Whistler News

First Person-Henry Wohler: CPC President sees bright future for Paralympics through recruitment, funding and better equipment Published Date: 2006-03-14 Time: 10:43:41, Pique Newsmagazine It’s a bright, sunny Tuesday at Sestriere Borgata, the site of the sit ski and visually impaired Paralympic Super G events, and Canadian Paralympic Committee president Henry Wohler is waiting patiently to personally congratulate Edmonton’s Kimberly Joines for winning a bronze medal. Visually impaired skier Chris Williamson and guide Bobby Taylor also won bronze, but he didn’t know that until the gold medal winners were qualified for breaking a rule on how far apart guides and racers have to be. Wohler hasn’t been on the job for that long. He became president by default when former president Patrick Jarvis was named in January to the International Paralympic Committee after heading the CPC for seven years. Formerly a vice president for the CPC, Wohler will now fill in as president until the end of his term. He has been with the CPC board for the past eight years, but his involvement with adaptive high performance sport goes back further than that. He was president of the Canadian Association of Disabled Skiing from 1994 to 2005, and was the Chef de Mission for the Canadian Paralympic Team in 2010. His goal now is to make Canada the number one country when we host the Winter Paralympic Games in 2010. Pique: We’re only four days in, but how would you say things are going so far? Henry Wohler: Very well. Obviously when we have a racer finish fourth, 16 100th’s out of the medals we feel for the athlete, but we’re very happy with the way things are going. Pique: What about the crowds? I don’t think anybody expected this much interest. HW: I can compare things to the Salt Lake City Games where I was the Chef de Mission for the Canadian Team, and I have to say I’m totally impressed with the attendance. It’s just been phenomenal. I’ve been to sledge hockey, curling, and cross country, and now alpine, and there are sold out crowds everywhere. I think that’s great for the athletes and for the sports. Pique: Now we have the Paralympic Games in 2010 to prepare for. Is the level of interest in these Games raising the bar for us? HW: No kidding the bar has been raised, there’s no question that we’re expecting a similar level of interest in 2010. We’re trying to keep the Paralympics high on the (planning) agenda to make sure it’s not overshadowed by the Olympics, and so far it’s looking good and the people seem very keen. There’s already a lot of interest in 2010 from all the people I’ve talked to, so I wouldn’t be surprised if see a lot of spectators from Europe making the trip. It’s going to be a busy time. Part of the credit has to go to VANOC and what they’ve done with B.C. Canada Place. People are really impressed with it, and how visual the displays are, and I think it will make a big difference for us four years from now. Pique: I’ve noticed that we don’t have athletes in every event, and that we have a small team compared to some other countries. Are you actively recruiting at this point, with four years to go? HW: It’s already started. It’s already come to our attention that there is a real need to bolster our teams. We’ll be competing against countries like the United States, which can send almost 30 alpine skiers to Torino. To win medals we really need to focus on Nordic events and alpine, where there are the most events. We already have great teams for sledge hockey and curling, so we have to build up our individual sports. There are recruitment programs that the CPC has put into place with support from 2010 Own The Podium that are very important to us. We also launched a campaign called Feel The Rush at the start of these Games to help us in terms of recruitment at all levels. Of course we’re looking at 2010, but we also have to look at 2012, and 2014, and 2016 and so on. All of this is a great chance to put a long-term national development program into place. Pique: What about the level of competition? It seems like it’s harder to win medals every year. How do we not only keep up, but get to a position where we can dominate? HW: Every Games the level of competition is going up exponentially, but we can rise with it. In Torino we have several athletes who are in their first Olympics, like Kimberly Joines who is in her first year with the national team, and she won a bronze today. It’s also the first Games for Arly Fogarty, and she was 10th in the Super G yesterday. Behind them we have some new blood coming up, thank god, but we need more. What Canadians should be proud of, looking at Alpine, is how competitive we can be. Two years ago we finished ninth as a team on the World Cup, there were some injuries and things, and this year we were back up to fourth. We came into the Games in fourth with 11 athletes as opposed to Austria, which has 22 athletes, and the States, which has 27. We’re a small group that has been winning a lot of medals. Pique: Is Own The Podium central to your long-term plans. HW: Oh yes. You can see the difference it has made in just one year. Some athletes would not be here at these Games without the support of Own The Podium. It’s helped us to fund more athletes to get to more competitions, to qualify for the Paralympics, we have greater staff support, like coaching and physiotherapists. The difference so far has been immeasurable, and we still have four years to look forward to. Pique: One part of the Own The Podium funding is for the development of technology. It seems like the Paralympics, where athletes use a lot of equipment, could benefit a lot from better technology. HW: There’s a lot of room for research in Canada, and development. A lot of times the sit ski athletes are actually making their own equipment, so there’s a lot of room there. Also, look at sledge hockey. You can see that the equipment is really improving, and we can’t afford to be left behind. That’s one place where we could spend big dollars. The bottom line is we have to start motivating people, get more kids and people with disabilities involved and to support them with a good, seamless system for them to advance and develop. It’s coming together, but we can’t be patient if we want to be the best.

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