UNews - the Olympics

Bursting onto a new stage

trevor.kenney — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:16:15 +0000

Heather Steacy is a performance artist who has seen the stage as an elite athlete and musician. She's acutely aware that the stage she's about to enter is grander than anything she's ever seen before.

Steacy will join her brother Jim Steacy (BASc '09) as a hammer thrower, representing Canada at the London Olympic Games this month. While the Horns Athletics product has already represented her country at the World ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Games and the IAAF World Track Championships, the Olympics are on another level.

"I honestly don't know what to expect," says the 24-year-old Canadian champion. "Everyone who has been to the Olympics that I've talked to says that they can't describe it, it really is something you have to experience for yourself and I'm excited about that."

Heather Steacy is the two-time Canadian champion in hammer throw.

Steacy is on virtually the same schedule as her older brother, who experienced his first Olympics at age 24. The goal for him then, and her now, was to soak in the atmosphere, try and make it out of qualifying and build for a medal run in four years.

"I would love to make it to the finals and seeing Jim have that success in 2008 is very encouraging because I see that it as a possibility," says Steacy. "I think that's the main goal, hopefully throw a personal best and anything beyond that, I'm just really excited for the experience."

Steacy is peaking at the right time. She threw her personal best of 72.16 metres and achieved the Olympic A-Plus Standard in her first meet of this season, allowing her to focus her summer on training and gaining strength, rather than grinding to qualify for the Olympic team.

"It was a huge relief to meet that standard the first meet of the season," she says. "It's allowed me to train towards London instead of train towards getting that standard."

Steacy has an obvious mentor in brother Jim but says she hasn't sat down and discussed specifics about performing on the Olympic stage.

"Having spent all of my time training with him and living with him I think I've just learned by osmosis," she says. "He's also really good at letting me learn my own way and not just imposing his way of thinking on me. But it definitely takes some of the pressure off knowing I'll have somebody there who I'm comfortable with."

Her first Olympic experience is seen as a stepping stone to the future.

Jim is excited to relive the innocence of his first Olympic experience through his sister.

"That's going to be so much fun. Having gone through it already, it's going to be cool to watch her do it too and see how much it throws her," he says. "It's a whole different animal than watching it on TV – a shocking experience."

She says she plans to feed off the local support shown at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Olympic Send-off Celebration held before the team headed off to London.

"It's really cool and really encouraging to have so many people from the community come out for something like this and show their support," she says. "We know, in the backs of our minds that it's there, but to have them come out like this – it's really nice."

Competition Schedule

Hammer Throw Qualifying – Wednesday, Aug. 8 at 10 a.m. GMT (4 a.m. MDT)

Hammer Throw Final – Friday, Aug. 10 at 7:35 p.m. GMT (1:35 p.m. MDT)

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ becoming hub for elite athletes

trevor.kenney — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:09:08 +0000

With three Olympians and another athlete headed to the Paralympics, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge will be extremely well represented in London. And rather than this occurrence being a blip on the radar, Horns Athletics track coach Larry Steinke (BA '94) says it is an emerging trend.

"We're a small community and I think in some ways that gives us a lot of positives in being able to support the athletes that are here," says Steinke, the Athletics Canada Throws coach who will also attend the London Olympics. "You don't get lost in the masses here as you would in some of the larger centres."

Jim Steacy and Heather Steacy will represent the U of L and Canada at the London Olympic Games.

The 1^st Choice Savings Centre for Sport and Wellness, coupled with the Community Sports Stadium and a developing sports medicine clinic make the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ a very attractive destination for aspiring athletes.

"We're a very unique facility, especially for the throwing events, where you just don't have this capability in the rest of Canada. Every day I have to remind our athletes that this is not able to be done everywhere else," he says, referring to individual training sessions twice per day and access to both indoor and outdoor facilities. "It really is becoming a destination place."

Jim (BASc '09) and Heather Steacy did not have to go far to access the U of L, they are Lethbridge products, but they understand how lucky they are to have the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ as their home base and Steinke as their coach.

"I can guarantee you I wouldn't be here if not for him," says Jim. "I would have tried to play basketball and been done university in five years and out in the work world by now. There is no way Heather and I would be here without him, he's hands down the best technical coach in North America for the throwing events."

His sister Heather echoes that sentiment, saying she was offered opportunities to train elsewhere but never wavered in her commitment to stay home.

"I never considered going to the United States for school because I wanted to stay with Larry and I couldn't have made a better choice," she says. "I have a lot of friends who took that route and trained with people who didn't have the knowledge base he has. I couldn't take that chance and I'm really grateful he's as patient as he is and willing to put in the hours he does, it's fantastic and I'm really excited he gets to come to London with us."

Steinke says that the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ has attracted a number of graduate athletes from DePaul ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, another from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Washington and still more from the Canadian Olympic Development Team. Liz Gleadle, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of British Columbia javelin thrower, took a year off from her studies to come to the U of L and train with Steinke.

"I needed to go somewhere with a more focused environment and a coach that could spend time with me full time," she says in advance of her first Olympic appearance. "I knew I wanted to make it to the Olympics and that I could make it happen here."

Chance to wish our Olympians well

trevor.kenney — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:10:35 +0000

The Lethbridge Sport Council and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge have partnered to host a community send-off for a group of athletes who are participating in the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics which take place July 27 – Aug. 12 and Aug. 29 - Sept. 9 in London, England.

Paralympic swimmer Zach McAllister has been named to the Canadian team to compete in London this summer, while hammer throwers Jim Steacy and Heather Steacy, and javelin thrower Liz Gleadle are participating in Track and Field events.

Larry Steinke, Track Coach with Pronghorn Athletics at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, will be attending the 2012 London Olympics after being selected as Throws Coach by Athletics Canada.

The community is invited to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Upper Track of the 1st Cloice Savings Centre for Sport and Wellness on Monday, July 16 at 12:30 p.m. for a brief send-off ceremony.

A large Canadian flag will be available for signing, and will travel with the athletes to London.

Meet the athletes and wish them good luck on their journey!

The dates and times of the athletes' appearances on TV (local/mountain time in brackets) are listed below, along with brief biographies.

Athlete bios

James Steacy (men's hammer)

Competing: Qualifying – Aug. 3 at 11:20 a.m. GMT (5:20 a.m. MDT)
Finals – Aug. 5 at 8:20 p.m. GMT (2:20 p.m. MDT)

Steacy (28) (BASc '09), a Lethbridge, Alta. and Winston Churchill High School product, is one of the most decorated athletes in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) history. During his time as a Pronghorn track athlete, Steacy was undefeated in the weight throw, winning five Canada West and five CIS titles. He also captured three Canada West shot put titles and won three gold medals and one silver medal in shot at the CIS level. He last competed for the Horns in 2009.

The Canadian record holder in the men's hammer throw at 79.13m, Steacy set the mark at the 2008 Chinook Throws Gala. That season also marked his first Olympic appearance where he qualified for the Olympic final in Beijing, China and finished 10th overall.

Steacy, coached by Larry Steinke of the Chinook Track and Field Club, is the eight-time defending national champion in hammer throw.

Heather Steacy (women's hammer)

Competing: Qualifying - Aug. 8 at 10 a.m. GMT (4 a.m. MDT)
Finals – Aug. 10 at 7:35 p.m. GMT (1:35 p.m. MDT)

Steacy (24), a Lethbridge, Alta. and Winston Churchill High School product, heads to her first Olympics after dominating the competition at the Canada West and CIS levels in recent years. Steacy has won four Canada West weight throw titles to go along with two CIS gold, one silver and one bronze medal. She last competed for the Horns in 2011 when she was the Canada West gold medalist and CIS silver medalist.

Steacy won her second consecutive Canadian Track and Field Championship hammer throw title this spring with a throw of 70.48 metres and achieved her personal best of 72.16m at the Sun Angel Classic in Tempe, AZ earlier this year.
Steacy is coached by Larry Steinke of the Chinook Track and Field Club.

+++++

Elizabeth Gleadle (women's javelin)

Competing: Qualifying – Aug. 7 at 10 a.m. GMT (4 a.m. MDT)
Finals – Aug. 9 at 9 p.m. GMT (3 p.m. MDT)

Gleadle (23), originally from Vancouver, came to Lethbridge to train with throws coach Larry Steinke this past year, taking time away from her kinesiology studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of British Columbia. She won gold at the 2012 Canadian Track and Field Trials with a throw of 60.13 metres, establishing a new meet record. Her personal best of 61.15 metres was set earlier this year at a National Track League event in Burnaby, B.C. It also stands as the Canadian record.

"I took this year off so I could make London," she told the Calgary Herald. "I took time off school, I moved cities; I did everything I was supposed to do. I napped, ate, slept some more, trained really hard, everything I was told to do by my coach (Larry Steinke). I trust him completely and it really paid off."

She'll be the first Canadian woman to compete in javelin at the Olympics since Seoul 1988, ironically, the year of her birth.

+++++

Zachary McAllister (men's swimming 400m freestyle S8)

Competing: Qualifying – Aug. 31 at 9:30 a.m. GMT (3:30 a.m. MDT)
Finals – Aug. 31 at 5:30 p.m. GMT (11:30 a.m. MDT)

McAllister (18), a Lethbridge native and Lethbridge Collegiate Institute product, has come up through the Lethbridge Amateur Swim Club (LASC). He will be representing Canada at the Paralympic Games, Aug. 29 to Sept. 9 in London.

The Canadian record holder in the men's S8 400-metre freestyle event, McAllister earned his spot on the Paralympic Games team by swimming his personal best and Canadian record time of four minutes, 49 seconds at the Olympic Trials in Montreal this spring.

McAllister represented Canada at the Para Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mex. in fall 2011, and after enrolling at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge in January 2012, attended meets in Los Angeles, Colorado and Sheffield, England. McAllister's disability is a condition by which he has too many bones in his limbs, thereby restricting growth and range of motion in both his arms and legs.

+++++

Coach -- Larry Steinke (BA '94)

Steinke has been running the most prominent throws program in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) for years and has been consistently involved with Canada's elite athletes at the international level.

He began his national team affiliation as part of the 2007 Pan Am Games coaching staff and has since been to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Junior Track Championships, the 2010 Commonwealth Games and each of the 2009 and 2011 World Track & Field Championships.

He currently coaches three Olympians in Jim Steacy, Heather Steacy and Liz Gleadle and is a proud alumnus of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and head coach of the Horns track program.

Wish our Olympians well

trevor.kenney — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:18:05 +0000

U of L celebrates Fall 2011 Convocation

trevor.kenney — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:05:04 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Fall 2011 Convocation ceremony takes place Saturday, Oct. 15 in the 1st Choice Savings Centre for Sport and Wellness, beginning at 10 a.m.

Among the honoured guests at this ceremony are the 358 graduands eligible to convocate, along with Honorary Degree recipients George Gemer and Dr. John Kloppenburg and Alumnus of the Year Michael Miltenberger. Admission is free and the public is welcome to attend.

Convocation will be streamed live on the internet for those not able to attend the ceremony. View a live webcast of all convocation ceremonies by following this link to the Convocation website. The web link is live approximately 10 minutes prior to the ceremony.

Following are brief biographies of our special honourees.

Dr. George Gemer, Doctor of Laws, honoris causa

A well-known Lethbridge track and field and fencing coach, Gemer is also an author and survivor of Second World War prisoner of war camps who fled Hungary for Canada in 1956. Gemer has coached and officiated at the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and other world-class sporting events while retaining close ties to the Hungarian community in Lethbridge and beyond.

Read George Gemer's full Honorary Degree citation at this website.

Dr. John Kloppenborg, Doctor of Arts, honoris causa

A ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge graduate (BA '74), he is a professor and Chair at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto's Department and Centre for the Study of Religion. Kloppenborg is well-known as a researcher of the origins and sources of early Christian texts such as the Q document, a lost book of the New Testament.

Read Dr Kloppenborg's full Honorary Degree citation at this website.

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AWARDS DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR HONOUR

Michael Miltenberger, (BA '75) Alumnus of the Year

J. Michael Miltenberger is the MLA for Thebacha, NWT, Deputy Premier and environmental advocate. He has been described as a northern visionary and a protector of northern values. His clear and thought-provoking approach has significantly impacted a variety of projects in areas ranging from health services to wildlife and endangered species.

Read Michael Miltenberger's complete Distinguished Alumnus of the Year citation at this website.

First MMus graduate -- Acacia Doktorchik (BMus '09 distinction, MMus '11)

The U of L will also welcome the first graduate of a Master of Music program. Acacia Doktorchik has performed as a soprano soloist in Handel's Messiah and Bach's Magnificat with the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra, as well as being an accomplished pianist, cellist, and Celtic and Highland Dancer. She is currently teaching in Medicine Hat, Alta.

Read more about Acacia at this website.

Senate selects honorary degree group

trevor.kenney — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:17:51 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Senate has confirmed six deserving individuals to receive an Honorary Degree at Convocation ceremonies taking place in the spring and fall. Following are short biographical sketches of this year's honorees.

Maude Barlow
Barlow is a widely published author, leader in the International Water Justice Movement, senior advisor on water to the 63rd president of the United Nations General Assembly and the founding member and national chairperson of the Council of Canadians.

Clint Dunford
Dunford is a business consultant and four-term member of the Alberta Legislature (Lethbridge West) who was instrumental in the creation and launch of Campus Alberta and WorkSafe Alberta, among other initiatives. A cancer survivor, Dunford served as the honorary chairman of the Canadian Cancer Society's Walk for Life.

George Gemer
A well-known Lethbridge track and field and fencing coach, Gemer is also an author and survivor of Second World War prisoner of war camps who fled Hungary for Canada in 1956. Gemer has coached and officiated at the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and other world-class sporting events while retaining close ties to the Hungarian community in Lethbridge and beyond.

John Kloppenborg
A ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge graduate (1974), he is a professor and Chair at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto's Department and Centre for the Study of Religion. Kloppenborg is well-known as a researcher of the origins and sources of early Christian texts such as the Q document, a lost book of the New Testament.

Kim Phuc
Phuc is a noted humanitarian and subject of the famous photograph of a young Vietnamese girl fleeing her village after a horrific napalm attack. Phuc founded the Kim Phuc Foundation and is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for a Culture of Peace.

Gordon Semenoff
A Pincher Creek-born theoretical physicist, Semenoff is a professor of physics at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of British Columbia. He was the 2010 Bertram Brockhouse medal winner and is a renowned expert on quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, statistical mechanics and string theory.

For a look at the March issue of the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Policing the Games

trevor.kenney — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:59:18 +0000

Olympic athletes are on a constant quest to achieve higher, faster, stronger results. ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge alumnus Tim Takahashi (BA '94) helps to make sure they do so fairly.

Takahashi, a U of L kinesiology sessional intructor and clinic director of Dynamic Rehab, will serve as a doping control officer at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics this month. He is one of 200 persons working under the auspices of VANOC (Vancouver Olympic Committee) and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) charged with policing the games. While Takahashi is passionate about his role of rooting out those who try and use performance-enhancing drugs to gain a competitive edge, he admits that enforcement isn't the ideal way to rid sport of cheaters.

"I believe that policing and enforcement of the anti-doping policy is not the way to stop them," says Takahashi. "We understand that there's no possible way we can catch everyone. Really, our attitude is we're letting people know we're here, there's a functioning program, there are checks and if you're caught, there are consequences. I think the real answer is education – it's educating the athletes."

Takahashi initially held the dream of making it to the Olympic Games through his work as an athletic therapist. After graduating from the U of L he completed a master's degree at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and, following a year of work, opened the first of three Dynamic Rehab clinics.

The road to working an Olympics is long and heavily populated with therapists who boast years of seniority. Takahashi looked at another route and felt he had something to offer as a doping control officer.

"I saw a lot of doping first-hand as a graduate student in the mid-90s, and I remember thinking then that I did not want to be a part of that," he says. "I'm a strong believer in doping-free sport and not just the fact that it's dangerous or could hurt the athlete, there's an ethical and moral side to sport. It reflects on our attitudes toward sport and society."

It's a lesson he tries to impart on his children.

"I've got four kids and they see what I'm involved in, and I try and show them the right way to be involved in sport. We all want to excel in athletics, but there's a way to do it in a safe and ethical way."

Takahashi's selection to participate in the Vancouver Games comes from his involvement with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES). He applied over five years ago to work with CCES and spent the better part of two years advancing through the selection and training process before he was certified. Since then he has worked as a doping control officer for the southern Alberta region, testing athletes from a variety of sports. His work includes both in competition and out of competition testing.

"Our motto is anytime, anywhere," he says.

Takahashi will do everything from contacting an athlete about a test to collecting samples, running initial baseline analysis tests to confirm they are good for lab use, to packing and securing the sample for shipment to WADA facilities. Following exacting protocols comes with the job.

While in Vancouver, Takahashi and the 200-person doping control team is expected to run more than 2,000 tests. Sadly, he expects there will be a number of positive results.

"We're catching just a trickle of what's out there, and unfortunately, I'm seeing more and more positive tests," he says. "In a way, it is discouraging."

Using his experience in class is one way to slowly begin the process of educating a generation about drug use in sport.

"I use a lot of examples from this work already," he says of his Kinesiology 2350 (recognition and care of athletic injuries) class. "It's nice to know things in theory, but when you can tie a real-world example to what you're talking about it really drives the point home.

"This experience is a way to add to my teaching skill set. It's a great opportunity to see world-class, elite athletes at the top of the game trying to do their best; how they get there and what methods they use or don't use."

GET THE FACTS

• Takahashi is in Vancouver from Jan. 31 to Mar. 1 and has just two days off over the 30 days he'll work.

• His work with CCES saw him test athletes at the recently held World Junior Hockey Championships in Saskatoon.

• In addition to running three local clinics (two in Lethbridge, one in Taber), Takahashi also works with athletes at the newly formed Alberta Sport Development Centre. Former U of L athletics manager Travis Grindle is the executive director of the ASDC's Southwest office.

• Takahashi and his wife have four children aged 10, 13, 18 and 20. On leaving them for a month to work at the Olympics, he says, "My wife understands and my kids think it's pretty cool, and I expect it will be an amazing experience."

Rethinking the role of a professor

trevor.kenney — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:13:06 +0000

The answer to that question, according to Dr. Hans-Joachim Wieden, a Canada Research Chair in Physical Biochemistry and an Alberta Ingenuity-supported New Faculty Award recipient working on drug-resistance in bacteria, is simple: Don't keep them in a classroom. Make students "build" bacteria that work for a specific purpose and then send them to a huge international competition to present it.

Wieden put that challenge to a team of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students, who recently participated in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, Mass.

Instead of learning about the process through lectures alone, Wieden pushed the 12-member group to work in the lab to engineer their biological "machine" to perform a specific function. The outcome means specialized bacteria that could have medical or environmental applications.

The team met students from more than 50 universities and was also exposed to new ideas, that in turn challenge Wieden both in his classroom and his lab.

"It's extremely rewarding, but extremely difficult," Wieden says, with no hint of understatement as he explains how the process forces him and his students to rethink the basic concepts of science, research and collaboration. "This is the Olympics for biochemistry students. They are under pressure to work on the project, with limited time. They have to be well-prepared, flexible and work well as a team, and we have to learn together."

Wieden says a big part of the value-added education U of L chemistry and biochemistry students receive is in the opportunity to participate in activities like iGEM.

The process of moving students from the classroom to the work world with real-life projects is paying off. "Our undergraduate students already work at an international level," says Wieden. "They are crucial to our research programming because they help lay the groundwork for further research, collaborations and, ultimately, employment."

Students are also able to present their research and receive funding at professional development events such as the Chinook Symposium, a competition made possible through contributions from 100 per cent of the faculty members in the Chemistry and Biochemistry department.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ community mourns passing of Senda

trevor.kenney — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:52:58 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge community lost a respected leader and legendary supporter of judo Wednesday with the passing of Dr. Yosh Senda (LLD '89).

Dr. Senda passed away at age 87. He is predeceased by daughter Mae, and is survived by his wife, Florence, daughter Dawna, sons Ronald and Greg, and their immediate and extended families.

A date and time of a memorial service has not yet been confirmed.

Dr. Senda is credited for the strong tradition of judo in Lethbridge and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. He was instrumental in developing the Lethbridge Judo Club and the U of L Judo exchange program with Japan. He remained an active coach for the Lethbridge Judo Club and served as coach and manager of the U of L Judo Club.

He represented the sport of judo in many provincial, national and international capacities (including the Olympics), brought national and international recognition to Lethbridge and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, and gained international recognition for his successful teaching methods.

With a ninth degree black belt, Dr. Senda was the highest-ranking judo black belt in Canada. He instilled in his students that judo is more than just a physical exercise for the body – judo is a way of life.

His philosophy: "You can better yourself by always showing respect for others, and to always give it your best in whatever you do."

In 2007 -- and in addition to a long list of awards and achievements -- Dr. Senda was appointed as a member of the Order of Canada in recognition for his contributions to the development and expansion of judo in Canada as a coach, mentor and role model for more than five decades.

None of this was possible without the support and efforts of Florence, a fourth degree black belt, and who provides support through managing the Senda house, coaching and encouraging the athletes, paying special attention to the younger participants.

Rethinking the role of a professor

trevor.kenney — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:31:38 +0000

The team met students from more than 50 universities and was also exposed to new ideas, that in turn challenge Wieden both in his classroom and his lab.

Wieden says a big part of the value-added education U of L chemistry and biochemistry students receive is in the opportunity to participate in activities like iGEM.

UNews - the Olympics

Bursting onto a new stage

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��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ community mourns passing of Senda