SKATING TOWARD SOCHI
CANADIAN ATHLETES SNUB SECURITY FEARS
For the last week, Kaylin Irvine declared a personal blackout on all forms of social media to prevent distraction from the task at hand.
No Twitter. No Facebook. No casual glances at her favourite sports websites.
And so on Tuesday, mere minutes after skating the race of her life to qualify for the 2014 Winter Games, the Calgarian hardly understood the question from a waiting news reporter.
In essence: How does she feel about her safety given the two deadly bombings in the Russian city of Volgograd, just 650 kilometres from the site of the Sochi Games?
“I’m not worried,” the 23-yearold graduate of the National Sport School said after nailing down a spot on the Olympic team with a third-place finish in the 1,000 metres behind Olympic champion Christine Nesbitt, of London, Ont. and Kali Christ, of Regina. “I wasn’t actually even aware of that.”
She bit her down on her lower lip.
“It’s sort of been tunnel vision going into this competition, so no, I’m sure it will be fine, and things will be under control.”
The death toll sits at a combined 31 people from a suicide bombing Sunday in Volgograd’s main train station and a suicide bombing Monday on a Volgograd bus.
For months, Canada’s aspiring Olympians have fielded questions surrounding Russia’s anti-gay laws. With the Games only 38 days away, safety and security will no doubt dominate the discussion as the various sports bodies take turns announcing their respective teams.
“When inhuman acts of violence occur in one part of the world, we are all affected,” Canadian Olympic Committee president Marcel Aubut said in a statement Tuesday night. “We offer our full support to the Russian Olympic Committee and those tasked with ensuring a safe Olympic Games for the world’s athletes, coaches and visitors.
“We have complete faith in the Sochi 2014 organizing committee in upholding the appropriate security levels at the Olympic Games. We also believe in their ability to work collaboratively with other governments and national Olympic committees to ensure that all necessary measures are in place.”
On the cusp of competing at her first Olympics, Christ shares Aubut’s belief that security will be sound in Russia.
“I think I’ll be safe out there,” she said. “The International Olympic Committee and the COC and everyone have taken precautions. It should be good.”
Biathlete Rosanna Crawford has her reservations over all the instability surrounding what is supposed to be the ultimate celebration of sport.
“It’s pretty disappointing,” Crawford told Global News. “I think everything leading up to the Sochi Olympics has been very sad — with the gay rights movement and everything — I think there should’ve been a lot more thought (put) into it maybe before they were awarded the Olympics.”
Notes: Thirty-seven-year-old Jeremy Wotherspoon will not represent Canada at a fifth Olympics. His comeback bid stalled Saturday when he failed to qualify in his signature distance of 500 metres. On Tuesday afternoon, Wotherspoon — a silver medallist at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan — withdrew from the 1,000-metre competition to officially end his bid to compete in Sochi.