Former CBC broadcaster, Scott Russell, was at the ‘Bird’s Nest’ at the 2008 Beijing Olympics when “a 6’5 guy from Jamaica got out of the blocks, unfolded himself, and Usain Bolt ran 100m in 9.69 seconds before 95,000 people.
“We didn’t know that he could go that fast – that a human being could go that fast – and then he assumed the lightning bolt pose – the place just erupted. What a place to be at to see that happen,” Russell recalled during an April 7 interview with The Highlander.
A former Kilcoo camper and staffer, who’s had a cottage on Gull Lake the past 15 years, Russell spoke at the Speaker Series April 8, and will be joining Canadian figure skating icon, Tracy Wilson, for a fireside chat at the Minden Community Food Centre fundraiser April 11.
Following the Milano-Cortino Olympics, in which Norway bested the world with 41 medals, compared to Canada’s 21, Russell commented on criticism of a lack of funding for Canadian sport.
“I happen to buy it,” he said. “Core funding for high performance sport has not gone up in this country for 20 years; core funding to the national sport organizations which drive sport in the country. When you’re stagnant for 20 years, and you’re trying to rely on ‘own the podium’ to produce all this high tech and the inside edge, that gets pretty difficult.”
He was asked about the Norway sports model versus what is happening in our nation.
“In many major provinces in this country health and physical education and sport is not part of core curriculum. So, kids are getting a miniscule amount of sport through our educational system, and they’re getting 40 minutes a week, and that’s not enough.
“That’s the difference with Norway. Kids are in sport throughout their school education. They don’t specialize in sport right away. We tend to, in the club system, specialize. If you are going to be a hockey player, you are going to pay to play and you are going to specialize in hockey. Whereas in Norway, you are going to do every sport and when it gets time for high performance, we’re going to identify those people who excel in certain sports at a mature age.”
He’s asked if the Olympics are still relevant in our modern world.
“I love the Olympics and I believe they should be as relevant today as they have been in the past. But they are struggling with so many issues right now. One of them is the Olympics are becoming politicized, and struggling to maintain the ideal. They are also struggling with gender identification.”
However, Russell said, “the Olympics are the great hope of the world – and the idea is that people from every race, faith, gender, orientation, and ability are welcome in the one place in the one time – to engage in competition which is fair and just and to show us what is humanly possible.
“There are people who are trying to corrupt the Olympics. And the Olympics are not perfect, but for two weeks or 16 days, it’s amazing to me that this dysfunctional family that we call humanity can somehow get together and make good things happen. I think we have to hold on to that.”
