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Canucks taking kick-butt attitude to SydneyJanuary 17 2000By STEVE BUFFERY -- Toronto Sun You gotta love the Canadian track and field team's mission statement for the 2000 Sydney Olympics -- "You can rest when you're dead!" What a breath of fresh air compared to the bad old days, when Canadian athletes were shipped off to Olympic Games with orders to "do your best and have fun." Talk about lame. Inevitably, after falling flat on his or her face, the much-too-happy athlete would babble to the press: "Sure I finished 39th. But it was a learning experience and aren't Olympics all about meeting people, learning about other cultures and trading pins?" Meanwhile, the Aussies and Yanks and Bulgarians would be out there kicking butt and demanding more from themselves and getting really cheesed off if they lost. Obviously, there were exceptions. The late, great swimmer Victor Davis comes to mind. But thankfully, overall, a new attitude has crept into the Canadian Olympic team psyche. Canadian athletes are still, by and large, good sports, but the pathetic "athlete as a goodwill ambassador" notion is long gone. Just ask swimmer Curtis Myden, who almost lost consciousness trying to hold off Aussie star Matthew Dunn at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria. Completely drained, Myden passed out during the medal ceremony, and was wheeled off on a stretcher with an oxygen mask slapped to his face. Or bobsledder Pierre Lueders who, just before the start of his run at the La Plagne World Cup event two years ago, walked over to a TV cameraman positioned near the start line and decked the guy. Lueders had politely asked him move out of the way, and the guy refused. Rather than letting the jerk throw him off, the big Edmontonian took matters into his own hands, refocused and won the race. Being a good Canuck, he later bought the guy a cup of tea. Brent McFarlane, head coach of Canada's Olympic track and field team for the Sydney Games, and the author of the motto, expects his team to perform better than ever Down Under. McFarlane fully expects Bruny Surin and Donovan Bailey to win medals in the men's 100-metre final. He expects the men's 4x100 metre relay team to defend its gold. He's expecting big things from high jump sensation Mark Boswell, middle-distance stars Kevin Sullivan and Graham Hood, hurdler Katie Anderson, and so on. Unfortunately, while forever optimistic, McFarlane feels as though the life's been sucked out of him by the federal government. The University of Waterloo track coach has seen his proposed $200,000 pre-Games budget slashed to almost half that. He has watched Ottawa drastically cut its contributions to amateur sport over the years and witnessed such potential international stars as Kathy Butler quit the Canadian team for greener pastures overseas. McFarlane has some big plans for the track team's pre-Games training camp -- having cut a deal with former Australian middle-distance great Ron Clarke to house the Canadian team at Couran Cove, a $150-million island resort on Australia's Gold Coast, just off Brisbane. An extravagant locale perhaps, but through his connections with Clarke, Couran Cove's CEO, McFarlane has negotiated a sweet deal and the site promises to maximize the team's training for Sydney. But now, because of cutbacks, McFarlane is worried that the camp will fall apart. As it stands now, McFarlane, an elementary school teacher "in real life," will be forced to spend $10,000 of his own money just to finance the first week or so of the camp. How's that for a kick in the chops? A Canadian team head coach, a volunteer, has to pay thousands out of his own pocket to help prepare his team properly. Australia, a nation much smaller in population, will spend more than $7 million on its track team this year, compared to Athletic Canada's budget of $1.29 million, of which $265,000 goes to disabled sports. McFarlane is so angry with Ottawa that he's considering some drastic measures to find the money he feels necessary to properly prepare the Olympic team. They include asking a number of prominent Canadians, such as Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, for $100,000 and applying for a loan from Olympic Solidarity, a program set up by the International Olympic Committee to help Third World nations send teams to Games. McFarlane has begun an awareness campaign, hoping to embarrass the feds into kicking into coughing up more cash. "Compared to other Western nations, we are funded like a Third World country," he said. "We're hurting." If you have news, results or info please let us know by using our submission form or emailing Larry Steinke [ MEET INFORMATION ] [ ANALYSIS & TIPS ] [ THROWS ARTICLES ] [ INTERVIEWS ] [ RECORDS ] [ RESULTS ] [ CLASSIFIEDS ] [ HOT LINK ARCHIVE ] [ DISCUSSION FORUM ] [ SUBMISSIONS ] [ THROWERS QUIZ ] [ GUESTBOOK ] | ||