National Post (National Edition)
No denying Pan Ams a tough sell
Not Olympics, but it’s still sports at a high level
Why should we care? Curt Harnett is halfway through his Sicilian pizza when the question is asked. He is proudly wearing his Team Canada Pan American Games clothing. Suddenly he stops chewing.
“It’s a difficult message to break through in this media marketplace of Toronto,” said Harnett, the chef de mission for Canada’s contingent for next month’s Games. The Games that nobody really asked for.
But Harnett doesn’t view the world of sport that way. He competed eight times for Canada in Games. Twice in Pan Ams. Four times in Olympics. Twice in Commonwealth. He won eight Games medals of three different colours. Amateur sport, if that’s what all this is, has been an enormous part of his 50-year-old life.
He hears the question, understands it, stops poking at his pizza, and admits he doesn’t really comprehend the disdain, the disinterest, the lack of care that so many have for next month’s event in what seems to be forever traffically challenged southern Ontario.
“I do believe in my heart that Canadians do care about how our athletes do,” Harnett said. “And I really think this is an opportunity to express themselves and show their pride.
“I’ve travelled across the country to Vancouver, to Montreal, to St. John’s, talking about this. Let’s be clear. This is not the Olympics. And I can’t deny that it’s ... a challenge (to get people interested).
“But the investment has been made in southern Ontario, a place the rest of Canada already hates. How do we get Canadians to understand that we are a great sports country... I try to explain to people what my role is as chef de mission, and everybody asks me the same question: What culinary school did you go to? Some of them are joking. It’s a fun role. I enjoy this as chief delegate. I think this is going to be an amazing experience.”
But back to the original question, which hasn’t necessarily been answered, and Harnett won’t let his pizza grow cold. He is biting between sentences. His energy, his hunger for food, for life, for sport, is infectious. The hair isn’t long enough or wavy enough for him to do doing shampoo commercials anymore, but the energy, the love of sport, that’s still there.
Take this sporting chef to lunch and he may not completely explain why you should turn your July over to the Pan Am Games, but you will be taken in by his enthusiasm for country, for our athletes, for all that he himself has experienced.
“I went to the Pan Ams in Caracas as an 18-year-old,” he said. “It was an eye-opening experience for me. “If you’re used to one-sport events, it really changes how you view things. All the elements are here for the athlete — how you eat, how you sleep, how you get to your event, the schedule, it’s all different and that energized me.
“I was on the field at Rogers Centre not long ago with the women’s baseball team. When you see their energy, their excitement, I sat back in the dugout and just took it all in. The women’s baseball team had no idea who I was, nor did it matter. But if anyone had watched this, you’d want to see them play in the Pan Ams. You’d get caught up in all their energy and enthusiasm.”
The Pan Am Games are not the Olympics in more ways than not showcasing Usain Bolt, Mo Farah or Missy Franklin. There are too many sports, too many events, and some, how do we say this nicely, unusual stuff. There is bowling. There is roller speedskating, and if you don’t like that, there is roller figure skating. There is wakeboarding along with water-skiing. There is no shortage of recreational shlock.
“You don’t need to see the best in the world to appreciate a sport,” said Harnett. “It’s not about Usain Bolt coming here or not coming here. I understand the way some people think. I’m fighting an uphill battle with people’s perceptions that it’s not the Olympics, it’s not a world championship, I get that.
“But I think that’s misguided, too. I can say this in complete honesty, and usually I get in trouble for complete honesty. I saw table tennis in Guadalajara, and I had never seen high-level table tennis before. And I was blown away by it. Same with badminton. Same with fencing. Same with water-skiing. It was, oh my God, this is absolutely out of this world. And when I saw rugby 7s for the first time in Manchester in 2002, it was like, where has this sport been all my life?”
Could the non-Olympic Pan Am Games, built for places like Winnipeg and Indianapolis, end up as an unmitigated disaster in a major market like Toronto?
“I don’t see how it could be,” said Harnett. “We’re Canadians. We have a Canadian way of celebrating success.” He said that while admitting his team has contingency plans for transportation. Just in case. We are, after all, Can
adians.