My new canadian sports heroes

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Jennifer Heil, Simply Exhilarating!

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Cyndy Klassen, Powerful!

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Lueders & Brown, Perseverance!

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Short Track Relay Team, Gutsy Speedsters!

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Women’s Hockey Team, Dominant Performers!

And last but certainly not least:

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Chandra Crawford, Joyful Speed Machine!

That cross-country skiing sprint event is underrated. It has all the elements of a marquee event except the exposure on TV.
I could watch this kind of race more often.

Your post is interesting. It makes me wonder if Olympic hockey should be left for amateur players. It is really refreshing to see people such as those you mentioned that are true athletes and are motivated by the love of thier sport and competition. Professional athletes, I believe, have more or less lost that drive as money is now their motivator. You can see it with the US mens basketball team in the summer Olympics as well. Your heroes are heroes to many and are role models for our youth.

I’ve said this all along, and I’m glad someone stepped up to echo my sentiments. The Olympics are for amateur athletes. These are people that have 9-5 jobs when they aren’t training their asses off 3 1/2 out of the 4 years between Olympic Games. Professional athletes such as hockey and basketball players almost diminish the sentiment of the Games. After the Games are over for most, they go back to working at Home Depot or wherever, and then training (for free). NHL players leave the Olympics (some earlier than others), and go back to the security of making their millions. Doesn’t seem right.

I feel bad for the Canadian skier, whose name escapes me right now, who like most real athletes, trained to get a medal at the Games, only to tear her ACL in a practise run days before her event.

Leave the Olympics to the amateurs.

Good post Big Thumb!

That is what I do here at HTMF.

[quote]I feel bad for the Canadian skier, whose name escapes me right now, who like most real athletes, trained to get a medal at the Games, only to tear her ACL in a practise run days before her event.
[/quote]

Her name is Allison Forsyth and she’s part of the “Unsung Heroes” list:

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Which also includes:
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Kelly Vanderbeek, 4th in Super G,

and
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François Bourque, 4th in Giant Slalom

and certainly

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Deidra Dionne, who came back from a broken neck to compete again.

Another one of my favorite stories is Duff Gibson (Skeleton). He turns 40 this year. Usually athletes dedicate themselves to one sport for quite a long time and then go to the Olympics, but this guy almost couldn’t decide what he wanted to. He was a wrestler, a long track speed skater, and then he was on a bobsled team. You’d think that he wouldn’t be good at these other sports if he kept changing, but to the contrary, he was world class. He settled on skeleton because he thought this was his best chance at that stage of his life to get an Olympic medal. He’s been at it for 7 years. Won gold this year. This, and he has a real job too. He’s a firefighter.

Yep. Leave the Olys to amateurs. It’s such a shitty thing to push the guys playing for the men’s national team off to the side so those overpaid doggers can try and get a medal for not having sacrificed anything at all. That’s why in 2002 it was cooler when the women won because they HAD sacrificed a lot, like the other amateurs.

The Dionne story is incredible, coming back to compete after breaking her neck (she’s got the nasty scars from the operation to show for it too).

Hilariously, sports announcers will call a pro athlete “courageous” for playing with a mild hangover!

Looking back at the last Olympics without pros, I remember that it was very exciting. Who can forget the shootout loss to the Swedes when Tommy Salo stacked his pads against Kariya. There was a different excitement than with todays pros. In watching the interviews after Canadas loss it was apparent to me that the pros are too seasoned to even interview effectively. They are masters of putting the spin on and are very repetitive in their statements The amatuers have an innocence about them that the pros have long lost. I would like to see the World Cup of Hockey remain for pro hockey players and the Olympics turned back over to amatuers.

[size=24]Chandra Crawford[/size]

Yeah this lady could ski, she rocks :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

[quote=“fingahz”]… it was apparent to me that the pros are too seasoned to even interview effectively. They are masters of putting the spin on and are very repetitive in their statements …
[/quote]

How true! I am so tired of hearing the same thing over and over again.

I use to want to see the pros in the olympics but I think you have a major point here.
The world cup would serve as a real championship every four years.

Okay, whoever has taken over Fingahz’s computer and is submitting all these posts that make sense - enough. Bring the real Fingahz back right now!

Hi…I’m Thummz. Fingahz is away with a bout of carpal tunnel sydrome so I’ll be here in his place. He’ll be back soon typing posts that make absolutely no sense and harping on you all for voting NDP. Until then enjoy my pleasant contributions to this wonderful site.

God Bless You All

Thummz

[quote=“fingahz”]

Hi…I’m Thummz. Fingahz is away with a bout of carpal tunnel sydrome so I’ll be here in his place. He’ll be back soon typing posts that make absolutely no sense and harping on you all for voting NDP. Until then enjoy my pleasant contributions to this wonderful site.

God Bless You All

Thummz[/quote]

:laughing:

We absolutely must add these guys to the list:

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Team Canada, Curling
Brad Gushue
Mark Nichols
Russ Howard
Jamie Korab
Mike Adam
Tobias McDonald (coach)

These newfies (and one New Brunswicker) know how to throw rocks.

They should make a new medal in the Olympics just for Canada.
We got 11 4th place finishes in Turin. Maybe ‘Fools Gold’ because its not quite real!

24 medals for Canada, 25 for the US. We have 10% of the population of the US. That says something for Canadian Athletes!

This has been our best Winter Olympics medal count yet. I just wish we could fare this well at the Summer Olympics as well.

This is the front page (above and below the fold) of The Telegram, the largest paper in Newfoundland:

I hear they were so excited about winning that gold they’re gonna get it bronzed and put in the museum!

!!

Funny stuff!

I swear all this time I thought Jamie Korab had a banana peel on his head. That dude needs a new dye-job :smiley: