One Month Until the Olympics!

With t-minus one month until The Games begin I've decided to profile one female and one male athlete daily, leading up to the games. Today, Adam van Koeverden and Christine Sinclair.

This Oakville native (and McMaster grad! Shout out to my hometown) is a 30 year old kayaker. I'm not sure if he took up the sport because of his love of palindromes (kayak- spelled the same forward and backwards, as is Madam Im Adam, coincidence?) He races the 1000m and 1500m. He not only has previous Olympic experience he has previous experience medalling.  At the 2004 games  "Van Koeverden won two medals, including a gold in the K-1 500 m and a bronze in the K-1 1000 m. He was Canada's flag bearer at the closing ceremonies and was later awarded theLou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete of 2004"(Wikipedia, 2012) he followed his success with a silver medal in the K-1500 at the next Olympics (Where he was our opening ceremony flag bearer) in a photo finish where he was initially listed as 3rd. 

In an interview he recently spoke about putting the last games behind him and moving on. Some (aka jerks who should shut up) criticised Adam for not finishing better coming off of a great World's season. It's sport, people have bad days. I'm sure no one was more disappointed than he. Adam is also an ambassador for Right to Play (righttoplay.ca) inspiring hundreds. Adam has his own well written and interesting blog. It can be found at: http://vankayak.com/. His twitter handle is: @vankayak


I'm not objectifying, this topless picture is purely to demonstrate his athleticism. 

Next up, Christine Sinclair. Canada's soccer (officially football) superstar. Last year during the FIFA Women's World Cup (where she played with a broken nose) this woman amazed me. Although some say that the World's were a debachle for the team, I was hooked. I watched every game and marvelled at the athletcism of the women. 





Found this picture along with a comment,
"a player you wish was American"



Christine is considered the best Canadian soccer player. She has been a member of the national team for 3 World Cups and at the last Olympic Games. In addition, for the last 10 years she's had a  a “Top-5 Player in the World” status (olympic.ca). Christine is the same age as me- 29! (and to think, I'm working up to a 10 K and this woman is Canada's 7-time soccer player of the year) and is from Burnaby B.C. She can solve a rubix cube and before a game everything goes on left side first. She's also a mama's girl citing her mom as her hero. She most recently played professionally for Western New York.

The Olympics officially begin July 27 but the soccer tournament starts earlier. Canada opens the Olympics on July 25 against World Cup champion Japan. The team is currently ranked #7 in the world and will also have to compete against South Africa (61) and Sweden (4). I look forward to watching these determined women face the world.

Christine's twitter handle is: @sincy12 

Well, that is day 1 to the Olympics countdown complete. Only 29 more to go. Summer isn't traditionally our time to shine, Canada. As supporters we can though. Team Canada has invested so much into their respective sport. We can invest a fraction of that into cheering them on.