The Olympians by D.J. Lawrence Over the past three weeks I had the privilege of working asa volunteer on the Men’s Olympic Downhill course.’ ‘The job involved preparing the racing, press, and spectator areas. Our work day was ten to fourteen hours long, in temperatures as low as -47 C and winds of 100 MPH, that caused frostbite and some serious injuries to crew members, myself included. The course was well prepared and the mostly European jury commented _ to volunteers after the first training’ Tun that they had never seen a course so well prepared for a first training run anywhere, or at any time. Although the downhill was delayed a day due to high winds, on race day worker, racer and spectator morale was high, and at one point spectators found themselves helping a crew kine Pima in- side a crowd c never seen this « Tacing and working’ ese events, it seemed to be typical of the spirit of all the people touched by the Olympic spirit. One of the slogans, "Come Together in °88" was typified in east- ern and western athletes playing video games or training together, or in Canadian Airlines International flying an injured volunteer home for free, although they were under no obligation to do so, or in spectators helping the workers. The Olympics are a huge undertak- ing and there will always be problems encountered. Let’s hope the attention is paid to the positive side, different athletes enjoying their spori together, or huddling together for shelter from the wind, or the thousands of volun- teers who, contrary to what one jour- nalist says, don’t hate their uniforms and are mostly very proud to wear them. Having worn one of the pumpkin suits, as they were called for their colour, I found them to be warm !. and of good quality (and Made in Canada by Sun Ice.) Yes that was a plug, and no! didn’t get paid for it. The sponsors of Olym- pics deserve what plugs they get, be- cause they pay the bills, as opposed to ‘the taxpayers paying the tab, as hap- ‘pened in Montreal. Why pay the bill or have the games at all? The:Olympic Games show us what a small world we live in; that the “other Side are just people like us. All are bound together by a love for tick 5 sport and for competi- tion, and their competing in the forum of the Olympics shows us how alike we all are. Even our own top athletes are not much different than us. After talking to one of Canada’s best hopes for a medal, Bronze medal winner Karen Percy, I had trouble seeing her as an "Olympian Goddess" with Canada’s hopes and dreams resting on her very capabale shoulders. I saw her as a very nice person that I would love to take to dinner, who, a short while later was almost in tears from banging her already broken thumb on a table. Just another normal person, just with more skiing talent and men- tal toughness than most of us could ever dream about. Three cheers for all the Olympians, and Thanks. s1uods usHIC wel Women’s Sports Undertunded by Sophie Edwards GUELPH (CUP) -- The under- © funding of women’s sports is inex- ° there ‘are: more’. women. undergraduate students at’ Ontario universities than men, says ° cusable now that’ two University of Windsor Profes- sors. According to a study by Pat Galas- so and Marge Holman, the average university budget for men’s sports is five times that allo- cated for women's. And the dis- crepancy widens in Ontario's 22 colleges. The two-year study shows that the average budget of a male university sports administrator is $555,282, while a female counterpart would only manage an average of $102,955. The average male administrator at a community college might control a budget of $157,857 compared to $10,666 for a woman. According to Galasso these amounts translate roughly into the amounts spent on men's and women's varsity sports. NEWS RELEASE The 2nd Annual Police-Media Benefit Hockey Game is planned for . Sunday, February 28th, 1988 at UBC Thunderbird Arena. Doors 1:30 PM PM Entry by donation at the door. Every $1.00 donated gets a ticket for the following prizes: |. 2 nights stay for 2 at The Pan Pacific Hotel Game: 2:00 ‘0 The psycho expehinent i of hand. tment role reversal —— 2. Seasons Passes toe the Van- couver Canadians Baseball 3. Air Fare for 2 to Hawaii Donated by Maiden Pacific Holidays Travel arrangements through Travel Masters (669-6077) 4. Two seasons passes to the BCLions football Donations go to BC Wheelchair Sports to assist their "Sledge Hock- ey” Program. Drug Testing | OTTAWA (CUP) -- Canada’s ‘top university sports authority is considering a nation-wide program of random drug tests for university football players. Under instruction from Sport Canada, the Canadian I[nteruniver- sity Athletic Union (CIAU) set up an ad-hoc committee recently that must decide by June whether a program is necessary. The tests would look for abuse of “performance enhancing drugs", such as steroids, by football players. The committee must first find out the extent of drug use among univer- sity athletes before deciding to go ahead with a testing program, ac- cording to Bob Pugh, CIAU execu- tive vice- president and head of the committee. But Keith Harmis, athletic director at Carleton University and a com- mittee member, said testing up to 7,000 players at $250 per test may be prohibitive. And he added that the se may not be reliable. “There's no excuse to have that much money spent on men’s sports as | Opposed to women’s,” said Galasso. “If we believe this kind of activity is helpful and fun then it’s the respon- sibility of those who are running the ; Program to encourage women to try out.” Galasso said that the average number of men participating in university sports is 313 compared to 157 women and universities have an average of seven women’s varsity teams compared to nine men's. "In virtually all of the com- parisons in this study there is virtually no single factor where the male is disadvantaged on average in salary, administration position, Participation opportunities or resource allocation,” the study con- cluded. Olympic rower, Angela Sneider, said underfunding of both men's and women’s sports is a problem. At the Ontario Federation of Student's annual general meeting. Sneider spoke of early morning rowing practices when women and lightweight men would battle for the same equipment. But even in rowing, what Sneider calls “the last bastion of male conser- vative reserve," women can be and are as competitive as men. Helping To Keep The Dream Alive Ist Period “Sledge Hockey” 2nd Period VPD "The heat" vs CKVU "VU meters” 3rd Period VPD "The heat” vs CKVU "VU meters” Guest M/C Rich Elwood of .“Punchlines” "Keystone Kops” ‘White Spot Pipe Band "California Raisins" And | Many, Many More. Good Family Entertainment” UBC Cheerleader Al Wilson (RET’D) and other Lions in the sledges. Ist Annual Game was played to aid Rick Hansen and the Man in MotionTour. As it was such a suc- cess, ithas become an Annual Event > played between the Police and Media to gather donatirons for dis- abled groups. Teams play for the “Man in Motion" CHALLENGE CUP: The event is entirely produced by donations of prizes and volunteer time and the total proceeds raised go to the chosen disabled group. For Athletes "Some days a guy may be good (negative) and other days he could be shown bad (positive) depending on when he last used a drug,” he said. ; The CIAU has not decided how it would punish players that tested positive if they implemented the tests. "We must consider whether to punish just the individual or the team 00," Haris said. He said punishing an entire team because one player tests positive might “put some teeth” into a program. Carleton football coach Ace Powell said though drug abuse by athletes is far less common in Canada than in the US, testing may be necessary for football players as soon as they start university. "Some of these students out of high school would rather use the drugs than build up naturally.” he said. "I think testing is the ultimate education for the players.”