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Beckie Scott: still making history Nov 30, 2021

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Truly history-making athletes are few and far between. Nordic skier Beckie Scott qualifies, beyond dispute. What’s quietly amazing about the Canmore, Alberta native though, is that she is still changing the world, fully twenty years after becoming the first North American woman to win an Olympic medal in her sport. It took a while, but that medal became Gold, as the worm turned. Most athletes have known for years about Scott’s standout integrity in a notoriously doping-plagued sport. The rest of the world woke up to her commitment to fair play when they saw her in the 2017 Oscar-winning documentary ‘Icarus’. Beckie Scott, alongside hurdling great Edwin Moses, did everything in her power to steer the World Anti Doping Agency toward binding rulings for clean competition. In the eyes of many athletes, both WADA and the IOC are still coming up short in that regard. But Scott’s principled fight for fair play kept the pressure and the spotlight on. And if the world ever gets the upper hand on cheating nations and athletes, it will be Scott’s work that led the charge. Which brings Scott to her latest history-making work for fairness. Nearly five years ago, she threw her energy into Spirit North, a nonprofit working with indigenous communities to give young people opportunities for sport that they would otherwise be denied. Why is this historic? Because it’s working. Every year, around 6300 Indigenous kids are getting a first chance to try a variety of land -based sports. Skiing, canoeing, mountain biking… the list of sports, and communities joining the program, just keeps growing and growing. Talking about this today with Anastasia, Scott makes clear that a strong moral compass has been her guide all along. An analogy that served her WADA years was that doping was like being a starting gate that is ten meters ahead of everyone else. Scott points to the convergence of historic, systemic factors and practices that have relegated many young indigenous kids to a starting gate ten meters behind other Canadians. For Beckie Scott, it’s a clear matter: a deep unfairness needs to be redressed. Making history again? That just goes with the job. And on a minor note, Beckie Scott is helping us make history yet again…By our calculations, she is the one hundredth guest on CBC Sports’ Player’s Own Voice podcast.

The relentless evolution of Mark Arendz Nov 23, 2021

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Mark Arendz delivered performance after performance at the 2018 Pyeongchang Paralympic games. He skied and shot his way into uncharted territory, nailing an incredible six medals in six events. Which left Canada’s undisputed star of the games in something of a motivational bind. It’s relatively easy to train with a goal of doing ‘better next time’. But how to focus on improving after an outing like that? Heading into the Beijing games, as Arendz explains to Anastasia Bucsis, means evolving as an athlete. ‘More’ is not the answer, but ‘different’ might be. Arendz' relentless pursuit of technique and fitness has led him to a place where he can still find flaws in his own gold medal races. He can still see ways to hit more bullseyes, more quickly. He can still bring more of his phenomenal talent and drive to bear on all the notoriously difficult Nordic disciplines. In conversation on the edge of ‘Frozen Thunder’, the shoulder season cross country training track at Canmore, Alberta, Arendz slowed down long enough to describe how his passion for technical excellence in sport likely evolved from his early need to solve the daily challenges of living minus an arm lost to a childhood accident on his family farm in P.E.I. 24 years of overcoming physical problems, as it turns out, is excellent preparation for an unparalleled athletic career. It should come as a surprise to no one that Arendz is already visualizing precisely where he’ll be at noon on March 5th, 2022…the minute, hour and day that his next Paralympic Nordic race gets underway.

Throwing stones with Ben Hebert Nov 16, 2021

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It’s kind of an open secret, regarding Curling in this country: the best of the best will agree that qualifying for the Canadian Olympic team is harder than facing the entire world at the actual winter games. If that sounds unCanadian, maybe a little too bragodocious, judge for yourself in the week ahead, as Saskatoon hosts the national team qualifying tournament. If you need some insights about how that’s all going to play out… can we recommend lead Ben Hebert? The gold medallist, world champion, and four-time Brier winner is an excellent source of unvarnished wisdom about the game that he has devoted 25 years to perfecting. According to Hebert, at this level, and with these teams in the running, the whole tournament might come down to a couple of shots. Which means it could be anybody who’ll get to wear the maple leaf once Beijing begins. And - looking ahead to the Olympics themselves, Hebert is quick to say, Sweden and Scotland are the nations to respect, come February. Connecting in Calgary with his old Olympian pal Anastasia, Hebert holds forth on crucial topics such as whether a Saskatchewan team winning gold in Curling, or the Rough Riders winning the Grey Cup, would make Sask hearts beat hardest… on his lingering dismay at being swept off the podium in PyeongChang, 2018… and on how money and medals have driven everybody in the game to heights of professionalism and athletic fitness that would be unheard of barely a generation back.

Ivanie Blondin is back on track Nov 09, 2021

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She makes it look easy, flying around the oval at world class times, but for Speed skater Ivanie Blondin, the years since her medal-less return from the PyeongChang winter games have been marked by deep depression and poor mental health. Strangely enough, the versatile long-track athlete takes comfort in that history. Her attitude is: if she can still post winning times, even when she’s not feeling anywhere near top form, then she has to admit, the process is working. Fresh off becoming the new national champion in the 1500m –while still feeling sub par- the skater sat down to chat with Player’s Own Voice host Anastasia Bucsis, surrounded by a small menagerie of rescue animals. Blondin lays out her plans for the road to Beijing, and goes deep into the unusual living arrangements she and her husband, Hungarian speed skater Konrad Nagy, find themselves in, as the two athletes train and practise an ocean apart in Canada and Europe. Blondin has tasted competition peaks and valleys and she is making no secret of her drive to perform better than ever at the Beijing Olympics.

Legends of Long Track Nov 02, 2021

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There’s a buzz on about the Canadian Speed skating team, heading toward the Beijing Olympics. The recent national trials revealed surprising strengths and plunging race times from veterans and newer hopefuls alike. Before the cheering echos from the trials had a chance to dwindle away at Calgary’s Olympic Oval, Player’s Own Voice podcast host Anastasia Bucsis convened a 'state of the skate' meeting with three champions of the sport. It's a raucous sit down chat about Speed Skating then and now. Chef du mission for the Canadian team, Catriona Le May Doane, Assistant team Coach Shannon Rempel, and multi medallist and commentator Kristina Groves all piled around the table to talk through the challenging pursuit of crazy speed on dime-thin skate blades. None of these women care much for clichés, but they all agree- this is living proof that if you build it, they will come. Canada’s most successful winter Olympic sport got to be that way, because decisions were made, back in 1988, to keep the Olympic skating Oval and institution, and coaching, training and expertise firmly in place. There are Olympic medal hopefuls right now, who got to be that way because they could see and skate alongside the best of the best, when they were first trying it out. Legends of Long track- this week on POV podcast.

Piper and Paul's time to shine Oct 19, 2021

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Ten years after Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier began Ice dancing together, they have landed in a spot that is novel for both of them: Top of the heap. Creative, athletic, and artistic as they have always been, the duo’s dynamics have long contended with outsized competitors like Tessa & Scott and Kaitlyn & Andrew. It’s Piper and Paul’s turn in the sun now. And with the Winter Olympics coming on fast, they don’t have time to savour the spotlight. It’s all about getting their programme honed to perfection. Long-standing fans of the duo will be thrilled to learn that their latest long performance is built around The Beatles’ “Day in the Life”- interpreted by the same remarkable busker team whose ‘Starry Night’ electrified crowds for Piper and Paul starting in 2018. The Ice Dancers share secrets of an enduring partnership. Perhaps it’s counter intuitive, but in their case, the professional success together is firmly based in respect for one another’s personal lives. Paul jokes that he doesn’t trust any skate partners who never argue, but he and Piper are serious about making sure that support for one another comes first in every discussion, no matter how heated.

Nate Riech's race to remember Oct 12, 2021

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Nate Riech came into his first Paralympics under a burden of heavy expectation. Not just because his family tree is overstuffed with elite and pro athletes. Riech owns the world record in the T38 1500m. He set it, and then lowered it, in the months leading up to Tokyo. So he was confident and ready to race when the gold medal day dawned. But that’s where the going got interesting.... As an athlete enduring traumatic brain injury, Nate has learned to roll with a variety of symptoms. But even he was a bit freaked out to discover his right leg was suddenly not working properly during race day warm up. Incredibly, he and his coach had a backup plan for just such an outcome: he ran a series of short sprints designed to reboot his unpredictable nervous system. It worked. He’s sporting the gold now. And hungrier than ever to keep tearing up the record books, keep showing the world what determined people with TBIs can do, and keep inspiring anybody, who like himself, woke up one fateful day,young and motionless in a hospital bed. The term is overused, but Nate Riech is an inspiration, and a fascinating young runner to get to know on this week’s Player’s Own Voice.

Clara Hughes remembers everything Oct 05, 2021

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Clara Hughes is one of those rare athletes who finishes an exceptional competitive career, and goes on to even more widespread fame. The former speed skater and cyclist met overwhelming success with her work in support of mental illness in the ‘Let’s Talk’ initiative. The advocacy and outreach work proved so involving that Hughes needed to step away again to recharge, and that led to an ongoing series of epic hikes. Clara Hughes has walked the famous east and west coast mountain trails for thousands of kilometers. Usually solo, always finding reflection and meditation in the process. For her old speed skating teammate Anastasia Bucsis, Clara’s reflective state opens the gate to lingering memories from a stellar career, and also to thinking through how today’s vocal athletes, like Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles, are ushering in social change that extends to every corner of the workplace. If that all sounds a bit nutritious, Clara Hughes has not lost her knack for blunt assessment of any situation, including her own delight at a 43rd place finish, not sooo long ago. Also, and this made us feel thoughtless, we got messages from our deaf audience, readers of the POV essay series, asking for transcriptions of the podcast. Hoping to make this a permanent part of the publication...

Erin Ambrose: the defence never rests Sep 28, 2021

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Erin Ambrose, pro defender in the PWHPA and on the national team, has a decidedly un hockey - like tendency to blow right through the usual scrum clichés... She's honest about all of it. Team USA?. Ambrose makes no bones about hating them. Is that the word she wants to use? Oh yes. She hates them. And guess what- she says we should love that hate. There's plenty of fire in that outlook. And having a brand new IIHF championship gold medal slung around her neck allows Ambrose to visit fresh memories of those excellent hard feelings. But she's not just another hockey star with a gnarly temper. Ambrose's passion is just as strong on the other side of the emotional spectrum. She is a supremely compassionate advocate for mental health, having fought, and continued to deal with her own intense anxiety and depression. Feared on the Ice, Erin Ambrose is welcomed everywhere else, because her mental health advocacy is so respected and received. She is a complicated and fascinating figure.

Cindy Ouellet sets the standard Aug 08, 2021

Show notes

Everybody reacts the same way when watching Paralympics for the first time: “Those people are amazing!” The more they watch, the deeper the appreciation. “ Didja see how fast that guy swam the 100 free, and he only has one leg! How did that completely blind woman log such a blazing triathlon?” It never fails. If we like the Olympics for the athletes’ stories, we love the Paralympics for the same reason. Which brings us to Cindy Ouellet. Prepare to feel like a slacker: Ouellet is dominant in winter AND summer para sports, finishing a PhD in biomedical engineering, she’s a bilingual advocate for people with disabilities, LGBTQ2 people, mental health and anti- bullying causes, she’s developing a university course, and to top it all off, she’s like Mike Holmes with the power tools. Build it, Fix it, no problem. That’s not to say it’s all smooth sailing for the Captain of Canada’s Wheelchair basketball team. Cindy has suffered mental and physical setbacks that would knock anyone off their game. But we can safely add ‘determined’ to Cindy’s laundry list of admirable attributes. Just what the team needs, rolling into Tokyo. A little while before the Paralympics began, Anastasia caught up with Cindy at her home in Quebec City.

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