Canada’s track and field athletes haven’t won an Olympic medal since '96
Aug 08, 2007 04:30 AM
Lori Ewing
Canadian Press
It was a golden moment in 1996: sprinter Donovan Bailey raising the baton over his head in triumph a few metres from the finish line as the men’s relay team raced to a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics.
Few would have guessed that Canada would go more than a decade without seeing another Olympic medal in track and field.
The drought should have ended in 2004 in Athens. But Canada’s biggest hopes for a podium performance were dashed when world champion Perdita Felicien crashed to the track in the women’s 100-metre hurdles.
Now, a young squad that is preparing for Beijing in 2008 would love nothing better than to recapture the glory of past Canadian teams.
“We’ve got, right now, pretty strong prospects,” says Adam Kunkel, Canada’s record holder in the 400 hurdles. "There are a lot of young athletes coming through.
“We could even be talking about young athletes making Olympic finals and that’s amazing in and of itself.”
Canada’s best Games on the track in recent times was in 1992, when hurdler Mark McKoy won gold to lead the Canadian team to three medals in Barcelona. In 1996, Bailey captured gold in the 100 metres before leading the relay to victory – the only two track medals Canada won in Atlanta.
In 2004 in Athens, Canada’s top finish was sixth – by Charles Allen in the 110-metre hurdles, Angela Whyte in the women’s sprint hurdles, and Dana Ellis in pole vault.
Looking to put past disappointments behind it, Athletics Canada has tightened up its qualifying criteria and focused resources on athletes who have podium potential.
The result is a smaller team than in past years, but one that has plenty of promise.
“It’s nice to see there’s a new crop of us coming up,” says a confident Felicien.
“I always encourage people to get to know us, get to know the storylines because these are going to be the athletes that are going to be in Beijing winning medals.”
Canada has three of the world’s top women hurdlers in Felicien, Whyte and Priscilla Lopes. Felicien finished the 100-metre hurdles at this year’s Pan Am Games with the same time of 12.65 seconds as Jamaica’s Deloreen Ennis-London, but the Jamaican won the gold in a photo finish. Whyte collected bronze.
Heptathlete Jessica Zelinka is ranked fourth in the world and is only getting started – Beijing will be her first Olympic appearance. She took gold at this summer’s Pan Am Games.
Tyler Christopher won silver in the 400 metres at Pan Am – despite a slow start when he didn’t hear the starter’s gun in a noisy stadium – and is considered a medal favourite in Beijing.
But Canada’s track and field boss hesitates to predict medals in one of the world’s most competitive sports.
“It is foolish to focus on medals,” said Les Gramantik, head coach of Athletics Canada. “If we focus on getting to the final, then the medal may not be that far away.”
In 2004 in Athens, 39 different countries won track and field medals.
“The entire world is competing in track and field and you can’t say that about many of the other sports,” said Kunkel, whose goal is to medal in Beijing.
“It’s the oldest and probably most highly developed in the Games. It’s definitely the most competitive and a medal in track and field is really an incredible accomplishment.”
The track team should be better prepared for Beijing. With additional funding through the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Road to Beijing initiative – the summer equivalent of the Own the Podium winter sports plan – there’s been more research into the technological and physiological side of the sport. There are more sports medicine services available to athletes.
And the Canadian Olympic Committee is helping fund a trip to China this fall for Canada’s top seven track athletes.
“Everybody believes if you’ve never been to China, it’s so different you owe it to yourself to go there,” said Gramantik. "We’ll take our top people — Zelinka, Perdita, Angela Whyte, a couple of the top coaches as well.
“I think just the simple project of us going to Beijing, it’s a step we’ve never taken in the past. It’s tremendously positive.”