Darren Paterson and Colin Miley, Sports Fellas

 

This Week's Issue: Do you support the millions of dollars that
the government is putting towards Olympic success?

Darren says: Of course I support it.
It’s about time the government steps
up to support our country’s amateur
athletes. The last Summer Olympics
was a national embarrassment for
Canada, as even our best athletes could
not succeed due to the marginal sup-
port that they were receiving from our
government. Amateur athletes need
that money to succeed because they
can’t train to win if they are too busy
working two jobs to pay the rent.

And with the world’s biggest sport-
ing spectacle coming to Vancouver
and Whistler in 2010, we need to do
everything we can to succeed. The
world will be watching as we host the
2010 Olympics, and for us to do poor-
ly, on our home turf and in winter
sports, would be a terrible embarrass-
ment.

We can’t afford to waste this
opportunity to impress the world. In
the Sydney Olympics, Australia put in
the time, money, and effort to do well
and the world noticed. They did such a
good job that people who had never
before considered Australia as more
than an island of criminals now see it
as an island of success. And if we want
people around the world to see Canada
as more than a frozen wasteland filled
with pacifist tree-huggers, then we
have to put in the effort to impress, as
well.

This is a stance that the govern-
ment obviously understands and
agrees with, and I am very supportive
of their drive to help our athletes do
their part. Finally the government has
made a decision that I agree with.

March 2/2005

CF says: The Olympics are a business
wearing sports’ clothing. Why should my
tax dollars, already stretched as thin as a
crépe, be put towards making money for
“Olympics Incorporated?” We have chil-
dren living in abject poverty, elderly people
eating from dumpsters, and a health-care
system on life support right here in Canada.
Imagine what $100 million could do for
people in actual need.

I understand the plight of amateur ath-
letes. It’s got to be tough trying to compete
with the world’s best on $900 a month. I
agree that these athletes need funding and
facilities to become the heroes that will
inspire future generations of kids to get
active, follow their sporting dreams, and do
Canada proud on a world stage. What I can’t
understand is why the money for these ven-
tures should come from taxpayers’ pockets
when the Olympics generate huge revenues.

Therefore, I say two changes must take
place in order to make the Olympics viable
in this day and age. One: allow professional
athletes to compete. The concept of “ama-
teur” athletes is a farce. Allow these men
and women to make money off their hard
work and talent and still compete in the
Olympics. Two: take all revenues generated
by the Olympics and give them back to the
athletes on whose backs the money is made.

CTV/Rogers Sportsnet recently outbid
CBC for the rights to broadcast the
Olympics in Canada, paying $90 million US
for the rights to the 2010 Games alone.
These kinds of dollars prove that there is
huge profit to be made off the Olympics.
Multiply these dollars by the number of
countries that broadcast the Games, and
you'll be over a billion dollars pretty
damned quickly.

Why should the “world’s greatest sport-
ing spectacle” make money for other
businesses? The Olympics are a worthwhile
thing, but why not keep all the money they
generate, including advertising, and use it to
support the Games themselves—and the
athletes that make them possible?

 

 

 

Whatever Happened to Selling Candy Bars?

The infamous “Rugby Girls’ tell their side

Emily Shepard, The Argosy (Mount Allison University)

SACKVILLE, NB (CUP)—What’s the
best way to raise money for your sport
and a good cause? According to Mount
Allison University’s women’s rugby team,
it’s to get naked. The team released a
monthly calendar in mid-December
2004 featuring nude photos of various
players posing with a rugby ball. Two
dollars from each sale is to be donated to
breast-cancer research.

The team identifies Cate Storey, who
initially presented the idea to the players,
as the pioneer of the calendar. After
some coaxing, and an explanation of the
merits of the project, the team became

tive and effective because of this, as stu-
dents are more familiar with one another.
She joked about how students might
react to seeing the photos, saying, “Oh,
that girl sits next to me in the library. Oh,
she’s naked.”

Photographer Siobhan Wiggans and
a committee of players screened all pho-
tos to ensure that they were neither
gratuitous nor offensive.

Wiggans invested a huge amount of
time and energy into producing the pho-
tos for the project. “It was difficult to
envision the final product,’ she said
when asked about her initial reaction to
the project. “I didn’t want the work to be

 

Baadsvik, Ms. April, “It’s not an unusual
thing, rugby teams getting naked.” She
cited the French national team, among
others, as an example of this trend.

The women almost unanimously call
the calendar “tasteful?’ and are over-
whelmingly proud of the final product.
Lindsay Hilton, Ms. September, referred
to the calendar as “portraying women in
sport” and “showcasing female bodies.”
Caitlin MacLachlan, Ms. July, called it a
“very artistic portrayal of women in
sports, athleticism, and self-confidence
in bodies.” Jenn Heckman, who did not
pose for the calendar, called it “an initia-
tive to celebrate being a woman.”

Zoe Lavender, Ms. November, said,
“We are, as athletes, proud of our bodies
and the work we put into them, so we
definitely wanted that to come out in the
pictures.”

Many of the players were nervous at
the idea of a nude photo shoot.
However, according to MacLachlan,
“You got comfortable after a few min-
utes. It was actually kind of fun by the
end of it.” Baadsvik, who was the first to
have her photo taken, said about the
photo shoot, “You realize that you’re
naked and you’re with a girl, and it does-
nt really matter because she’s seen it all
before.”

Heckman called the calendar an
“interesting initiative to come out of a
small place” like Mount Allison. She
speculated the calendar was more collec-

www.theotherpress.ca |

clichéd. I knew it would take a course of
its own and I was confident it would
work out.”

Although Wiggans had never taken
nude photos before, MacLachlan called
her “very professional and very laid-
back.” Wiggans, however, said, “I think I
was more nervous than the girls about
taking the pictures. The night before I
couldn’t sleep; I was worried about light-
ing and poses. I immediately relaxed
when I started making the photographs.
It was pretty much like any other shoot
but with the [subject’s] clothes off.”

The calendar has received over-
whelming publicity, and members of the
team have been interviewed by Global,
Eastlink Magazine, CTV, the Times and
Transcript, the Chronicle Herald, Sackville
Tribune, and CBC Radio. The players ate
generally optimistic about this coverage,
which has boosted sales and thus
increased the amount that can be donat-
ed to breast-cancer research.
“Eyveryone’s doing (the calendar) jus-
tice,’ said Hilton, who added the amount
of coverage was unexpected.

Aside from the media, many players
have had to deal with reactions from
friends and family. Several players com-
mented that their relatives were initially
shocked, and gradually warmed up to the
idea. Lavender commented, “Even my
grandmother is in on it; she’s been selling
calendars for me out in BC.”

tL