Our Olympic Athletes! - Women's Hockey Team, Part 1

In order to celebrate the EPIC win made by Canada's Women's Hockey Team, the next few weeks will be dedicated to talking about the girls who brought home the gold!

First up born and raised in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, is Hayley Wickenheiser! Being the National Hockey Team Captain since 2007 and regarded as one of the best hockey players in the world, Wickenheiser has competed in 4 Winter Olympic Games, winning 3 gold and 1 silver. Being a famous hometown hero, Wickenheiser even has "Wickenheiser Place" put up in her honour! Not only limited to hockey, this all-around woman also knows the ups and downs to softball and was even appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of the highest honours given to those who have contributed a great deal to Canada, in 2011.

Our next athlete is Meghan Agosta-Marciano. Raised in Ruthven, Ontario, she's been part of the national team since 2004 and playing hockey since 6. Prior to taking home the gold just last Thursday, she's won gold in the past Turin, Italy (2006) and Vancouver (2010) Winter Olympics. When she's not practicing the sport she's most famous for, Agosta-Marciano practices Law, earning her Criminal Justice Law Enforcement degree with a minor in Criminalist Psychology. Aside from that, she could also be seen playing golf and skeet shooting. A funny story about Agosta-Marciano, when she first started hockey, she had to play in some of the younger boy hockey teams since there were no girls teams available yet.

Next is Catherine Ward, une montréalaise who's been a part of the team for many years. With Vancouver acting as her Olympic debut, Sochi proved to be, once again, successful for the Canadienne athlete, adding onto her many awards, titles and medals. A cute detail about her is that she started hockey when she was five, wanting to join her dad and brother on the center ice as well. A fun memory that she recalls is the three of them going out to outdoor rinks and skating and playing until they couldn't feel their toes.



Next is our first goalie, born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Shannon Szabados! Growing up playing against and with boys, Szabados currently has a tournament save percentage of 98.04%, making her one of the top goaltenders in the country. In Vancouver, she let in only 1 out of 51 shots on her and earned a shutout in the gold medal game win against the US. She got into the sport by watching hockey on TV with her dad. At the age of five, she one day went up to her dad and asked if she could play. It's a good thing he said yes, because now we have a strong, determined and amazing goalie that we're proud of!

Raised in Beauceville, Québec, Marie-Philip Poulin was only 18; the youngest member of the Canadian Women's Hockey Team, when Canada won the gold in Vancouver. Being a key component, spectators fondly remember Poulin scoring the goals in the victory against the States. Being a part of the national team since 2007, Poulin has a pot-pourri of titles under her belt such as MVP, top forward and media all-star. Outside of the ice, she's studies psychology at Boston U and is close to finishing.

Our last, but never least, athlete for this week is Caroline Ouellette from Montréal, Quebec! A proud veteran of the team, Ouellette has her history of gold, winning it in Salt Lake City in 2002, Turin in 2006, Vancouver in 2010 and; to add to her collection, Sochi just last Thursday! Outside of the Canadian sport, she studied and completed a degree in Criminology and Women's Studies from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2005. A cool fact, she has an arena named in her honour!

Did you miss the game from Thursday? Ha, well, I'm sure you can find it somewhere. Have any teams you'd like to know about? Any particular athletes? Let us know! Tune in next week for more of the Canadian Women's Hockey Team members!

 

 GOOD JOB LADIES! YOU'VE DONE YOUR COUNTRY PROUD, YET AGAIN!

Our Olympic Athletes! - Our Veteran Skaters

In order to celebrate the world's first ever silver medal won in Team Figure Skating, the Sulli Scholar will continue to write about the Canadian team that made (and continues to make) our country proud! This time around, we're focusing this article on the skaters with national and international experience.

("Wait... But what's Team Figure Skating" you ask? "We won silver?!" Yes, we did! Check it out on my previous article! http://letsfindsomethinginteresting.blogspot.ca/2014/02/the-2014-winter-olympics-in-sochi.html)

Our first lovely lady is Kaetlyn Osmond from Sherwood Park, Alberta who is the newest star of the Canadian figure-skating scene. Winning a bronze in Vancouver, Osmond's international career all started when she won the Nebelhorn Trophy back in 2012. A bit of background knowledge, the Nebelhorn Trophy is a coveted trophy given to the winner of an international senior-level competition held in Oberstdorf, Germany every year. The trophy is named after the nearby mountain. Anyways, Osmond is a new face to figure skating in general. She got into the sport when she saw her sister, Natasha Osmond, figure skate. Like all siblings, she wanted to be just as good as her, and from the age of two, started pushing herself to be at the same level as her sister.

(Did you know that siblings often compete in the Olympics together? For some siblings, check out my article here! http://letsfindsomethinginteresting.blogspot.ca/2014/01/our-olympic-athletes-siblings.html)

Our next athlete is Tessa Virtue, an athlete born and raised in London, Ontario with the fantastic reputation of earning North America's first ever Olympic Ice Dancer Champion with her partner Scott Moir. Being trained in other dance styles such as ballet and modern dance, Virtue started skating when she was six in order so that she could skate with her friends in her upcoming grade 1 field trip. When she turned seven, she was already starting to skate on the ice. At that time, she was paired up with her current partner, Scott Moir! Though shy at first, the pair slowly but surely grew together, becoming one of Canada's most successful and passionate ice dancing pairs.
Along with the lovely Tessa Virtue we have her charming partner, Scott Moir! Raised in Ilderton, Ontario, Moir happily carries the title of Olympic Ice Dancer Champion with Virtue. His skating journey came about when he was a young three year-old, wanting to be able to skate with his mom. After that, he tried skating faster in order to get to hockey, but upon finding some REALLY pretty girls in figure skating, he decided to do that instead. His first partner was Tessa Virtue, a young seven year-old at the time. Though shy, their friendship and trust began to grow into one of the most powerful team Canada has ever seen.

A REALLY local BC boy (Coquitlam, to be exact) Kevin Reynolds had his first Olympic breakthrough last year, taking an unexpected gold medal in the International Skating Union's (ISU's) Four Continents Championships. This medal marked his first senior victory, adding on to his many, previous national titles. Being just short of making it to Vancouver, Reynolds successfully qualified for the Figure Skating Team in this year's Olympics. A cool fact to know about Reynolds, he enjoys playing video games and is determined to learn Japanese in order to communicate with other athletes and fans.

Last, however as always, certainly not least, we have Patrick Chan. Brought up in Toronto, Ontario, this Canadian figure skater is perhaps one of the most famous figure skaters, being the reigning world champion for THREE years in a row. Along with this are his two impressive Grand Prix Final and ISU Four Continent champion titles. Despite this handsome resumé, Chan continues to strive to become Canada's first ever male figure skating gold medallist. Continually working hard, Chan moves on. One more day passed and another step closer to his dream.

Want to know about the other members of the team? Check out my previous article! http://letsfindsomethinginteresting.blogspot.ca/2014/02/our-olympic-atheletes-debut-figure.html
Have any athletes you want to know about in particular? Let me know!

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi - Stadiums: 2014 vs. 2010

There are many differences between each Olympics every year. For one, they are never consecutively hosted in the same country or city and the medal placings, of course, change from year to year. However, a main difference between each of the occuring Olympic Games are the buildings used to host those Games. Often, the cities that host invest immense amounts of resources towards building new, fantastic stadiums for the international event and often, these buildings differ from country to country. One only has to look at Vancouver's BC Place Stadium and Sochi's Fisht Olympic Stadium for such a comparison. In factors such as appearance and the time took to build both vary considerably.

Firstly, let us look locally towards Vancouver. The BC Place Stadium is, of course, not new. In fact, it is very old. The stadium was constructed in 1981 in which it was completed in 1983. The construction we're familiar with, however, took place on May 4, 2010. This was for the installation of a new, retractable roof:

Other things to note are the fact that BC Place has an oval design. This is to coincide with the various football and soccer matches that take place here. In this way, it has a lot in common with other stadiums across the world. Aesthetically, it's not anything unique, however, the fact it is situated in such a way that it is both surrounded by city and water is truely beautiful.

Meanwhile in Sochi, we have the Fisht Olympic Stadium. This stadium was built recently and, for now, solely for the Olympics. Being contructed and opened in 2013, the Fisht has certainly established itself fairly quickly and charmingly:

While the Russian stadium has been argued to have been built too fast, its results are absoulutely stunning. Not your typical stadium, the exterior in itself is pleasing to the eyes. However, the surrounding area around the stadium is somewhat... Stale. Maybe that's a good thing considering it's a very eye-catching building in itself, but up close the stadium seems too empty. But still, incredibly beautiful.

Our Olympic Athletes! - Debut Figure Skaters!

To celebrate Canada and the World's first ever silver medal win in Team Figure Skating, this post, along with next week's is dedicated to introducing the figure skaters who worked their hardest in order to make Canada proud. (Which they did! Awesome job guys!) Our athletes this time, however, have one thing in common (other than taking part in the same sport). They all are in pairs AND Sochi serves as their Olympic debut!

Our first athlete is from St. Catharines, Ontario who is known to be a proud and funny hard worker. Here is Kirsten Moore-Towers! A fun story that is passed around is the story of how Moore-Towers became a figure skater. It all started when her mom brought Moore-Towers to skating at the age of two, thinking that it was an important skill to master. It was a typical child-parent scenario: The kid didn't like it, but the parent told her not to give up. By the time Moore-Towers grew into the sport, it found a very important place in her heart. From then on, she continued to train, always telling her mom that someday, she would go to the Olympics. Fast forward to 2014 Sochi serves as that dream, Olympic debut. With her and her beaming partner, Dylan Moscovitch, they have established a stong reputation of always pleasing a crowd and putting on a show.

Skating with the lovely Kirsten Moore-Towers mentioned above, Dylan Moscovitch is a Toronto-born athlete who is known for his charming sense of humour and passionate, energetic and fun performances. Moscovitch has had a long history with ice, learning how to skate right after he learned how to walk. Like his partner, Moscovitch has told his parents his dream of competing in the Olympics for as long as he can remember. One of his fondest memories is of him watching his now teammates Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir win gold in Vancouver. As the clock ticked by 4 years later, he is in Sochi, skating and devouring his Olympic debut and working together with his partner and the teammates he admired all those years ago in BC.

Our next athlete was born in Sudbury, Ontario. Falling just short of making the cut in 2010, Meagan Duhamel is in Sochi, ecstatic about her Olympic debut. A bit of background about Duhamel, at the age of three she would skate with her sister, cousins and uncles during their breaks in family hockey games. There, she was taught so skate, and loved it. When her athletic career was growing, her previous partner, Craig Buntin, announced his retirement in late 2010. This left Duhamel unsure about her future. Then her coach, Coach Richard Gauthier, suggested that she try out with Eric Radford, her current partner. Both athletes were a bit hesitant... after all, they had went through a few partners and the results weren't that good. However, thanks to a bit of encouragement, the duo have had steady progress in their skills and have since greatly improved their international results.

Our last, but certainly not least skater is Eric Redford who was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. An intersting tidbit about Radford, he started out as a solo skater, winning various titles and awards at young ages. However, as he grew (in height and in experience) he was starting to look better suited for pairs. At first, it didn't turn out too well until he paired up with Meagan Duhamel after the Vancouver Olympics. A thing to note about Radford is that he loves music. Growing up, he fell in love with the sport because it was a unique sport performed to music. Studying music in York University, Radford has even compiled many piano pieces, one of which is used in one of Radford and Duhamel's 2013-2014 event!

Did you know that Canada won silver in the WORLD'S FIRST EVER Team Figure Skating Event? Check out the details here! http://letsfindsomethinginteresting.blogspot.ca/2014/02/the-2014-winter-olympics-in-sochi.html
Want to know about an athlete or team in particular? Let us know!

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi - Canada's Historic Figure Skating Medal

As the Winter Olmpics commence and our athletes fight hard in the hopes of winning medals, one medal has made Canadian history as of February 9th, 2014. Being second place in the figure skating events, Canada proudly took a silver medal, being just short of a gold and just above a bronze. While the medal's value in itself is amazing on Canada's part, the significance of the medal is much more outstanding.

Firstly, a bit of background knowledge. A bit before the Olympics started, it was announced that a new event would be included into the Winter Olympic itinerary. An event called Team Figure Skating. The rules are simple. Each country compiles a team of skaters based on tryouts, discipline and abilities. In that team, there must be one man, woman, pair and dance couple. When the team performs, each individual or pair will perform, their scores will be given and averaged and viola, the medals are then distributed accordingly. While this is fairly simple at first glance, there's a lot of strategy involved. For example, a medal won in this event counts for only ONE medal in the medal counter. So, should a coach put his/her best skaters in the team and win ONE gold medal or mix it up a bit so that you can lose a medal and possibly win 3 or 4 more?

(TSN wrote a WONDERFUL article about this. Check it out here! http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=443400 )

Anyway, that's the strategy involved in this event.

In the world debut of the event, Canada did wonderfully and brought home silver. Being the first event of its kind in history, it's encouraging to know that Canada will now be added in the Olympic World Records as the first team to win a silver medal for Team Figure Skating.

All of our athletes did a wonderful job! Keep working hard everybody!

The team was as follows (Left to Right):
Patrick Chan
Kaetlyn Osmond
Dylan Moscovitch
Kirsten Moore-Towers
Kevin Reynolds
Eric Radford
Meagan Duhmel
Tessa Virtue
Scott Moir

Want to know a bit about the athletes? Check out my blog post about the athletes on this team! http://letsfindsomethinginteresting.blogspot.ca/2014/02/our-olympic-atheletes-debut-figure.html