Jeff Paterson writes in today's Georgia Straight:
Maybe the best story among the British Columbians heading for Italy is Burnaby figure skater Mira Leung. Just 16 years old, Leung really can’t be considered a medal contender in her first Olympic experience. But after a second-place finish at the nationals last month in Ottawa, she served notice to the skating world that she’ll be a force here at home four years from now.
“The average 16-year-old might be overwhelmed by something like this, but not Mira. I just got an e-mail from her the other day about how excited she is at this opportunity,” Pattenden said. “And she really needs this experience for 2010. She’s going there [Turin] to perform and she’s hoping for a top-16 finish.”
Emmanuel Sandhu is an outside medal chance, but he has been refining his mental training skills over the years. Sandhu was a potential medal winner for the Men's Figure Skating at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, but had to pull out due to an aggravated injury. Last week, I talked with sports psychologist David Cox, whom I studied with at Simon Fraser University. David is going to Turino with Sandhu, who has been known to be inconsistent despite being Canadian Champion in 2001, 2003, and 2004, and in 2003 he want the World's Grand Prix Gold medal. Sandhu has been living in Vancouver's Yaletown and training in Burnaby, since moving from Ontario. His ethnic parentage is Italian and South Asian, but he says he best describes himself as Canadian.Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe have been perennial also-rans on the Canadian Ice Dance team, but they are now going to the Olympics for their very first time. The Vancouver skaters who train in Detroit have waited a long time to get their Olympic shot. I met them in 2001 during the World Championships when Sale and Pelletier won Gold in Vancouver. They are a very nice couple and wonderful with the audience. When the planned meet and greet for Sale and Pelletier turned into a Q&A session because of the large crowds, Wing and Lowe acted as MC's for the evening. I was able to ask a question about the importance of mental training for their routine, as the TV cameras had focused on Sale and Pelletier practicing Tai Chi movements, before their competition. "Good question," said Lowe to me as he repeated the question for the audience. "They showed that?" exclaimed Jaime Sale, who exlained that they had been learning Tai Chi from a wonderful master to help them focus their energies, and of couse mental training was a very very important part of their training.
Here are some related articles
CTV
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060205/figure_skating_
060205/20060207?s_name=torino2006&no_ads=
Vancouver Sun
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=0458a077-9c84-
4710-9f97-98ee630d7cb0&k=95438
Montreal Gazette
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/sports/story.html?id=
43a9e1cb-8efb-41e6-8d06-2367c58d2931&rfp=dta
