There are many things to admire about the Ottawa Race Weekend.
Its clockwork-like organization. The impressive level of competition at the elite level. Oh, and the mere fact more than 30,000 runners and walkers will be a part of it all.
Many of them, you'll notice, are running for more than just themselves. They've raised money for hospitals that save lives. Or perhaps in memory of a life which was cut short much too sun.
It's called running for a cause.
In less than four hours, I'll line up to do my part.
Canadian Athletes Now (or CAN Fund) is the official national charity of Ottawa Race Weekend. Since it was founded by Ottawa native Jane Roos, the fund has helped smooth the path for hundreds of Canadian athletes chasing their Olympic dreams. The helping hand first arrived before the Sydney 2000 Games and it is still going strong. Four years ago in Athens, about 90 per cent of Canada's team had received some level of assistance from a fund that has been nothing short of a godsend for amateur athletes in this country.
So when the call came out in the Ottawa Senators office to join a 'Sens Army' team of runners/walkers entering the Nordion 5K and raise money for CAN Fund, I didn't hesitate to jump on board. I'm paid by a professional sports team now, but there will always be a special place in my heart for amateur athletes. Every two years on the Olympic stage, they elicit so much Canadian pride but sadly, far too many of them are out of sight, out of mind just about every day in between.
It's literally a daily struggle to compete on the same stage with the rest of the world's best. CAN Fund is all about levelling the playing field and giving our athletes the same resources and opportunities others around the planet enjoy.
I'll be thinking of them all during the Nordion 5K and the red shirt I'll wear — the one that says 'I'm Supporting A Canadian Athlete' — will emphasize that point.
Thanks to all who pledged funds on my behalf for today's event. For those who'd like to know more or lend their support, click on the CAN Fund link to the right or right here.
It's a most worthy cause, indeed.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
When We Were One
The book hasn't been opened in who knows how long.
But there it sits on a shelf in my living room, the three words in its title a tangible reminder of a remarkable two weeks 20 years ago, when Canada proudly opened its door to the world perhaps like never before.
Calgary 1988. It was our first try at being Winter Olympics hosts (we'd done the Summer Games thing 12 years earlier in Montreal) and did those warm Albertans ever pull it off just right. Those Olympics raised the bar to new heights and, if you ask the fortunate folks who go to these things on a regular basis, maybe only Lillehammer 1994 has surpassed it since.
Think of those Games and names like Katarina Witt, Alberto Tomba, Brian Boitano and Canadian heroes Brian Orser, Liz Manley, Karen Percy and Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall rush to mind. And, oh yes, who could forget the likes of Eddie the Eagle and the Jamaican bobsled team?
The Olympics, though, is also about a spirit, one that unites the world as one like perhaps nothing else. If you have been or ever aspire to be an Olympian, you know of what I speak. And nothing symbolizes that spirit much more than the flame that is lit the signify the launch of the Games and isn't extinguished — always with a sense of sadness — when they come to a conclusion.
That flame is something Canadians from coast-to-coast embraced in the days and weeks leading up to Calgary '88. The torch relay became such a rallying point for a nation, even esteemed ABC commentator Jim McKay said he had never seen anything like it from an Olympic host country.
Rarely have I been prouder to say that I am Canadian.
No doubt, those feelings will spring forth once more in less than two years time, when Vancouver becomes the third municipality in the Great White North to become an "Olympic city." All of which serves as an introduction to the blog you're reading now.
During my years in the newspaper business, I was intimately involved in the coverage of many an Olympic Games. Always from the "home front," mind you, but the connection was clearly there. During my time at the Ottawa Sun, I profiled a number of Ottawa-area athletes who traversed all parts of the globe to realize the dream of a lifetime. Since Atlanta 1996, my commentary on the television coverage of the Games became a regular Sun feature (yes, I got paid to watch it all on TV).
Now that my career has taken a different turn, though, I felt a little bit like Brian Williams — all dressed up but without an Olympics to cover (Williams, you no doubt know, will sit out CBC's coverage of Beijing 2008 but will be CTV/TSN/Sportsnet's prime-time anchor for Vancouver 2010).
This blog, I hope, will fill a bit of that void.
Oh, and the name of that book?
It's the title of this blog.
Now you know why.
But there it sits on a shelf in my living room, the three words in its title a tangible reminder of a remarkable two weeks 20 years ago, when Canada proudly opened its door to the world perhaps like never before.
Calgary 1988. It was our first try at being Winter Olympics hosts (we'd done the Summer Games thing 12 years earlier in Montreal) and did those warm Albertans ever pull it off just right. Those Olympics raised the bar to new heights and, if you ask the fortunate folks who go to these things on a regular basis, maybe only Lillehammer 1994 has surpassed it since.
Think of those Games and names like Katarina Witt, Alberto Tomba, Brian Boitano and Canadian heroes Brian Orser, Liz Manley, Karen Percy and Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall rush to mind. And, oh yes, who could forget the likes of Eddie the Eagle and the Jamaican bobsled team?
The Olympics, though, is also about a spirit, one that unites the world as one like perhaps nothing else. If you have been or ever aspire to be an Olympian, you know of what I speak. And nothing symbolizes that spirit much more than the flame that is lit the signify the launch of the Games and isn't extinguished — always with a sense of sadness — when they come to a conclusion.
That flame is something Canadians from coast-to-coast embraced in the days and weeks leading up to Calgary '88. The torch relay became such a rallying point for a nation, even esteemed ABC commentator Jim McKay said he had never seen anything like it from an Olympic host country.
Rarely have I been prouder to say that I am Canadian.
No doubt, those feelings will spring forth once more in less than two years time, when Vancouver becomes the third municipality in the Great White North to become an "Olympic city." All of which serves as an introduction to the blog you're reading now.
During my years in the newspaper business, I was intimately involved in the coverage of many an Olympic Games. Always from the "home front," mind you, but the connection was clearly there. During my time at the Ottawa Sun, I profiled a number of Ottawa-area athletes who traversed all parts of the globe to realize the dream of a lifetime. Since Atlanta 1996, my commentary on the television coverage of the Games became a regular Sun feature (yes, I got paid to watch it all on TV).
Now that my career has taken a different turn, though, I felt a little bit like Brian Williams — all dressed up but without an Olympics to cover (Williams, you no doubt know, will sit out CBC's coverage of Beijing 2008 but will be CTV/TSN/Sportsnet's prime-time anchor for Vancouver 2010).
This blog, I hope, will fill a bit of that void.
Oh, and the name of that book?
It's the title of this blog.
Now you know why.
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