 m freestyle relay - August 1st

Victoria Poon
Sinead Russell
Katerine Savard
Jillian Tyler
Tera van Beilen
Julia Wilkinson
4×100 m medley relay - August 3-4

Zsofia Balazs 10 km open water - August 9th

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Olympic Schedule

Olympic action for Canada is about to start. It's two days before the Opening Ceremony but women's soccer starts today.

I remember in 2008 being overwhelmed trying to figure out the schedule and when events were televised.

This time, the CTV website has a great viewer's guide that makes it easy to see which events are being shown at what time and on which channel. You can see it here.

There is also a world feed available online for the events that are not being televised.

Go Canada Go!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Toronto International Track & Field Games

Leading up to the London 2012 Games, we had a chance in Toronto to see some of our Olympians compete in the Toronto International Track & Field Games on July 11th.

The men's 100m race consisted of three members of the 4x100 relay for London 2012.  Justyn Warner, Seyi Smith and Gavin Smellie.





Bruny Surin (white shirt) presented the sprinters with their medals.


The women's 800m race was won by Melissa Bishop followed by Jessica Smith:







The men's 800m was won by Geoff Harris.



Later in the evening, Geoff ran the first couple of laps of the 1500m then Nate Brennan won the race.  It was starting to get dark during this race, so this is the only photo that turned out.


Jenna Martin was our Olympian running in the 400m.





It was also an opportunity to see some up and coming athletes and some events that I hadn't seen before, like the pole vault.




The men's 110m hurdles featured Olympic decathlete Damian Warner in lane 5 who won the race.




The main event, named after Randy Starkman was the 100m women's hurdles.  With such great depth in Canada, we have five women who could represent us in London 2012.  Unfortunately we could only send three and two of them were in this race:  Phylicia George and Nikita Holder (lanes 4 and 5).  Racing against them are past Olympians Perdita Felicien and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (lanes 3 and 6).



The crowd was standing so my visibility was obstructed.  Nikita Holder won the race.


After the race, Nikita Holder and fiance Justyn Warner shared a photo op on the podium.


Later, current and past Olympians signed autographs and encouraged young runners 
to follow their dreams.

 Phylicia George

Perdita Felicien

Priscilla Lopes-Schliep

It was an exciting evening of racing that even had some excitement in the stands with Jamaican gold medallist Asafa Powell (2008 4x100m relay) who spent most of the evening signing autographs and posing for photos once it was announced he was in the crowd.


Tuesday, July 3, 2012

100m Hurdles Team

I have needed a few days to absorb the 100m hurdle result at the Canadian Olympic trials.

My first reaction was Noooooo! How do our two best Olympic hurdlers fail to qualify for the Olympics? How do Perdita Felicien and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep not qualify for London? They were medal hopefuls. They were included in the CBC torch bearer tournament which included only eight women.

Once my shock subsided, I realized that the three women who did qualify are three women that I already follow on Twitter. They're not nobodys. Next week when Toronto is hosting track athletes, the 100m women's hurdles race (named after Randy Starkman) was the race I knew the most athletes in the starting line.

As excited as I am for Nikkita Holder and Phylicia George (as well as our Canadian pentathlon record holder Jessica Zelinka who won the race), I have to wonder whether we are sending our best to the Olympics.

Yes they were the three best on the day. Perdita Felicien false started and was disqualified. Priscilla Lopes-Schliep hit the seventh hurdle and didn't recover. They weren't their best on that day, but could they be on Olympic day? Their best could win a medal. Can Holder, George or Zelinka win a medal with their best performance? Maybe not, but I would have said the same thing about Lopes-Schliep in 2008 when she won a bronze medal.

Holder and George are heading to their first Olympic Games. They are perhaps the future of hurdles in Canada. Isn't this what I don't like about judged sports, that sometimes the best on the day doesn't get the marks? Or do I like that my favourites may get the marks on their less than ideal days?

On the night, I was thankful for the sports where they accumulate results during the year to determine who makes the Olympic team. I was thankful for the COC who name athletes to the team so they don't have to worry about that "one day".

For me, it's a bummer that we have such a depth of talent in one event. I would love to see them all go and represent our country. My heart aches for Felicien and Lopes-Schliep but the way they have handled the disappointment has increased my respect for them both.