Suggestion to drop Super G from the World Cup circuit

Personally, I think FIS is silly to even consider this - North Americans like the speed events, so to eliminate the Super G and only leave the Downhill in terms of speed events means you're losing a lot of North American fans most likely - but then again, maybe they don't really care about the North Americans... anyway, glad to see that Alpine Canada also opposes the move.

2 on the podium in Val D'Isere

First time since 1994 there were 2 Canadian men on the podium at an alpine skiing World Cup race - today at Val d'Isere Eric Guay was 2nd and Manuel Osborne-Paradis was 3rd in the Downhill. Way to go! (Canadian Alpine skiing team generally having a good season, right from the first races at Lake Louise in December - Eric Guay hadn't been having such a good season until now, so hopefully he's back on track).

But, of course right after we subscribe to Country Canada so we could record and watch the Kitzbuehel downhill next weekend right when we wake up (rather than waiting for CBC to show it in the afternoon), it's been cancelled due to poor weather :( .

Swimming the English Channel

No, not me - Jen Alexander (Guiding types may remember her from the GuideZone or the YiGGGS list). She's in England now waiting her time to swim, sometime after Wednesday. Her blog is here - if you know Jen, check it out and send her a message of support.

Canoeing :-)

Ed and I took a beginner canoe course this weekend, through the City of Edmonton, at Hermitage Park. Those of you who know me via Guiding might be asking, why would she be taking a beginner canoe course? (ie. hasn't she already taken the basics multiple times through Guiding?) And you would be right - a few years ago, I even completed the CRCA Flatwater A-C certification (and a year or 2 before that I did a course where we probably even completed the D level as well but weren't being CRCA-certified). But, I never have any opportunity to practice, and Ed has never taken any canoeing course, so we thought it would be a good idea for him to get the basics. That way, if we rent a canoe again and they insist (as usual) that the guy has to go in the stern, we won't be going in circles as we usually did whenever Ed would try to steer :-).

So, it was a good review for me, and Ed found it very useful - he now has confidence that he mostly knows what he's doing. And they shifted the time from 1-4 pm to 9-12 pm each day - so as it turned out we didn't get stuck out in the rain today, bonus.

Too good to be true???

I'll believe it when I see it - found out Friday night that Ed and I (hopefully) will be able to buy tickets to tomorrow's Stanley Cup playoff game, at face value, from some friends that Ed met doing the Bell City Chase series (we were in Calgary this weekend for the event there, and he did the one in Edmonton two weeks ago - "The Bell City Chase is a unique urban adventure that requires participants to exhibit teamwork, resourcefulness, determination and the ability to make decisions on the fly as they search for ChasePoints scattered in unknown locations throughout the city. ChasePoints are designed to test teams with a variety of physical, mental, and otherwise adventurous challenges").

Like I said, I'll believe it when I actually see the tickets, but it sounds like it's going to happen. Considering that a quick check of E-bay shows tickets for tomorrow's game in the thousands of dollars for a pair ...

Which then makes me reflect on hockey in general... how I was so ticked off last season with the lockout that I made no effort to go to any games at all this year. How I really got into pro cycling as a fan since last summer and have spent way more time reading cycling news and watching cycling races than I have paying attention to hockey until recently. How until the playoffs I don't think I actually watched an entire hockey game this season except the Vancouver-Phoenix game we watched at Geri's when we visited last November. But hockey fandom must be deeply entrenched within me I guess, even as I rationally think of reasons not to watch ...

As for hockey playoff games, I think I've only ever been to two - one was in high school when I got a free ticket to Edmonton-Vancouver in the first round, memorable because a) it was back when Edmonton fans looked down condescendingly on the first round and often didn't bother to show up (this was probably actually 1986, before the Oilers lost to Calgary in the 2nd round thanks to Steve Smith's own goal... then the Oiler fans learned not to take things for granted), and
b) I was cheering for the Canucks, hadn't been in Edmonton long enough at that point to get over my hatred for the Oilers ...
Apparently I also went once to one of the Edmonton -Dallas games a few years ago, but those weren't all that memorable because the Oilers generally lost. (Now that I think more about it, I do remember walking up to the arena and seeing someone selling "Belfour sucks" buttons outside - and the chant "Bel-four, Bel-four" just to get under the skin of the Dallas goalie at the time).

When we found out about the tickets, the Oil were down 2-0 in the series with things looking pretty bad after a 5-0 loss and the loss of star goalie Roloson in the first game. But we figured either the Oilers would be playing better and back in it, or else we might get to see the Stanley Cup presentation. With Edmonton winning last night there's no chance we'll see a Stanley Cup presentation (phew!), hopefully they'll play well and tie the series!


ADDENDUM (June 13) - we lost. A let-down in a lot of respects, yeah it was an exciting atmosphere but in the end it's just a hockey game, and there are a lot of more important things in life ...

Skiing medal haul this weekend for Canada...

(trying to stay away from politics for a while, 'cause I'm sick of them all :-) )

First there was Beckie Scott taking the silver in the women's 10 km XC-ski freestyle World Cup race in Canmore on Thursday.

Then, on Friday Erik Guay became the first Canadian to win multiple medals in Super G with a silver at Val Gardena. He followed that up with a bronze in the downhill the next day (and rookie Sherry Lawrence made the Olympic team by finishing 11th in the Val d'Isere downhill).

Plus, Beckie Scott won the 15 km XC-ski classical World Cup race at Canmore yesterday, and Sara Renner came 6th for her best-ever distance result.

Then today, Francois Bourque came third in the men's GS at Alta Badia, and Emily Brydon came 3rd in the Super G at Val d'Isere for 3 Canadians in the top 10/4 in the top 16.

So maybe, those predictions of the COC that Canada would be on top of the overall medal count in Vancouver in 2010 aren't so unbelievable after all...

(addendum - Beckie and Sara came 2nd in the team relay in Canmore today as well!)

More non-mainstream sports

Congratulations to Beckie Scott and Sara Renner for winning gold and bronze in the cross-country skiing World Cup race in Vernon yesterday (Scott also came 2nd the day before), looking good for next week's World Cup races in Canmore Alberta (I wanted to go but something else came up), and also looking good for the Olympics. Maybe this time Beckie will get the experience of actually standing on the gold-medal podium at the Olympics instead of having to wait a few years before doping disqualifications gave her the gold medal.

And way to go, Brad Gushue and team for winning the curling Olympic trials. Obviously it was a good decision to add the experienced Russ Howard (pretty much twice their age as Gushue's only 25) to the team, and great to see that they can get along and work together well despite the age difference. Congratulations to Shannon Kleibrink of Calgary as well for winning on the women's side.