Heritage committee gets last Olympic update before the new year

By Fangliang Xu

The Russian government is intentionally delaying entry visas for some Canadian athletes in the leadup to the Sochi Winter Olympics, a parliamentary committee has heard.

“We have already seen some gamesmanship,” Peter Judge, the CEO of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, describing some of the delays as “malicious.”

“For example, the access to training, or even just getting a visa into the country, is extremely difficult,” Judge said.

The committee heard from representatives from the bobsleigh, skeleton and ski teams today. In addition to Judge, the committee heard from Don Wilson, the chief executive officer of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton and Curtis Lyon, the chairman of Ski Jumping Canada.

Wilson said athletes’ parents are also affected by the Russian government’s stonewalling on timely entry visas and are uncertain they’ll be allowed into the country and fear that access to the Games will be limited upon arrival.

“Is there anything that can be done at a government level to help?” Conservative MP Jim Hillyer asked.

“We are going to suck it up,” Wilson said.

Despite visa and security issues, Wilson predicted bobsleigh athletes will rake in three medals at the Winter Games come February, adding, all the top Canadian athletes in that category have been to Sochi twice last year to become as familiar as they can with the environment.

Judge said since the location was officially announced in 2008, he’s already visited Sochi eight times.

He added the team has been there four times since 2008 to gain more competition experience and to become more familiar with what he calls “a hostile environment.”

“Sochi will be probably one of the most hostile venues that we would encounter. It’s going to be a very broad spectrum from easy to hard,” Judge said.

Judge expressed confidence the 26 Canadian freestyle ski athletes are all medal potential athletes after their full preparation and training.

When Liberal MP Stéphane Dion asked what the government could do to help with the sports’ future, Wilson said more coaches are needed for freestyle skiing.

For his part, Judge said more athletes are needed in the bobsleigh and skeleton system.

“We are very concerned about where will be our next athlete for 2018 and 2022,” Judge said.

While it takes at least four years to train an experienced bobsleigh athlete it can take from eight to 12 years to turn a novice to a champion in skeleton, he added.

Tuesday’s committee meeting was the fifth dealing with Olympic preparation in this Parliamentary session and is the last until the new year.