Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls have big dreams

By Lucas Aykroyd

Competing at home in front of family and friends in the Winter Games is a dream come true for Canadian athletes. Yet it also means pressure. Only once before has this scenario unfolded, at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. There, Canadians such as figure skater Elizabeth Manley and alpine skier Karen Percy achieved memorable medals, but none were gold. Will Canada’s brightest stars end the gold drought during the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler?

Joannie Rochette

Figure Skating

Jumping is something figure skaters do every day, but Joannie Rochette now wants

Photo by Brett Barden courtesy Skate Canada

to make the biggest leap of her career. The 24-year-old Montrealer has been a perennial Canadian champ since 2005 and claimed silver at the 2009 Worlds. In her second Winter Games, she’ll look to do what no Canadian woman has done since Barbara Ann Scott in 1948: land on top of the Olympic podium for singles figure skating.
Facing stiff competition from rivals such as South Korea’s Kim Yu-Na and America’s Sasha Cohen, Rochette has had mixed results in the 2009-10 season, including lower-than-desired finishes in competitions in Asia. Yet the petite blonde realizes that a fine showing in Vancouver is what people will remember, and she’s consistently shone on home ice.
“I know the key is for me to do a lot of run-throughs, and a lot of repetitions [in training], so that when I get to competition, I have confidence,” she says.

Jean Labonté

Ice Sledge Hockey

Defending Canada’s 2006 ice sledge hockey title won’t be easy, but Jean Labonté has

Photo courtesy HockeyCanada.ca

faced and overcome even greater challenges. Despite losing his left leg to bone cancer in 1990, the native of Hull, Quebec didn’t lose his passion for sports. He made the national sledge hockey team in 1996 and is now team captain.
The defenseman has targeted the opponents Canada must beat to repeat: “Right now, the U.S. is world champion. They have a young, talented team. Norway is our eternal rival, with lots of experience and smarts. The Japanese have a shot at the podium, too.”
Paralympic sports don’t always get the attention they deserve, but Labonté hopes to change that and gain new participants in 2010. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Labonté says. “We want to show people that this is a great sport: hitting, skating, hard shots. It’s hockey.”
Beyond the action at the 6,800-capacity UBC Thunderbird Arena, Labonté looks forward to soaking up Vancouver’s beauty. “I love seeing the mountains everywhere,” he says. “In 1986, I came to Vancouver to participate in Rescue ’86, the world lifeguarding championships. That was the first time I’d been so far from home, and it brings back great memories every time I return.”

Regan Lauscher

Luge

“At my first Olympics in 2002, all I wanted to do was get there and have a great

Photo courtesy Canadian Luge Association

race,” notes this feisty Calgarian, now heading into her third Winter Games. “In 2006, I was considered to be in the top group. For 2010, my challenge is that I’ve been on the ice about half as much as everybody else in the last four years.”
Regan Lauscher, Canada’s most experienced female luger, suffered a bad concussion in Germany in 2007 and underwent surgery on both shoulders in 2008. Lauscher would love to improve on her 10th-place finish in Turin four years ago. But her main goal now, as she puts it, is to “walk away from my Olympic race saying that’s the best I could do, whatever the outcome.”
She’s done the necessary work. Even in the summer, national luge-team members train twice daily—everything from cardio and strength circuit training to rowing and sport-specific, on-ice exercises geared to generate fast starts. Every millisecond counts at the Whistler Sliding Centre, where female lugers can exceed 140 km/h (87 mi/h).
“The payoff is the moment they clear the track and you know there’s 1,200 m (3,390 ft) of ice waiting for you,” Lauscher says. “It’s the adrenalin and the mental challenge. No two runs are ever the same.”

Jeremy Wotherspoon

Speed Skating

Excelling in both the 500-m and 1000-m sprints, Jeremy Wotherspoon

Photo by Jeff Bough

unequivocally ranks among speed skating’s legends. The 33-year-old, who grew up in Red Deer, Alberta, is the winningest World Cup speed skater of all time, and is also a four-time world sprint champion. In November 2007, he powered his way to a new 500-m world record of 34.03 seconds.
But he still hungers for the ultimate prize of Olympic gold, having claimed silver in Nagano in 1998. There would be no sweeter place to get it done than at the Richmond Olympic Oval. Coming back from a broken arm, Wotherspoon plans to retire after the current season.
“Everyone I know who has competed in the Olympics in their country has said it’s an incredible experience,” Wotherspoon says. “It’ll be a great way to culminate my career.”

Britt Janyk

Alpine Skiing

Britt Janyk is one of the Canadian “Speed Queens” who’s aiming to follow in the

Photo copyright ACA/Pentaphoto

tracks of Olympic champs such as Nancy Greene and Kerrin Lee-Gartner. But the 29-year-old Whistler resident, who ranked third overall in the 2008 World Cup downhill standings and won gold that year in Aspen, hasn’t always ruled with ease.
“A couple of years ago, I had to requalify for the team,” Janyk recalls. “I was struggling, and I’d lost my confidence.” While her favourite event remains the super giant slalom, with its speed and technical flair, making the podium in downhill got her career back on track. “It gave me confidence that I can work through things when it gets tough,” she says.
Janyk isn’t discounting home-mountain advantage, with female Olympians competing on Franz’s Run at Whistler Creekside. “We’ve trained quite a bit on the race hill, and we’re really familiar with it,” she says. “I grew up skiing on Whistler Mountain, and it just feels like home.” In her downtime, she shops at Lululemon or grabs breakfast at the Wild Wood Cafe.
Janyk’s grandfather Peter, mother Andrée and brother Michael (a fellow Olympic hopeful) all have fine international ski resumes. She’s raced with fellow “Speed Queen” Emily Brydon since age 12, fostering good team chemistry. No wonder Janyk hopes her 2010 Olympic debut will be her crowning glory.