Excitement is building in this pre-Olympic season as athletes, coaches and members of the CSI Calgary Integrated Support Teams travel to PyeongChang, Korea to explore and compete for the first time in the new venues. Olympic test events are being held in anticipation of the Games, which start in just over 300 days.

Canadian winter World Cup and World Championship results to date this season have been very strong. Last week after 505 events, Canada is currently in the top three nations for both total medals and total gold medals.

Throughout the PyeongChang Olympic test events, history is being made. In addition to other stellar Canadian performances, Calgary’s Sam Edney became the first Canadian male to reach a Luge podium in the men’s singles events outside of Canada, winning Bronze in February’s Viessmann Luge World Cup. Coming off a series of injuries, three-time Olympian Edney took the last year off to recover, build back his strength and focus on school.

A CSI Calgary supported athlete, Edney is a 15-year veteran of the National Luge Team. “I had a really good, solid week of training so I had a lot of confidence knowing the majority of the guys were having issues on the track,” added Edney. “I might be the old dog on Tour, but I think that is to my advantage when we get to a new track where it takes the experience, and the volume of runs I have on the tracks around the world, to help pick up new things for a new track.

Tim Farstad, Executive Director of Luge Canada says that this season heading into Korea, Canada’s Luge team athletes are proving to be strong and motivated. “The Team is hungry after getting three fourth place and one fifth place finishes in Sochi. They’ve been working hard for three years now to move into the medal spots in the next Olympic Games. As we’ve seen this season, each one of these athletes has medal potential.”

Jeremiah Barnert, CSI Calgary Strength and Conditioning coach, has been a member of the Luge support team since 2009, accompanying them in the 2010 and 2014 Olympic Games. “Sam’s success was really exciting,” says Barnert. “He came back strong after taking a year off.” Barnert goes on to explain that he is on the road with the Luge team for 10 – 14 weeks a year. With a small team, and two of four support staff from CSI Calgary, it’s a tight-knit family. “The family feel is what makes our team strong.”

Having recently spent two weeks in PyeongChang, Barnert confirmed that the new Olympic venue is in good shape, the people are great and everything is well organized

Olympic test events give athletes the opportunity to get familiar with the new venues, officials the ability to fine-tune large international events, and volunteers coming from across the world have the opportunity to give feedback.

By the end of March, Canadian athletes will have competed in PyeongChang at:

FIS World Cup Snowboard (big air)
ISU World Cup Short Track event
Alpine FEC & President Cup
FIS Cross Country World Cup
FIS Nordic Combined World Cup
World Single Distance Championships (speed skating)
FIS Freestyle World Cup
FIS Snowboard World Cup
FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
Four Continents Figure Skating Championships
World Junior Curling Championships
FIL Luge World Cup
IBU Biathlon World Cup
FIS Alpine World Cup
IBSF World Cup of Bobsleigh and Skeleton

Canada expects to send its largest team ever to an Olympic Winter games with an estimated 240 athletes joining more than 6000 competitors from up to 95 countries. Immediately following are the 12th Paralympic Winter Games with athletes from 45 countries, six sports with 80 medal events.

For more information on PyeongChang 2018, check out the official website: https://www.olympic.org/pyeongchang-2018

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary: @csicalgary
Written by Lisa Thomson
Photo by Dave Holland: @csicalgaryphoto
08/03/17

Lead Mental Performance Consultant Frank van den Berg and Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach Jeremiah Barnert recommend strategies and opportunities to strengthen your mental health, mental performance, as well as ways to stay active and on top of your physical fitness. 

Calgary, February 20, 2021 - Even before the global pandemic hit, curler Chelsea Carey had already planned a year off. As a new free agent without a team there was no schedule or competition to plan for, and a nagging knee injury was ever present. The decision to step back was clear and final.

Still, as she stared down the abyss of an empty season, the two-time Scotties champion skip knew it could be a tough year.

When COVID-19 began circling the globe and mass lockdowns followed, CSI Calgary charted a new course, planning protocols and adapting training groups so that athletes could safely resume training. Along the way, they ended up with a random assortment of athletes from different sports who didn’t have anyone to train with, so they created a new cohort that could train together. This is where Carey found her team.

It was an eclectic mix of athletes from alpine skiing, fencing, water polo, basketball and curling. CSI Calgary Strength and Conditioning Lead, Jeremiah Barnert, who trained the group, says the idea was borne out of the need to continue providing services that the athletes rely on to achieve peak performance.

“We were trying to find creative ways to support athletes during the pandemic,” he explains. “This cohort came together because they were all on their own and needed our help.”

The first step for Carey was addressing a long-standing overuse injury in her knee that she couldn’t resolve as competitive seasons grew ever longer. “We started by working on musculoskeletal issues,” says Barnert. “But we had to be creative with home-based workouts and even with the in-person workouts. I was prescribing workouts using soup cans and milk jugs,” he laughs.

Teaming up with Barnert gave Carey the one-on-one attention she needed to finally put the work in to recover. “It’s not quite where I want it to be, but we’ve made progress,” she says. “It’s still tough though, I had to be patient, which is something I’m not very good at.”

What Barnert observed goes deeper. “For Chelsea what has been really good is the consistency in working to rehab her knee injuries,” he says. “It’s been a blessing for her, and she’s taken more ownership to address these issues. The team environment really helped her, too.”

That team environment emerged after the group met for training and began to bond. It became a safe harbour where they could work towards their own goals together, in an ever-changing pandemic world that kept closing in.

“It kept us sane just being able to train and have a group of friends,” says Carey. “Getting together for workouts was also the only social interaction we had.” In some ways, it’s been a silver lining, finding this team, this year.

So, when Carey got the unexpected call to join Manitoba’s Team Fleury at the upcoming Scotties Tournament of Hearts to fill in for skip Tracy Fleury, who is home caring for her daughter, she felt as prepared as she possibly could be.

In a year that was supposed to be lost, Carey has another shot, an opportunity she’s excited about but nervous, too. “Everyone is coming in a bit rusty,” she says. “The pandemic levels the playing field somewhat, but it’s still nerve-wracking knowing the preparation on ice hasn’t been there.”

Just before the second major lockdown in Alberta came in mid-December, and the mismatched team knew they wouldn’t be able to train together for a while, they took a group photo: a true team of misfits who came together and found what they needed to get through a tough year. No doubt a time that will be looked back on with fondness as they eventually make their way back to normal.

Carey sums it up, “It’s been a bizarre year, but it’s been fun.”

The Scotties Tournament of Hearts kicked off last night at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Winsport and runs until Sunday, February 28th. For complete information on the event, visit https://www.curling.ca/2021scotties/

To learn more about the Canadian Sport Institute Calgary, visit www.csialberta.ca

Written by: Kristina Groves

Photo by: Alanna Goldie

In the photo from left to right: Kelleigh Ryan (Fencing), Jeremiah Barnert (CSI Calgary), Chelsea Carey (Curling), Jordan Jensen-Whyte (Basketball), Alanna Goldie (Fencing), Kyle Landry (Basketball), and Gaelan Patterson (Waterpolo).

Media Contact

Annie Gagnon

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary

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