Canadian National Snowboard Team Chosen
by Shanti Sosienski
(July 1, 1997)

After a week long weeding out process at Blackcomb, a team of seventeen men and ten women was officially announced on June 29th. The Canadian National Team will spend the remainder of the summer and the fall training and competing in hopes of winning a spot representing Canada at the Olympics through one of the three Canadian Grand Prix contests in December and January.

The trial camp for the team attracted over 100 riders to Blackcomb for the week of June 23-30. The first two days cut the finals down to 45 men and fifteen women. The competition was fierce, as the remaining riders were some of the best halfpipe competitors in Canada. The finals took place on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and involved riding the pipe in contest format in the morning, personality interviews, and seminars on Olympic policy in the afternoons.

One of the more entertaining seminars was titled "Doping" and offered step-by-step instruction on the drug testing procedure that would take place for those who made it onto the team. The IOC (International Olympic Committee) speaker handed out pamphlets on the testing procedures, which brought snickers to much of her audience. Understandably so as the pamphlet explained how people being tested would have to be watched by someone of the same sex as they urinated into a cup and would have to be disrobed from the waist to thigh.

The speaker also discussed a blood altercating procedure that is illegal, but has been used in recent years by runners and cyclist. The idea behind the blood spiking is this: the athlete removes a pint of his or her blood a week prior to competing and stores it. The blood regenerates itself and and then right before the contest is added back into the body. Apparently this procedure dramatically increases an athletes performance because of the extra dose of red blood cells.

Other things mentioned that could cause the athletes to fail the drug test were simple daily items one often comes across like poppy seeds, cold pills, and various types of protein powders that contain a trace of steroids. Surprisingly a lot of vitamin supplements and antibiotics contain substances the IOC considers illegal. Not surprisingly marijuana was not something the Olympic team would be testing for, however, the Canadian team was still undecided as to whether they would be testing for this substance.

After the three days of seminars, morning halfpipe sessions, and interviews the final team was picked. These snowboarders will travel together next season to contests and hopefully six to eight of them will be competing in Nagano this next winter. A spot on the national team doesn't guarantee an Olympic spot, however, most of the people on the team said that being on the team will help Seventeen men and ten women were chosen out of all of the contenders. The list is as follows: