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Quote of the Month
"There is no external pressure on the Canadian men's team to be on top. We have depth and each one of us know we can be there with the best. Nobody puts more pressure on us than ourselves. We all want to win. That is why we do this."
...Devon Kershaw following his ninth place performance in a World Cup 15-kilometre skate-ski race in Finland
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Junior Athlete Profile: Jordan Charles William Cascagnette
Career goals: Make the Canadian World Cup Team and represent Canada in the 2014 Winter Olympics and beyond.
How did you get involved in cross-country skiing?
My elementary school had a strong program and a great coach, Jim Macmillan. I also had the privilege of being coached by past Olympian Angela Schmidt-Foster, which was (and still is) both hugely beneficial, as well as inspirational.
Career ambitions outside of skiing: Tough question but I have always been fascinated by kinesiology, but I have recently found that I enjoy writing articles for my blog. Possibly a career in sports writing? I plan on having a long career in this sport though, so I should have lots of time to figure it out.
What is a typical training day?
A typical training day for me is to wake up around 8am, and usually be out of the house to start my first workout by 9am. This will last anywhere from 1.5 to 4 hours, depending on the time of year and where I'm at in my training. These morning workouts are usually either intensity sessions, or long distance, technique focused workouts. My afternoon sessions are usually when I do my strength training, or just an easy recovery workout.
When I am not skiing I am likely... watching past ski races or movies, and texting/chatting with my girlfriend in Ontario.
When finished with my skiing career, I want to... become a coach. After I finish my career, I want to stay as connected to the skiing world as I can.
Favorite place to ski? Why?
Having not yet explored the many ski locations outside of Canada, I would have to go with Silver Star/Sovereign Lake, B.C. The trails are super wide and very fun, and it is such a beautiful place.
Favourite competition venue: Sovereign Lake, B.C.
Favourite vacation spot: I've never really been on a vacation... I'd really like to go check out Australia someday though.
Favourite book: the Harry Potter series (I don't read a lot)
Favourite movie: Without Limits
Favourite olympic moment: Now that I think about it, I have two. The first: watching Devon finish 5th in the 50km classic at the Vancouver Olympics. And the second: watching Ivan, Alex, George and Devon all do so well in the 30km pursuit last year. Both moments were amazingly inspiring for me as an up and coming Canadian athlete.
Inspiration: Watching Canadian athletes achieve international success.
Favourite colour: Green... or blue... wait, no...Green.
If I had to do maintenance on my car, what could I do? Haha, uuhh... laugh and call a friend.
Before a race, I will listen to what song? Hmmm...I don't usually listen to music before a race, but if I did, it would probably be "You're Never Over" by Eminem, Recovery album.
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Did you know...
ØThe 4 National Development Centres together represent an overall budget of about 1.35 million $ (including trips) of which about 1 million is funded by CCC, PSOs, Canadian Sport Centers, sponsors and other organizations and potentially fundraising
ØThere are a total of 51 athletes in NDCs of which 8 are on the Senior NST, 10 are on the Junior NST (representing 71%) and 20 are female (representing 39% of the total but 44% excluding senior NST athletes)
ØBetween the four of them, NDCs employ the equivalent of 10 full time staff (mostly coaches but also program managers, wax technicians and administrative assistants) |
CCC's 2011 "Target the Podium" calendar...like you've never seen it before!  Make money for your club. Special discounts for bulk orders. This year's calendar is packed with heart and is sure to motivate with: - Storytelling images
- A new edgy finish
- Monumental Olympic / Paralympic highlights!
Still unbelievably affordable ... see a teaser of the calendar pages here. Contact info@cccski.com or 1-877-609-3215 for more information or to place your order. Thanks for your support! |
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Valued Partners and Sponsors
Funding Partners:
- Sport Canada
- Own the Podium
- Jemini Foundation
- National Cross Country
Development Association
Gold Partners: |
Silver Partners:
Podium Partners:
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Cross Connections
November 2010 Co-editors: Chris Dornan, Cathy Sturgeon and Barb Cartier |
| Dear Cross Connections Subscriber,
Old Man Winter hit Western Canada with a vengance with temperatures plummeting to the mid -30s and with it, a decent amount of snow. One morning I went outside to catch a glimpse of the sun and a woman skied by hollering with joy "woohoo, I am skiing!!!". Her enthusiasm is shared by the entire skiing community.
We hope you are enjoying the first taste of winter and getting those ski legs back.
Barb Cartier Assistant Administrator
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Haywood 2011 Ski Nationals in Canmore, Alberta (March 11-19, 2010)
The Ski Nationals 2011 Organizing Committee is pleased to announce that the Haywood 2011 Ski Nationals Banquet will be held on Saturday, March 19, 2011 at the beautiful Banff Springs Hotel.
For additional information on shuttle services during the event, please click here. |
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Networking with CCC
An official Facebook page has just been launched for Cross Country Canada's national ski teams.
This page will represent all national senior CCC teams (Able-bodied, Para-Nordic, World Cup and Development) and we hope you will join us!
This page will share news, results and information on senior teams, their athletes and coaches. We will be linking partner pages to ours and encourage you to add our page as a Favourite Page too. It's an exciting time to connect our cross country community (clubs/events/affiliate sports/suppliers/sponsors) as we head into race season.
As this is a newer endeavour for CCC, we will be growing our approach, content and campaigns. So join our page and we'll see you online! |
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Haywood Securities Renews Eight Year Run with NorAm Canada Cup Race Series
credit: Dave Dyer | The Haywood NorAm Race Series will return to the Sovereign Lake Nordic Club the weekend of December 11 and 12 for the start of the eighth season under the Haywood banner. The six site series is the cornerstone of the FIS Regional Series in Canada and again will be used to select athletes for World Cup, World Sr., Jr. and Under 23 Championship Teams and domestic champions. The Haywood NorAm program will include stops at Sovereign Lake, Rossland (Black Jack SC), Thunder Bay (Lappe Nordic), Magog (Club de ski Orford), Kelowna (Telemark SC) and Gatineau/Cantley (Club Skinouk) and will feature the introduction of Multi-stage events at four sites. Representing a bonus for skiers, the typical Multi-stage event will include three rather than two competitions over the weekend and a sizable prize purse for the aggregate winner of each Multi-stage event. Multi-stage events have evolved on the World Cup circuit since the introduction of the Tour de Ski during the 2007 competition season. The concept has generated increased media, spectator and corporate sponsorship interest for the sport and is now featured at the three day World Cup Opening, the seven day Tour de Ski and the four day World Cup Final. See you at the races. Click here for Canadian Guidelines for Haywood Multi-stage events. | |
CCC Online Store Products of the Month
Christmas Shopping for the skiers in your family
Check out our E-Store for sweet Christmas stocking stuffers. Spread the cheer of good gear!
Click HERE to check out the CCC Online Store.
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Para-Nordic Profile: Induction into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame - Colette Bourgonje credit: WhyNot. |
A nine-time Paralympian and multi-medalist in both the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games, Colette Bourgonje has enjoyed more than a few glorious moments of personal triumph in her life. But when the 48 year-old athlete was presented with the prestigious Whang Youn Dai achievement Award at the closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Paralympics, it was like the crowning scene in a fantastic, improbable dream. ''I couldn't have written this script. It's just been such an amazing journey," says the vivacious career-Paralympian and elementary school phys ed teacher. Click here for more information.
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National Development Centres
Once again NDCs are preparing for another great racing season, except this time there are four of them! After counting the Thunder Bay and Pierre Harvey training centres as CCC's National Team Development Centers (previous acronym), the addition of the Alberta World Cup Academy and the Callaghan Valley Training Centre is setting the table for a powerful NDC system that will prepare the next generations of World Cup skiers as far as we can see. With the help of strengthening club and division programs, we have no doubt that we are well on our way to achieve our long term HP goal for 2018 of being a top 6 nation in the World. |
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Coach and Athlete Development Programs
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Cross Country Canada's Student Athlete Leadership Grant Program
Cross Country Canada is committed to helping university aged skiers enhance their involvement in their sport by providing financial assistance for coaching and officiating courses. With this type of training, former athletes will be well-positioned to join a local ski club and become a knowledgeable volunteer and leader. Those who are not currently active racers also have a vehicle to become more involved in the sport.
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High Performance Development Coordinators Update credit: Stéphane Barrette
As usual, Lisa Patterson and James Cunningham (CCC's Eastern and Western HP system coordinators) have been quite busy this fall assisting with the delivery of the many initiatives contained in the 2010/11 HP development business plan. A lot of you must have seen either of them at a training camp, a club visit or a NCCP workshop these last few weeks. In addition to attending and providing assistance at various training camps (at regional, division, NST or NDC levels) and facilitating NCCP workshops, Lisa and James have also continued managing and/or assisting with the Female Talent Squad program, the NCCSDA financial support program and the AltaGas club professional coach support program, as well as attending several strategic planning meetings with clubs, divisions or NDCs.
This fall was also an opportunity for both Lisa and James to take part in a World Cup team training camp (James) and a NDC camp in Dachstein, Austria (Lisa) as professional development initiatives.
Finally, we have been quite pleased with the response from the coaching community to the Coach Connections newsletter initiative launched in September. With the 4th issue shortly to be published, we hope to keep improving this product on an ongoing basis for the benefit of all coaches across the country.
If you would like to comment on any of these initiatives, make suggestions or ask questions, please feel free to contact any of us: sbarrette@cccski.com; jcunningham@cccski.com;
lpatterson@cccski.com
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AltaGas Club Professional Coach Support Program
This year again, three clubs are benefiting
from a CCC-AltaGas grant aimed at supporting club professional coaches totaling $32 000. Maurice Samm from Chelsea Nordic club, Guy Metayer from Club Nordique Mont Ste-Anne and Jen Sholte from Highlands Trailblazers club are all being supported again this year as part of a three year deal. Be sure to watch for their clubs successes this winter! | | |
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CCC's New Newsletter For Coaches: Coach Connections 
This new CCC initiative is aiming at providing coaches with different sources of relevant information, tools to assist them in their planning and monitoring as well as guidance to help them and their organizations with longer term strategic planning. Coach Connections is published monthly and usually focuses on the T2T and L2C stages. In addition to various educational topics, the newsletter is also an opportunity to provide NST and NDC updates and highlight CCC's e-store products.
Coach Connections currently reaches more than 1500 people directly through e-mail and several skiing websites also provide links to articles or simply post them on their own websites which contributes to enlarging the audience for the newsletter quite significantly. Co-editors are Lisa Patterson, James Cunningham and Stéphane Barrette. Please do not hesitate to share your feedback and make suggestions. To subscribe to Coach Connections, please go to our website. Happy reading! |
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National Cross Country Ski Development Association (NCCSDA) credit: Stéphane Barrette
The 2010-11 season is a banner year for the NCCSDA, after focusing their financial assistance on the western divisions in 2008 and 2009, they have decided to expand their support across Canada this year. Another significant enhancement of their program this year is the addition of direct financial support to individual athletes who are among the next generation of World Cup skiers. The total for 2010-11 includes 12 clubs, 11 athletes and 2 NDCs sharing an envelope of more than $250,000 which brings the cumulative support from the NCCSDA since its inauguration 3 years ago to over $650,000. This kind of support of Canadian cross country ski clubs and athletes is simply phenomenal and makes a huge difference. We can't be thankful enough to Kim and Bob Disbrow for establishing this Foundation dedicated to assisting with cross country skiing HP development in Canada. |
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Cross Country Canada's Living History Project
We want to reconnect with as many people as possible who have been involved at one time or another with Cross Country Canada, going back as many years as possible.
- Have you ever been a member of the National Ski Team?
- Were you on the CCC board of directors at any time?
- Were you the chair or a member of a national committee?
If the answer is yes to any of those questions, or if you know someone who could answer yes to those questions, go to: CCC's Living History Project in order to register in our database. .
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Women on Skis on the Move 
Cross Country Canada challenges Canadian women to get out and get active this winter. As part of an ongoing incentive, we encourage you to enter a regional ski loppet (check the web - there are great loppets in Yellowknife, Corner brook, Whitehorse, north of Toronto... ) or sign up for one of the key national loppets such as the Gatineau (Ottawa-Hull area), Birkie (Edmonton) or provincial events in NWT, Yukon, or Newfoundland. Let us know about your experience, commitment, training experiences and accomplishments. Forward your stories to Cross Country Canada to the attention of Nadia Smith at nsmith@cccski.com or CCC's WOS Chair Maureen Kershaw at Maureen.kershaw@lakeheadu.ca and inspire others. Once again, we have incentives for the first 20 women who sign up and complete a loppet ... sport this year's versatile ski buff as a badge of accomplishment. Check the web for training tips and the WOS workshops. |
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