Profiles of U of C's Olympic athletes

Cassie Campbell

Cassie Campbell, a 12-year veteran of the national w omen’s hockey team, is no stranger to the Olympic experience. Turin will be her third time competing with Team Canada, and she says it will be “just as special as my first time in 1998.”

In addition to her training, Campbell spends hours volunteering. In 2001, she began helping out at the Ronald McDonald House in Calgary, a home away from home for families with sick children.

In 2004, Campbell wanted to do more to help the organization and the Cassie Campbell Street Hockey Festival was born. Now an annual event, it has raised $125,000.

When asked how she will deal with the incredible pressure that many athletes feel while competing at the Olympics, Campbell responds: “What pRessure! After
all, we are just playing hockey not saving lives. It will be fun.”

Kristina Groves

Kristina Groves is skating her best season ever, which is great news as the 29-year-old from Ottawa packs her bags for Turin.

In the past four months, Groves has raced her way to four world cup medals, and she has skated 15 personal best times in the last year. For the Olympics, she says she isn’t focused on the medal count, but on her process of skating.

“ Medals are the product of skating and racing well, all I can do is create the best race I can on the day it counts.”

Groves has been skating since she was 11 and gave up competitive cross-country skiing. She says after watching Gaetan Boucher skate in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary she was hooked on speed skating.

Clara Hughes

Clara Hughes, an Olympic medalist several times over, loves a challenge.
Her incredible strength in cycling and speed skating comes from her love of competition.

“ I feel truly alive while competing, and at the Olympics I will be jumping out of my skin.”

Hughes admits that the longer distances can be painful and mentally demanding, but she relies on technique and sheer perseverance when the races get really tough physically.

Hughes has also been working to improve her technique in some very different disciplines—painting and woodworking.

As a fine arts student at the U of C, Clara has found art history fascinating.
“ It taught me how to look at things differently and this has forever changed my impression of things I observe.”

Mike Ireland

As Mike Ireland heads to his third Olympic Games, he is establishing a reputation as the “comeback kid” in the world of long-track speed skating.

Mikey, as he is known around the Olympic Oval, is one of Canada’s top sprinters competing in the long-track 500 metres event. But that wasn’t always the case. In 2004, he suffered a concussion while mountain biking in California, forcing him to sit out all of last season.

After a year off, Ireland qualified for the 2006 Olympic team.

This isn’t the first time the 33-year-old from Winnipeg has skated back from adversity. In 1998, he missed qualifying for the winter games in Nagano due to an injury.

“ That was difficult, to sit at home and watch other skaters compete in the Olympics. But it really motivated me to show everyone that I still had what it took after the Games.

“ It made me hungrier.”

Kim Weger

Kim Weger, from Regina, might be the shortest speed skater on the Canadian Olympic team, but what she lacks in height, she makes up for in spirit.

Weger, 25, is heading to Turin to skate the 500 metres in long-track speed skating at her first Olympic Games, and she is excited. “Almost a month in advance I really focused on my mental preparation. I would visualize executing my race perfectly. I tried to utilize my nervous energy as positive energy.”

Her preparation worked; she set a personal best time of 38.68 in the 500 metres and achieved the first part of her Olympic dream by making the 2006 team.

Weger is an avid student of political science, reading as much social philosophy as she can.

She is half way through her degree, taking time off this year to focus on skating.

Danielle Goyette

Today, all young female hockey players have dreams of playing for their country at the Olympic Games, but when Danielle Goyette was a little girl playing in Quebec, there was no Olympic women’s hockey—there wasn’t even a world championship.
She played and excelled at hockey solely for the love of the game.

Goyette, who has just turned 40, has now experienced more than she ever thought possible. She’s won both silver and gold medals in Olympic competition, has played in eight world championships and last year she scored her 100th career international goal.

These Olympic Games will be very special to Goyette—they may be her last international competition.

“ I want to be there mentally and physically—to really be in the present. I want to take in the whole experience.”

Shannon Rempel

Shannon Rempel never imagined herself heading off to the Olympics at 21. “The Olympics are so prestigious and seemed somewhat unattainable. I think I always knew I would make it, but now that it’s so close I can’t wait to feel all the energy that the Olympics produce.”

In 2003, Remple skated onto the scene and the podium as the 2003 World Junior Champion. The following season, she won two silver medals on the world cup circuit.

She is now fifth in the overall world cup standings in the 1,000 metres and ninth in the 500 metres.

At the Olympics, she hopes to “put together the best race I can race.”
In addition to speed skating, Remple designs and creates clothing with her sister, studies at the U of C, bakes and cooks, listens to music and finds time to hang out with her friends.

Arne Dankers

As a recent U of C grad with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering, one might think Arne Dankers, 26, is totally serious. One conversation, though, is all it takes to show his funny side.

Dankers maintains, for example, that before a competition he’ll choose special socks, new laces or a different suit—anything to “elevate the adrenaline just a little, and thus prepare the body for racing.”

Originally from Ottawa, he competed on the world cup circuit from 2001 to 2006, in the world single distance championships from 2003 to 2005 and in the Allround World Championships in 2004 and 2005. He was also a member of the 2002 Olympic team.

He says the Olympics are a totally different experience than any other event. “The Olympics are the races that the media watches and that everybody knows about—that makes it the race that everybody wants to win.”

After graduating last year, Dankers now works for Dr. David Westwick, a professor in the Schulich School of Engineering.

Hayley Wickenheiser

Hayley Wickenheiser has experienced more than most women her age. Just 27 years old, she has been to three Olympic Games for two different sports, played hockey around the world, has received many accolades within and beyond the sports world and has paved the way for up-and-coming female hockey players.

At 15, she was chosen for the women’s national hockey team and has competed in two winter Olympic Games. She has since achieved incredible success, including four gold medals at the Women’s World Hockey Championships, a silver medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and a gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Wickenheiser was the first female hockey player to score in a men’s professional game while playing with the Kirkkonummen Salamat. In addition to her on-ice success, Wickenheiser has excelled as an elite softball player and competed at the 2000 Summer Games on the fastball team.

Wickenheiser is a third– year U of C science student who hopes to go into either sport or pediatric medicine.

Steven Elm

Steven Elm is looking forward to his third consecutive Olympic experience and the opportunity to compete in three events, including the new Team Pursuit. He is an athlete who that uses the pressure of racing to his advantage.

“ I feel pressure for every race; I am used to it. It makes me go fast.”

Skating is a family affair for the Red Deer native. His sister, Selina, is a former national team member and coaches in the Link Program at the Olympic Oval. His mother, Margaret, started skating a couple of years after her children did and eventually became the Canadian record holder in the 30- to 40-year-old category for long–track and short–track events.

Elm has completed several securities courses and plans on continuing his education at the U of C after the 2010 Games. He already spends a fair amount of time online trading stocks, which often frustrates his coach because he ends up late for morning practice.

Alanna Kraus

Short-track speed skater and Olympic bronze medalist Alanna Kraus can’t wait for the Torino Games to start.

“ I feel totally prepared for anything, and I can’t wait to re-live the powerful experience of the games,” she says.

Kraus will race the 500 metres and her Olympic medal event—the 3,000-metre relay.
Winning an Olympic medal last time was an incredible accomplishment, but this time around, the 29-year-old Kraus feels she is even more prepared. “Now I know what to expect, because I’ve gone through it before.”

Kraus hopes to become an elementary school teacher and make an impact by promoting physical education to young children. She is working on her bachelor’s degree at U of C in the Canadian Studies program and would like to continue here in the two-year master’s program in education.

Denny Morrison

Denny Morrison loves to go fast—whether it’s driving fast cars or skating fast on the long-track ice.

Only 20 years old and in his first season as a senior on the national team, Morrison’s career is moving just as quickly.

He’s already earned a handful of world cup medals, racking up a bronze in the 1,000 metres and silver in the 1,500 metres, beating out the U.S.’s Chad Hedrick, who holds the world record in that distance.

As well, Morrison has won a gold medal and set the world record in the new Team Pursuit event with teammates Steven Elm and Arne Dankers.

When he is not going fast on ice, he’s going fast on the road. “I spend all my money on my car,” says Morrison about his black 1991 Dodge Stealth.

Morrison has completed a handful of general science courses, but has put his education on hold this year to focus on skating.

Kerry Simpson

Canadian speed skater Kerry Simpson’s Olympic dream is slowly sinking in.

“ I was at the bank the other day and there was a group of kids writing notes to Canada’s Olympians. It was just then that I thought, ‘that’s for me, I’m going to the Olympics!’”

Simpson, who studies kinesiology at the U of C, started her speed skating career when she was nine years old. She finally realized her Olympic dream after qualifying in the 500 metres at the Canada Post Single Distances Championships this winter.

Getting to this point has been a lot of hard work for the girl from Melville, Sask. “Basically, you put the rest of your life on hold.”

Aside from her hard work and the strong support from friends and family, Simpson relies on a longstanding superstition. “I must be wearing green somewhere on me, it is Saskatchewan’s colour.”

Brock Miron

As soon as long-track speed skater Brock Miron hung up his hockey skates at age 15, his Olympic dream was born. Miron traded in hockey skates for speed skates when he was a teenager in Rocky Mountain House.

“ I was playing hockey and my older brother, Wesley, started speed skating. I thought it looked like fun. I just followed him. I haven’t laced up hockey skates in years now.”

Looks like Miron made the right choice. At the Canada Post Single Distances Championships, he skated the second fastest 500 metres lap ever skated. He placed third under former world sprint champions Jeremy Wotherspoon and Mike Ireland—qualifying him for the 2006 Olympic team.

“ Nothing gives me more pleasure than taking the second turn of a 500, I love it, I live for that.”

Miron is about half way through a chemistry degree at the U of C, but he’s contemplating a switch to biomechanics.

Jeremy Wotherspoon

Jeremy Wotherspoon has already had one of the greatest speed skating careers in Canada. He holds the men’s record for the most career world cup victories ever, will be a three-time Olympian and already owns an Olympic silver medal. Now he heads to Turin to find out if he can add Olympic gold to his list of accolades.

“ I think I can win the 500 (metres), and I have a good chance to win the 1,000,” says Wotherspoon, who has five world cup victories in each sprint distance. “I will need to do everything I am capable of in just that one moment.”

The 29-year-old holds the Canadian record in both the 500 and 1,000 metres.

“I have been racing for a long time with no breaks, and that is a challenge. But I am motivated to skate and accomplish a couple of things I haven’t done yet—like achieve certain lap times and improve some of my technique. It’s not just the Olympic gold medal.”

Jason Parker

The road to Olympic dreams has been long and challenging for Jason Parker. As a speed skater for 20 years, and a national team member for 11, three Olympic Games have passed him by.

Now a member of the 2006 Olympic team, competing in the new event, the Team Pursuit, Parker finally has his chance. And not a moment too soon, as he plans to retire after this season.

Parker came close to making the Olympic team more than once. In 1998, 10 days prior to Olympic trials he got a serious case of the flu and spent five days in bed, losing 10 pounds. He still managed to get to trials, but then got food poisoning the night before his event.

“ Needless to say, I watched my Olympic dream go down the toilet as I spent most of the night crawling back and forth from my bedroom to the bathroom,” says Parker.

Krisy Myers

Speed skater Krisy Myers worked through pain to earn her spot on the 2006 Olympic team.

“ When I was doing a hard workout this summer and I felt like I was going to die, I would think about walking into the [Olympic] opening ceremonies. That would help me to refocus and push through.”

Myer’s determination paid off, and now she will compete in the 500-metre and 1,000-metre sprints.

In addition to the supports she draws from her friends and family, Myers turns to two-time Olympic gold medalist and former teammate Catriona Le May Doan.
“ She is an inspiration

in all the obvious ways, world record holder, etc., but as well, she never put herself above anyone and is always willing to help you on or off the ice. She still takes time to come out to watch and offer support and advice.”

When she’s not skating, Myers enjoys riding her horse, Mervin, at her parent’s farm in Llyodminster. She hopes to attend medical school and specialize in pediatrics or surgery