Connect with us
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=12]

Sports

Olympic dream alive for Central Alberta’s Elle Couture

Published

5 minute read

Elle Couture posing with her medal haul from the 2019 Western Canada Summer Games!
The letters HWPO are embroidered on Elle Couture’s swim bag.  Elle’s been swimming competitively for 5 years and HWPO has been with her for almost as long.  The letters stand for Hard Work Pays Off.  Elle says her dad always gives her that advice.   It’s really starting to pay off.
Before any swimmer ever achieves a provincial or a national ranking… there’s hundreds and then thousands of hours spent in the pool.  Before school, after school, on weekends, that’s when the good swimmer becomes great.  The races themselves are just a compilation of all the time and effort put into increasing speed and stamina, and working on the minute details and techniques.
As the summer of 2019 progressed Elle’s results kept getting better and better and as she prepares to start another school year, her dreams of representing Canada one day are very much alive.  Elle’s times have qualified her for the 2020 Canadian Swim Trials.   Since 2020 is an Olympic year there’s an outside chance for Elle to qualify, but it’s much more likely she’ll be coming into her own in four more years.
Earlier this summer we shared her provincial results.. Here they are again:
Summer Championships Alberta age group 13-14 July 4-7 Edmonton, Ab
50m Breaststroke – Bronze medal
200m Breaststroke – Bronze medal
100m Breaststroke  100m Freestyle 4th place
Best times in these 3 events
Later in July Elle swam at the Canadian Junior Nationals, where she made a strong showing:
Canadian Jr Nationals Calgary Alberta August July 24-29
Qualified for 4 events.
100m Breaststroke 6th in Canada
200m Breaststroke 5th in Canada (  having to do a head to head swim off with one other girl to qualify in 8th )
Elle came back in finals to place 5th after entering in 8th position.
The best was yet to come… As Elle competed for Team Alberta in the Western Canada Summer Games and you might say she cleaned up!   Here are the results:
Western Canada Summer Games – Swift Current Sk  Phase 1 August 9-13
Elle was chosen by Swim Alberta to compete in the Games for her 100-200 Breast stroke abilities during the qualifying period Spring 2019.   A total of 33 swimmers from across Alberta represented Team Alberta. Elle traveled with Team Alberta August 5-8 to Calgary for team practices and Team building at UofC campus.
A total of 4 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 and 2 Bronze
Events:
50m Breaststroke – GOLD
100m Breaststroke- GOLD
200m Breaststroke- BRONZE
50m Freestyle-SILVER
50m Fly -4th
3 Relays 
4x100m IM relay female – GOLD
4x200m Free mixed relay – GOLD
4x100m Free mixed relay – BRONZE

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And here’s a note from Elle’s mom:
The experience of swimming on behalf of Alberta and being with such a cohesive group of swimmers have really motivated Elle to work hard so that she can be considered for other Team Alberta travel teams for next season 2019-2020.
Elle has qualified for the Canadian Trials in March-April 2020  with her 100 Breaststroke and is 0.11 seconds off qualifying for the 200 Breaststroke.  This is the Olympic Trial year and meet and Elle is hoping to swim well enough to be considered for other travel teams for Canada as she will be 15 and making the Olympic team is a dream but perhaps will have to wait for the next Olympic cycle.  ” No Opportunity Wasted ” is something that her mental skills coach Doug Swanson has helped her work on.
Her goals have also expanded, she is working towards a chance to be chosen for Canada Games in Summer 2021 which will be held in the Niagara Region Ontario.
Here’s a video feature on Elle produced when she was just starting to show the potentials she has now begun to realize…

After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

Follow Author

Sports

Boxing authority says allegedly male competitor should return Olympic medal won against women

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Ray Hilbrich

IBA President Umar Kremlev has called for Algerian boxer Imane Khelif to return the Olympic medal and criticized the IOC for prioritizing politics over fairness in sport

Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), has called for Algerian boxer Imane Khelif to return an Olympic medal, citing gender testing concerns. Khelif was the center of controversy during the Olympic games after allegations arose that the purportedly female boxer had in fact failed two gender tests in 2022 and 2023. The IBA had banned Khelif from women’s events after the tests indicated the athlete had XY chromosomes.

Kremlev expressed his outrage that Khelif was allowed to compete as a woman in the Olympic games. Speaking to the Daily Mail for an article published  June 25, Kremlev accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC)  of championing political interests over sport fairness.

“There is a lot of corruption surrounding the IOC, and many violations of good sporting principles,” Kremlev said. “The IOC is not fighting for the fairness in sport. The IOC is giving away medals based on their political interests. Imane Khelif should be made to return the Olympic medal from Paris.”

Kremlev then described the gender tests conducted by the IBA on Khelif.

After encountering some “suspicious moments” regarding Khelif’s gender, the IBA conducted their first test in 2022; it yielded “abnormal results.” Kremlev admitted that the IBA had never come across a situation like this, so they decided to conduct another test in 2023.

“That second test was done in 2023 and confirmed the same findings as the first. Both tests showed XY chromosomes,” he stated.

RELATED: Allegedly male Algerian boxer wins Olympic gold in women’s welterweight division

The IOC has called the validity of these tests into question.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams pronounced these tests “not legitimate”.

Kremlev has advocated for mandatory gender testing before competitions — a proposal that could reignite global debate on privacy and fairness in sports.

“There should be one rule that everyone follows. Gender testing before every event. That’s the only way to make sure the fight is fair,” he stated.

Continue Reading

Bruce Dowbiggin

What Connor Should Say To Oilers: It’s Not You. It’s Me.

Published on

This just in. Connor McDavid is on track to be the greatest hockey player ever. Apologies to the Gretz/ Orr/ Howe partisans. But if he stays healthy and gets the hell out of Edmonton he will be hands-down the best ever. He is equal measures of Gretzky’s intuitive genius, Orr’s 200-foot impact. Howe’s sandpaper attitude. It’s an honour to watch him.

We know, we know, if he is so great why couldn’t he get the Oilers over the hump, particularly the past two seasons against Florida? Gretz, Orr, Howe all won Stanley Cups while leading their teams. So did Mario Lemieux. Fair point. But Howe in his prime never played more than two series in the postseason. Orr often played just three. Gretz teams often bagelled opponents for years.

McDavid’s teams the last two years have had lengthy paths to tred. Just getting to a Final is a huge accomplishment. Repeating that feat (going seven then six games) in the Final is humungous. It’s exhausting, mentally and physically. That’s why so few teams do it.

Still, that’s not the point. We have been asking since 2018 how long McDavid will hobble his legacy by staying in Edmonton. Those early columns were talking about a team that missed playoffs or did a Maple Leafs fold early on. The current iteration of the Oilers has gotten to the brink. They have players who’ve been around a while. And fell short.

Now the Oilers are an old team, the oldest in the  regular season, the oldest team in the playoffs this year. Teams carrying more than two plus-30 players have a miserable track record of winning Cups. And the Oilers have zero Grade A prospects in the pipeline. At 28, McDavid is a young guy on their roster. Not good.

As the hockey world knows he can sign an extension on July 1 to follow the contract he has now. Money will be no object as the NHL salary cap (finally) goes up. Term will be forever if he wants it. His running mate Leon Draisaitl is tied up till age 36. The Oilers desperately want him to stay after the Gretzky fiasco in 1988. So what is he going to do? He’s got national endorsements in Canada, but in the U.S.? Connor who? The sky is the limit.

Oilers fans palpitating over the future of their star were looking for hints as to his mindset when he met the media following the Oilers loss in six games to Florida. It was a chance for him to say he’s staying, he loves the place, his wife is committed to freezing every winter in the Alberta capital. He could have cried and said “Mess told me not to do that”.

What they got was a lot of maybe. Yes, he kept the doors open, but he said he needs time to see the landscape till the clock tolls on July 1. He needs to examine whether this veteran team has a future. Because in a few years they’ll be like Howe’s Detroit teams in the 60s, a played-out dynasty.

Under NHL rules no team can contact him about signing. But he will know that everyone will want him at a max deal. Some will offer no state income tax. Some will have teams on the cusp of the Cup he desires (see Matthew Tkachuk to Florida in 2023). Some will be giant U.S. media cities with the ability to make him what Gretzky became in L.A. Some will offer warm weather and anonymity away from the rink.

These are all knowns. For the impatient,  teams can approach the Oilers now about a trade. So he’s holding all the cards. It’s prom night and he gets his pick. Unless Edmonton (gulp) jumps the gun on a trade.

Let’s play Peter Pocklington for a minute here and see this from the Oilers’ POV. Pocklington traded Gretzky, because Peter was broke. That’s not Darryl Katz’s problem. His problem is his team is about to get ancient. There is no McDavid for Draisaitl on the horizon. Plus, you’ve tied up several players (Nurse, Nugent Hopkins) to contracts they can’t hope to play up to. And youngish players coming into free agency.

He must address the other side of the 1988 Gretzky equation. How to get full market value for a superstar? Which means getting another star to help Draisaitl going forward. You could let the two play out the string together in Edmonton, of course. But with so many strong teams in Colorado, Vegas, Dallas, even Winnipeg that would be a hard slog. And by the time you realized that it would be too late.

The smart play, as Michael Corleone would say, is move fast. Trade McDavid before the start of next season for a boatload of young players to supplement Draisaitl. Take a short-term PR hit but live to compete another day.

Of course, Katz is not going to trade McDavid. He’s a fanboy owner. He’ll throw the Rexall kitchen sink at him and hope that’s enough. McDavid will be patient (if he’s smart). The “will-he-sign?” drama will bleed into the next season, a millstone for the team. The distractions will mount before Edmonton realizes that an unsigned McDavid is a liability. And Connor on a max deal with a minus team is no bargain either.

Remember the re-structured Oilers won a Cup in 1990 using Mark Messier and the players they got for Gretzky. Think about it, Edmonton.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.

Continue Reading

Trending

X