A dozen or more Ottawa athletes could represent Canada in Sochi, with numerous medal contenders By Dan Plouffe
The Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games are now under a year away, and over a dozen athletes from the nation’s capital could be in line for a trip to the other side of the world, with several of them carrying hopes of finding gold, silver or bronze at the Russian resort town on the Black Sea.
Leading that list of potential medal favourites are, naturally, Canada’s curlers and hockey players, while Ottawa speed skaters, bobsledders and cross-country skiers carry legitimate hardware hopes as well.
Area athletes collected two gold, a silver and a bronze at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, but there’s a strong chance that haul could be larger in Sochi.
Rocketing their names into that discussion with an exceptional 12-1 performance to claim their first Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s curling national title last month in Kingston were Rachel Homan, Emma Miskew, Alison Kreviazuk and Lisa Weagle.
The young Ottawa Curling Club rink not only cemented their place as a favourite for the Roar of the Rings Canadian Olympic curling trials, they made a case to be looked upon as Canada’s team of the future in women’s curling.
Coach Earle Morris was thrilled to see the girls he previously helped to a 2010 world junior silver medal claim their first Canadian senior crown, but was also thinking of the tremendous value of getting to play in a world championships a year outside Sochi.
“If you play in front of packed crowds and you play for important things where there’s lots of pressure, that’s valuable experience,” notes the father of Olympic gold medalist John Morris. “It means that you when you get further down the line at the Olympics, you’re more prepared to stay calm under those circumstances.
“Mind you, there’s no pressure like Olympic pressure. I was able to see that with the Kevin Martin team in Vancouver.”
Martin’s rink are contenders to get back to the Olympics, although recent history would suggest Martin’s third John Morris may have to take a back seat to a former world junior champion teammate of his, Craig Savill. The Kanata resident won a world championship last year as lead for Glenn Howard’s Ontario rink, and were off to an undefeated 7-0 start at the March 2-10 Brier, while Martin slumped along at 3-4.
Savill’s heard plenty from Morris about his incredible Olympic experience in Vancouver – perhaps a little too much in fact.
“He told me some stories and made me really jealous and made me want to be there even more,” cracks the 34-year-old. “That is my main goal – to get to the Olympics. Since I was a little kid, I’ve always been glued to the TV when the Olympics is on. I will watch 24/7 until it’s done.
“It’s a dream of mine, just to be at the Olympics. But as soon as you’re at the Olympics as a Canadian in curling, you’re ultimately one of the favourites.”
The same holds true for Canadian hockey players. San Jose Sharks defenceman Dan Boyle was part of the men’s hockey team that helped Canada break the record for gold medals won at the Winter Olympics. He could potentially be part of the 2014 squad, while Philadelphia Flyers star Claude Giroux is basically a lock to make his Olympic debut after finishing third in NHL scoring last season.
Marc Dorion will certainly be in Sochi as an emerging leader with a younger Canadian sledge hockey team, who are out to make amends for their playoff round heartbreakers in Vancouver where they wound up in fourth.
“We’ve come a long way in our preparation for Sochi,” highlights the 25-year-old who’s played for Canada since age 16 and owns a gold medal from the Torino Paralympics. “Everything I do on a daily basis is done towards the ultimate goal – winning that world championship, or winning that Paralympics.”
The woman responsible for Ottawa’s last two medals won’t be back for Sochi. Vancouver 2010 silver and bronze medalist speed skater Kristina Groves has retired, but 22-year-old Ivanie Blondin could be ready to pick up the slack in the women’s team pursuit.
“(Groves) is definitely someone I looked up to, and still look up to,” notes Blondin, who collected her third team pursuit World Cup medal of the season on March 3 in Germany. “It just makes you want to train harder and follow in her footsteps.”
Their sports have little in common, but cross-country skier Perianne Jones and bobsledders Cody Sorensen and Jean-Nicolas Carrière do share more than just local roots.
They both had disappointing performances at their recent world championships – Jones finished 48th in her sprint event and 13th with fellow Canadian Dasha Gaiazova in the team sprint, while Sorensen and Carrière were 17th aboard Chris Spring’s Canada-2 sled – but then produced superb results at World Cups that served as Olympic test events in Sochi.
“It was a great experience to be there racing on the Olympic course,” says 28-year-old Jones, who earned bronze in Sochi with Gaiazova and has posted career-best results this season. “Winning a medal there was an added bonus. We know the course there and we know how to do well on it. It’s exciting leading into the Olympics.”
After struggling through “the most inconsistent and disappointing” season of his bobsled career as a member of Team Rush, Sorensen suddenly found himself teamed up with Spring and Carrière – a World Cup rookie who’d earned a promotion from the Canada-3 sled – for the final two races of the season.
After just two weeks together, the new teammates placed seventh overall on the Sochi track, including a second run that was third fastest.
“It was really important for me actually because for the whole season it was kind of hard to stay motivated, and then that last race, boom, we have a pretty good result, and the motivation is back almost instantly,” Sorensen describes. “The season probably couldn’t have ended any better. Getting a run that’s ranked third – if Chris can do that in three of the four runs at the Olympic Games, I think that’ll be pretty close to an Olympic medal.”
The podium would be a more distant hope for them, but making it to the Sochi Olympics is a realistic possibility for a pair of emerging international athletes – 18-year-old figure skater Alaine Chartrand and 24-year-old alpine skier Dustin Cook.
Chartrand, who placed seventh at the Feb. 25-March 3 world junior championships, finished third at this year’s Canadian championships and will skate for a trip to Sochi in Ottawa at the 2014 nationals/final Olympic trials.
Cook made his world championships debut for Canada this year in the giant slalom and earned a pair of top-30 finishes in World Cup events this season.
Vancouver 2010 para-nordic ski veteran Margarita Gorbounova is also a strong candidate to appear in Sochi, while the odds are longer for the likes of speed skater Lauren Maguire, women’s hockey player Stefanie McKeough, wheelchair curler Collinda Joseph, para-snowboarder John Leslie, snowboarders Natalie Allport and Quincy Korte-King, and alpine skiers Dominique Garand, Mikaela Tommy and Victoria Stevens.