Sport Shorts: Canadians Warm Up With the Weather
Canadians Rule the Pool: Hometown swimmer Victoria Poon took gold in both the 50-metre and 100-metre freestyle at the Canada Cup in Montreal. Her teammate and fellow Montrealer, Gabrielle Soucisse took the 50-metre backstroke title. On the men’s side, Mathieu Bois earned the win in the 50-metre breaststroke and Hassaan Abdel-Khalik took gold in the 200-metre freestyle.
World Softball Bronze: The Canadian women’s softball team took their second medal in the history of the ISF Women’s World Softball Championships—bronze. Team Canada ended the tournament with an 8-3 record and set their sights on the World Cup of Softball, which begins July 22nd in Oklahoma.
Rowing to Glory: The Canadian women’s eight crew rowed their way to a win at the Henley Royal Regatta. Team Canada crossed the line ahead of the local favourites from Great Britain to take the title. 2008 Olympian Malcolm Howard took the men’s singles title, while Matt Jensen and Rares Crisan took the pairs title.
Hanging Up His Sled: Two-time Olympic medallist Pierre Lueders has retired from competitive bobsleigh. The five-time Olympian is Canada’s most decorated bobsleigh pilot and moves into a new role with Bobsleigh Canada, coaching the next generation of Canadian bobsleigh pilots.
Furlong Appointed to Order of Canada: VANOC CEO John Furlong was one of 74 individuals appointed to the Order of Canada. Furlong, who will join the Own The Podium Advisory Board as chairman, was joined by distinguished Canadians like astronaut Julie Payette and Michael Wilson, former Canadian ambassador to the United States.
Bolt Joins Youth Olympic Games Ambassadors: Three-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt is the latest high-profile athlete to sign on as a Youth Olympic Games Ambassador, joining a star-studded list that also includes Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps and pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva. Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who holds the World and Olympic records in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m-relay events, will encourage young people around the globe to become more active in sport.
Coach Duff: Duff Gibson, who became the first Canadian athlete to win Olympic gold in skeleton in 2006, will take over the reins as head coach of Canada’s National Skeleton Program. At 39, he became the oldest individual gold-medallist in the history of the Olympic Winter Games. His competitive career over, he spent the last two seasons coaching Canada’s highly-successful Intercontinental Cup and development-level athletes.
