|
|
|
|
David Hearn’s 2000 Olympic JournalThe International flair of Canoe & Kayak competitionOur whitewater training sessions on the Olympic course are sort of cool. Geography is working for us here with Macedonia and Italy in our practice group. Our US Team coach, Silvan Poberaj speaks the various languages of these countries neighboring his Slovenian mother country, which helps in organizing the athletes to work together, preventing utter chaos on the water. Great Britain and Australian C1 boaters Stuart McIntosh and Robin Bell were doing head to head sprints down the U-shaped whitewater course during our session one day. Now our training sessions are with Great Britain, Spain, Slovenia, and Japan. English is the method of choice for verbal communication among these athletes. As of today there are 21 countries competing in the Whitewater Slalom Olympic Games. They are: AUS, AUT, BRA, CAN, CRO, CZE, ESP, FRA, GBR, GER, IRL, ITA, JPN, MAR, MKD, POL, POR, SLO, SUI, SVK, and USA. Guess the country from the code. A fun game to play with your friends, and I have provided the country key at the end of the story. The flags are up at the course, and another game is to know the countries from the flags, quick, in order. There are seven international husband and wife teams, including Jennifer and I, of various combinations of athlete and coach at the 2000 Olympics. Rebecca Bennett Giddens and Eric Giddens of the USA; athlete/ coach Maria Eizmendi, Spain and Pierpaolo Ferrazzi, Italy; athlete/ athlete Violetta Peters Oblinger and Helmut Oblinger Austrian athletes (she was German) Florence Fernandes and Anibal Fernandes Portugal's athlete/ coach (she was French) Stepanka Hilgertova and Lubos Hilgert of the Czech Republic; athlete/ coach Myriam Jerulsalmi Fox and Richard Fox, formerly racing for France and Great Britain respectively and now both coaching the Australian Olympic Team. Our USA coaching staff is also very international with Silvan, Rafal Smolen of Poland, and Yves Narduzzi of France, working in sync with Eric Giddens, Bob Campbell and Jennifer Hearn. Many of the Olympic volunteers are paddlers, friends or family members of paddlers and former racers. Many of these people are those I have known over the past twenty some odd years of international racing, like Gary Nelson. Gary was a member of the Australian Team from 1973 to 1983. Paddlers like this, I think, would give their eyeteeth to still be out on the water competing in the Olympics when they see me training. There is a special hour of water time each morning reserved for "water safety training" when many of the volunteers at the course take the opportunity to test themselves on this raging playground of Olympic whitewater. Australia is a lot like home. It's the best foreign country I've ever been to. Australian Father's Day on September 3 even saw Billy Bass the Singing Fish for sale at the mall. American advertisements abound (Get your burgers from the King, not a clown) including some on the international paddlers boat decals (now banned due to Olympic rules) including PowerBar and Teva! Olympic excitement increased hugely with the arrival of the Olympic Torch to Penrith on Sunday. Young Jesse Carter Hearn, sitting on my shoulders, squealed with delight at the sight of the Torch being carried past us. The cheer of choice seems to be Aussie, Aussie, oy, oy, oy! Not much chance of hearing U-S-A, U-S-A around here! Country Code KEY with 83 whitewater athletes and 71 slalom boats competing in the 2000 Olympic Games:
|
|
Copyright © Maximum Whitewater Performance 2005
This website and all content within are property of MWP unless otherwise noted Last updated: January 18, 2006 |
