Whistler for the Disabled: Whistler News

Music, fanfare greet Paralympic emblem

Chew’s special delivery highlights a day of speeches, merriment

Whistler Question Newspaper: Reporter: David Burke dburke@whistlerquestion.com Published September 21st, 2006

About 3,000 people had a taste on the weekend of what the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics might well be like.
During an event to celebrate the unveiling of the 2010 Paralympic emblem, a high-spirited crowd enjoyed live appearances by some of Canada’s top Paralympic athletes, along with dignitaries (Prime Minister Stephen Harper and “Man in Motion” Rick Hansen appeared via video feed while Olympic skier Nancy Greene-Raine spoke in the flesh) and Olympic and Paralympic video clips on the big screen on Saturday (Sept. 16) at the Whistler Golf Course driving range.

While many came to see big-name musical acts such as Spirit of the West, Chantal Kreviazuk and the Philosopher Kings perform, undoubtedly the highlight was the arrival of the Paralympic emblem by special delivery — courtesy of Whistler’s best-known Paralympic star, Phil Chew.

Chew, a three-time Paralympic skier and current coach of the B.C. Disabled Ski Team, was caught on camera — his image projected onto the big screen in front of the crowd — as he pedaled his mountain bike, one-legged, past the base of the Whistler Mountain Bike Park, along back laneways and into the venue, where event volunteers had cleared a path in anticipation of his arrival.

Cheered on by the crowd, Chew cycled around the side of the stage, where he rolled up a ramp and was greeted on stage by MC and long-time Olympic television host Brian Williams.
“Thought you might need this,” Chew said, panting, as he handed Williams a digital video disk with a five-minute clip introducing the new Paralympic logo.

Chew then acknowledged his many friends in the crowd.

The celebration of the Paralympic spirit also included appearances on stage by Whistlerite Brad Lennea, a current member of the Canadian Disabled Ski Team, and 2006 Canadian Paralympic stars Sonja Gaudet, Brian McKeever and Lauren Woolstencroft.

John Furlong, president and CEO of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee (VANOC), said the Paralympic emblem “Man Becomes Mountain” — a rhomboid-shaped representation of either Earth, sea, mountains and sun or a seated person striving ever forward, depending on how it’s viewed —was meant to represent both the event and the setting. The colours are the blue of the sky, the aquamarine of the sea and the green of the forest.

“We wanted the emblem to be a reflection of what the Paralympic athlete has to overcome,” Furlong told the audience. “In addition, we also wanted it to represent the season and the conditions that the athletes will compete in.

“What we want is that the athletes and the spectators are inspired. I'm here with my 12-year-old daughter, Molly, and I want her to be inspired by the true athletes that they are.”
Presentations by the athletes and politicians were interspersed between performances by the well-known musical acts - blues phenom Jim Byrnes and his band and folk icon Jeremy Fisher, in addition to those already mentioned.

The musicians also interacted with others on stage, and with the crowd.
Williams stepped out of his interviewer's role for a moment, jumping out on stage to high-step with members of Spirit of the West - prompting the band's frontman, John Mann, to quip, “Brian Williams - the Michael Flatley of announcing.”

During the Philosopher Kings' set, lead singer Jarvis Church asked for a female member of the audience to serenade and chose Whistlerite Darcy Fitzgerald, who sat on a stool and played along as Church cooed and romanced all around her, to the obvious delight of the crowd.