CALGARY — Five of Canada’s top female biathletes shed their lycra race suits to officially launch a nude calendar on Wednesday which they created to celebrate healthy, active women’s bodies, and also to generate money to fuel their quest for the international podium.

Zina Kocher, of Red Deer, Alta.; Sandra Keith, of Calgary; Rosanna Crawford, of Canmore, Alta.; Megan Imrie, of Falcon Lake, Man.; and Megan Tandy, of Prince, George, B.C., developed the plan to pose nude together in Bold Beautiful Biathlon, which is on sale now for $25 at www.boldbeautifulbiathlon.com on the Internet.

With a goal of targeting financial support from corporate Canada for their Olympic journey, the five Canadian women turned up the heat on a frigid Calgary morning when they roller skied through the downtown core during noon hour with nothing more than shorts, race bibs for tops, and their traditional biathlon rifles locked on their backs.

“We are extremely appreciative of the generous financial support given to our program by Sport Canada, and by Own the Podium to the athletes on our team that are projected to achieve excellence,” said Zina Kocher, a targeted athlete herself and the leader of the Canadian Biathlon Team, who in 2006 became the first Canadian to win a World Cup medal since Myriam Bedard did more than a decade ago. “But our sport remains significantly under-funded compared to our competitors, and one of the few winter sports in this country without a title sponsor or personal sponsors.”

Funding for an athlete’s annual budget comes from a variety of avenues. Personal sponsorships are a core component to covering the many annual expenses high-performance athletes face for both training and competition. Despite being one of the lone fully-funded athletes in the national biathlon program, Kocher and long-time World Cup and Olympic teammate Sandra Keith, took the lead in rallying their World Cup comrades to aggressively seek additional funding opportunities.

“We believe there is a tremendous opportunity for someone in corporate Canada to not only invest in this team and our drive to the Olympic podium, but also to invest in building a new image for young Canadian girls to look up to,” said Keith, who enjoyed a breakthrough season on the World Cup last year which included a career-best 11th-place result. “Contrary to a lot of images young girls are seeing on television and in magazines about the ideal woman’s body, it is a healthy athletic body that we should all be looking to maintain. You don’t need to be a high-performance athlete to be fit, and we are encouraging all women to be proud of their bodies.”

The photos of Keith, Kocher and their teammates were taken by Rachel Boekel and Adrian Marcoux in Canmore, Alta. Each athlete will be featured on two pages of the calendar, along with four group photos.

Nude calendars have become more common as fund-raising tools. Around the same time as the the “Nordic Nudes” calendar of 2001, the Australian Women’s Soccer team released a calendar of artistic photos featuring full-frontal nudity. High-jumper Amy Acuff organized Omni-Lite Millennium Calendar of Champions featuring Acuff and 11 other female track and field athletes in black-and-white photographs, mostly nude. Currently, a calendar titled “Women of Curling” is on sale, featuring nude curling athletes from around the world. The list goes on – golfers, rugby teams, and many more have created nude calendars to support their sport or cause.

At the time of the “Nordic Nudes” calendar, the practice was far from accepted, and both the Canadian women’s cross-country effort and the Australian women’s issue generated significant controversy, often from activists who claimed that the calendars were demeaning to women, both as people and as athletes. Critics pointed out that one rarely, if ever, saw male athletes producing nude calendars. But the calendars sell well, inspiring others to follow suit, and it appears that the practice has become generally accepted.

The Canadian biathletes were inspired to take on the project when thinking back to the success two of their Olympic heroes in cross-country skiing, Sara Renner and Beckie Scott, had in raising funds after producing a similar calendar in 2001. Renner and Scott, along with three other teammates, tastefully took their clothes off to also raise the profile of their sport while showing the world cross-country skiers were fit and healthy people.

“An athlete’s livelihood depends on their bodies and I believe athletes should be proud of their bodies. This calendar celebrates strong, athletic women,” said Sara Renner, who will compete in her fourth and final Olympic Winter Games in 2010. “As the mother of a daughter, I would be proud to see pictures of these role models on my child’s wall as opposed to a synthetically enhanced Hollywood star.”

Sales of the calendar took off for Canada’s cross-country ski women, which helped finance their preparations for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City where Beckie Scott became the first North American woman to win an Olympic medal when she won gold in the pursuit race. Scott and Renner later joined forces to win a silver medal in the team relay at the 2006 Olympics.

“A healthy, female body is a beautiful thing and if these girls choose to celebrate it with a calendar, then all the power to them,” said Scott, who also became a mother after retiring in 2006 with 17 World Cup and two Olympic medals. “The unique thing was we created this calendar right on the cusp of our team making huge strides in the sport internationally, and I hope this marks the same trend for the biathlon women. I wish them the very best and give them my full support.”

Nude calendars have become more common as fund-raising tools. Around the same time as the the “Nordic Nudes” calendar of 2001, the Australian Women’s Soccer team released a calendar of artistic photos featuring full-frontal nudity. High-jumper Amy Acuff organized Omni-Lite Millennium Calendar of Champions featuring Acuff and 11 other female track and field athletes in black-and-white photographs, mostly nude. Currently, a calendar titled “Women of Curling” is on sale, featuring nude curling athletes from around the world. The list goes on – golfers, rugby teams, and many more have created nude calendars to support their sport or cause.

At the time of the “Nordic Nudes” calendar, the practice was far from accepted, and both the Canadian women’s cross-country effort and the Australian women’s issue generated significant controversy, often from activists who claimed that the calendars were demeaning to women, both as people and as athletes. Critics pointed out that one rarely, if ever, saw male athletes producing nude calendars. But the calendars sell well and bring mainstream attention to fringe sports, inspiring others to follow suit, and it appears that the practice has become generally accepted.

Canada’s biathletes will be hoping history repeats itself as well – both with sales of the calendar and on the biathlon course. The calendar will begin selling across the country immediately, while the team will hit the start line for their first World cup race of the season one month later in Sweden.

To purchase a Bold Beautiful Biathlon calendar, or for more information on the project, please visit www.boldbeautifulbiathlon.com on the Internet.

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Five Canadian Biathlon Women Launch Nude Calendar With Hopes Of Raising Funds To Fuel Quest For International Podium

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About a quarter of the so-called Olympic route network will be made up of designated fast lanes exclusively reserved for Olympic traffic. Elsewhere, organisers believe a combination of highway modifications, changes to existing road regulations, traffic light management, suspension of road and utility works and the creation of a transport coordination centre will be enough to keep traffic moving.

“We shouldn’t underestimate the scale of the challenge. The Olympic and Paralympic Games are 20 times the size of the football World Cup,” said the junior transport minister Jim Fitzpatrick. “Good transport will be vital to ensure everyone can enjoy the 2012 events, while allowing Londoners to go about their business.”

After problems with congestion in Atlanta in 1996, Sydney was the first Olympic city to introduce a designated road network to ease the flow of athletes, officials, sponsors and spectators between venues, airports and accommodation.

In Beijing, a vast network of newly built six-lane highways included dedicated Olympic lanes. To combat pollution and congestion, half of all cars were banned from driving into the city on given days.

The London organisers said that following Beijing’s lead would not be practical, but admitted that meeting the transport objectives would be “challenging”.

“On some roads at particular times of the day, games vehicles might add another 25% to the current number of vehicles already on the road,” the organisers said. “It is not practical or affordable to build new roads between venues, nor would it be acceptable to restrict large numbers of roads to the sole use of games vehicles.”

The Olympic network will include roads leading to the main stadium and park in Stratford and surrounding other venues, including Greenwich Park, Horse Guards Parade and the ExCel Centre. It will link the mountain bike venue at Hadleigh Farm, Essex, Wembley Stadium, and the rowing venue at Eton Dorney to central London and the athletes’ village, and will also cover Weymouth, where the sailing events will take place. Spectators will be encouraged to travel on public transport, mainly 10 rail lines carrying a predicted 240,000 to the Olympic park every hour.

Paralympic champion Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, who helped to launch the consultation, said transport could “make or break” the games. “When it works, people don’t talk about it,” she said. “When it doesn’t work – when you have athletes missing events – that is just devastating.”

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Olympic team unveils plan to keep traffic moving in 2012

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Vadim Devyatovskiy of Belarus lost his silver medal in the hammer throw, and his teammate Ivan Tsikhan lost the bronze. Both had failed tests for testosterone not produced by their own bodies. Devyatovskiy is also permanently barred from Olympic competition because it was his second doping offense.

Krisztian Pars of Hungary will receive the silver. Koji Murofushi of Japan will be awarded the bronze.

The Polish kayaker Adam Seroczynski, who finished fourth in the 1,000-meter men’s kayak, was disqualified after testing positive for clenbuterol, a banned drug that helps burn fat and promotes muscle growth. Seroczynski and his teammate Mariusz Kujawski were also disqualified from the men’s 1,000-meter double kayak because of Seroczynski’s failed doping test.

In all, nine Olympians from the Beijing Games have failed doping tests, but that number may grow.

The I.O.C. said this week that it was going back to test some blood and urine samples that were supplied by athletes in Beijing. The testers are focusing on Olympians in endurance sports like cycling, rowing, swimming and track and field.

In January, scientists from laboratories accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency will begin testing about 400 blood samples from Beijing, looking specifically for the EPO-like drug CERA, a previously undetectable drug that boosts endurance. The two drugs stimulate bone marrow to produce more oxygen-carrying red blood cells.

The samples will be tested at laboratories in Paris and Lausanne, Switzerland.

In addition, about 100 urine samples from the Beijing Games will be tested for insulin, a hormone that can help build muscle mass. WADA’s accredited laboratory in Cologne, Germany, recently perfected a test for the hormone and will test the samples from Beijing.

The first results of the blood and urine tests are expected by the end of March.

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I.O.C. Strips 2 Medalists for Doping

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Come August, the 41-year-old mother of a toddler will become the oldest American ever to swim at the Olympics – and she’s gunning for a medal.

“Age is just a number,” Torres said at a press conference before the U.S. Olympic Trials began on June 29. The nine-time Olympic medalist, who’s called “mom” by Michael Phelps and refers to her competition as “kids,” lived up to her mantra by winning the 100 meter freestyle in 53.78 seconds – just milliseconds shy of the American record.

Torres followed up her feat by breaking the U.S. record in the 50 meter freestyle during a July 5 semi-final heat, only to smash it again on July 6 in the final.

The world quickly took notice.

“This is a major statement,” said Torres pal Mark Spitz, who still holds the record for the most gold medals ever won in a single Olympic games. “She lived up to the premise that nothing is impossible without a lot of hard work.”

Evan Morgenstein, president of Premier Management Group, which represents the largest number of Olympic athletes in America, says he’s been inundated with interview requests, sponsorship offers and book deals for Torres.

“It’s insane how this story has impacted people,” Morgenstein said. “She has the same following as Steve Prefontaine at this point.”

Torres turned down “half a million in endorsement deals” before the trials to focus on her races, he said, adding, “When you take a risk like this, you take the risk that maybe it doesn’t go the way you wanted it. The risk is going to pay off in ways you can’t imagine.”

Torres first arrived on the scene when she set a new American record for the 50 meter freestyle at age 15. Two years later, Torres helped her team earn gold in the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

But Torres is best known as swimming’s comeback kid. She retired from the sport at age 25 after winning four medals over three Olympic games. Her reason for throwing in the towel? Age. Torres returned to the pool in 1999, earning two golds and three bronze medals at the Sydney Olympics. She then retired again, only to return to competition in 2007.

Torres has battled through bouts of bulimia, two divorces and five knee surgeries to land where she is today – over the hill and in the best shape of her life.

“It does sort of blow your mind,” said Dr. Marj Snyder, chief program officer at the Women’s Sports Foundation. “She’s just pushed the edge out pretty far beyond where it was before, particularly in a sport like swimming where most athletes are … in their teens.”

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At 41, Dara Torres still pooling her talents

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Eight of the middle distance stars who toed the starting line took the lead at one point, but Bernard Lagat was the only one to do it when it mattered, finishing in 3 minutes, 40.37 seconds, well off his American record time.

Lagat, who reached stardom while running for his native Kenya before switching citizenship, led a 1-2-3 sweep of adopted nationals, with Mexican-born Leonel Manzano finishing in 3:40.9 and Sudanese-born Lopez Lomong in 3:41.

“America truly is a melting pot,” said Lagat, who was the meet’s only double winner, having taken the 5,000 on June 30. “To see the three of us who are going to Beijing, all coming from different backgrounds and different paths to America, it’s really magic.”

Meanwhile, American-born star Alan Webb was edged by Lomong and Oregon Track Clubber William Leer for fifth. After leading the second and third laps, former Stanford star Gabe Jennings faded to last.

While the field went out at a tentative pace into a strong headwind, Jen Stuczynsky stole the capacity crowd’s attention by breaking both the American and Olympic trials record in the pole vault at 16 feet, 1 3⁄4 inches.

“We had some height progressions in between and that jump I just went with it,” said Stuczynksy, who went under two attempts at the world record before opting out of the last. “I just tried to let my technique carry me through and it worked out.”

Previous trials and Hayward Field record holder Stacy Dragila finished in a disappointing tie for seventh place.

Lagat took his first lead at the bell lap and established himself wide of the first lane for position. Manzano made a strong push, but couldn’t overtake Lagat, 33, who will go for 1,500 and 5,000 gold medals in Beijing after grabbing a silver medal in Athens and Bronze in Atlanta.

“To me there’s not much strategy to the 5,000, but a lot can play out in the 1,500,” Lagat said. “It didn’t worry me that the pace was slow; I knew that it would be a mad kick at the end and I had faith in my training.”

That mad kick played out well for Lomong, the NCAA 1,500 champion for Northern Arizona.

“It’s kind of funny – with all of the backgrounds we come from, we all have something in common,” said Lomong, who fled the Sudanese Civil War in 1991. “The three of us will be running for the country that helped us out so much.”

In the women’s 200, Allyson Felix got some redemption for a failed bid in the 100 meters, winning the longer sprint in 21.82 seconds. 100-meter champ Muna Lee was second in 21.99. In the absence of Tyson Gay, who cramped up in Saturday’s 200 quarterfinals, Walter Dix edged Shawn Crawford by five one-thousandths of a second in 19.852.

Other winners on the final day of the trials were Ian Waltz in the discus (216-1), Aarik Wilson in the triple jump (57-2 1⁄4), Bobby Smith in the javelin (249-6), David Oliver in the 110 hurdles (12.95) and Lolo Jones in the 100 hurdles (12.29).

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Lagat prevails in tactical 1500

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