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Updated 18/07/2024
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Weekly series

10/02/2022

Mark McMorris: relaxed and ready

Considering Mark McMorris' medical history, it's no surprise he jokes about enjoying rare time off between surgeries. It takes another beat to process his comparisons with teammate Max Parrot's recovery from cancer. But that is the unlikely reality: Two guys, buddies on the same team, both at death's door not so long ago… both on the podium in Beijing. You either laugh or cry at life's twists and turns. And McMorris isn't crying. Not everybody can claim a podium every time their sport has been contested in the Olympics. McMorris can: Three Bronze medals in a row. And not everybody at the age of 28 can speak as an elder statesman in their profession. McMorris can do that too. Midway through McMorris' Beijing games (Big Air qualifying begins Monday) Anastasia gives her fellow prairie pal a break from the high octane technical questions. You want to know what's really on McMorris mind at this moment? A whole bunch of music, plenty of love for his home team, respect for the creativity in other people's TikToks, even when he's on the butt end of a meme…and the puzzling appearance of Skateboarder Paul Rodriguez Nikes on the feet of American curler Matthew Hamilton. McMorris loves that. His summary of the situation? It's all sports, It's all good.

10/02/2022

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21 min
20/12/2022

Robert Parish: NBA legend among legends

Robert Parish is a big man like no other in the history of the NBA. And not just because the hall of famer has four championship rings, and an incredibly long career. Parish retired in 2003 with 1611 games played. That total game record might NEVER be broken. But no big centre has ever covered the court the way Parish did. He finished fast breaks, and showed speed and shooting accuracy that is beyond rare for the tallest players. His fellow Hall of Famer, Bill Walton says "There was the rebounding. There was the defense. There was the scoring. There was the setting of screens. There was the way he ran the floor. How many centers in today's NBA do any of that?" What set the 7’1” center apart for fans was his puzzling reserve. He was an introvert in a sport that thrives on emotion, and big personality players. If Parish was shooting the lights out, or as he says, if he was having a day in which he should never have gotten out of bed- his silent and serious manner was exactly the same. Management called him a stoic player. He simply says he is most comfortable in his own company. What ultimately set the Celtics (and Warriors, and Hornets, and Bulls) legend apart in the stats though, is another facet of his quiet, loner attitude. Way back in 1976, when he was young and invincible, and nobody was taking these things seriously, Parish got into yoga, nutritional science, weights and flexibilty training. So, decades later, when the then 43 year-old became the oldest Championship winner in history, it was because of that long standing work ethic. Commentators could never get over how fast, fit and flexible the big man continued to be. As the pushing 70 star says to Player’s own Voice Podcast host Anastasia Bucsis, with a deep chuckle, once the interview wraps, he’s got some yoga to see to, and yes he can still touch his toes.

20/12/2022

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27 min
16/11/2021

Throwing stones with Ben Hebert

It’s kind of an open secret, regarding Curling in this country: the best of the best will agree that qualifying for the Canadian Olympic team is harder than facing the entire world at the actual winter games. If that sounds unCanadian, maybe a little too bragodocious, judge for yourself in the week ahead, as Saskatoon hosts the national team qualifying tournament. If you need some insights about how that’s all going to play out… can we recommend lead Ben Hebert? The gold medallist, world champion, and four-time Brier winner is an excellent source of unvarnished wisdom about the game that he has devoted 25 years to perfecting. According to Hebert, at this level, and with these teams in the running, the whole tournament might come down to a couple of shots. Which means it could be anybody who’ll get to wear the maple leaf once Beijing begins. And - looking ahead to the Olympics themselves, Hebert is quick to say, Sweden and Scotland are the nations to respect, come February. Connecting in Calgary with his old Olympian pal Anastasia, Hebert holds forth on crucial topics such as whether a Saskatchewan team winning gold in Curling, or the Rough Riders winning the Grey Cup, would make Sask hearts beat hardest… on his lingering dismay at being swept off the podium in PyeongChang, 2018… and on how money and medals have driven everybody in the game to heights of professionalism and athletic fitness that would be unheard of barely a generation back.

16/11/2021

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32 min
03/08/2024

Future track stars and Olympic village food reviews

Who will win gold in the women's 100m? Mark and Jem chat with Jamaican commentator Ricardo Chambers about his track predictions…and then they’re joined by celebrity chef Roger Mooking to talk food reviews from the Olympic village.

03/08/2024

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14 min
22/11/2022

Aaron Brown thinks fast

Canadian Sprinter Aaron Brown is a quick thinker. Not just in the literal sense- he has perfected physical speed, as befits a World champion 4x 100 relay racer. But every track and field athlete tries to do that. What sets Brown apart is how he analyzes and dissects the entire economic model of high performance sport. For someone who is so ready to reassure that he isn't a radical- a lot of Brown's questions might rattle nerves among the money managers at the peak of the Olympic pyramid. Brown doesn't worry about the superstars, the household names on the track- the athletic 1% has sneaker deals and opportunities aplenty. It's everyone else he sees struggling to make ends meet. One hundredth of a second might make the difference between being famous in the finals, and toiling in the ninth lane, slinging coffee in the off season. Brown's point is that in no other profession do we see only a handful at the apex actually making a living. How might profit sharing work? Brown considers paydays from the loftiest IOC execs, down through the ranks to the athletes and coaches whose labour- to Brown's thinking- has never been fairly rewarded. Brown's ideas get to the heart of track and field as a profession. He recognizes that NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB salaries might be out of reach- but urges track Olympians to consider business models more like golf or tennis, where athletes are well paid, and not entirely dependent on a windfall every four years, when the Olympics roll around. As he makes clear to Anastasia- All the athletes are thinking it. He just happens to be saying it out loud.

22/11/2022

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34 min
14/03/2023

From CFL to esports- Konrad Wasiela tackles a new game

Like the game titles themselves, esports athletes can generate shocking income and audiences. At the highest level, it's gaming in name only. Everything else about the pursuit of esports mastery is hard-nosed, serious business. Elite esports players' training regimens certainly rival those of "real world" athletes. Strength and balance work, hand-eye conditioning, nutritionists, psych coaches, esports stars make use of all the above. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that pro athletes are pro athletes, whether the rectangles they compete in are made of grass or glass. Konrad Wasiela is uniquely suited to comment on the busy intersection of traditional and e-athletes. Formerly a CFL cornerback, Wasiela's 'come to esports' moment was a visit to a live gaming event. He walked into a sold-out stadium, and saw 60,000 people cheering. Amazon had just paid a billion bucks for 'Twitch' the game streaming service. Wasiela added up the mega millions that Intel had poured into this tournament, and took note of Puma and Nike sponsorships in the space. He quickly resolved to launch his own company to get in on the action. ESE Entertainment does several things in the esports space, but it's mostly about pushing new players and audiences to egames. Anastasia probes Wasiela on the many ways esports are played and promoted by real world athletes, but Wasiela flips that question: his interest lies in the ways traditional sports are starting to depend on their virtual counterparts. Simulators from esports are already used heavily by every F1 driver and team. As more coaches and more sports make the jump into using applications from esports in the locker room, game film might be going the way of the horse and buggy. And that's just one way esports are changing the game in real life. Esports are already spinning collossal sums of money. The consensus seems to be, they have only just begun.

14/03/2023

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20 min
19/10/2021

Piper and Paul's time to shine

Ten years after Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier began Ice dancing together, they have landed in a spot that is novel for both of them: Top of the heap. Creative, athletic, and artistic as they have always been, the duo’s dynamics have long contended with outsized competitors like Tessa & Scott and Kaitlyn & Andrew. It’s Piper and Paul’s turn in the sun now. And with the Winter Olympics coming on fast, they don’t have time to savour the spotlight. It’s all about getting their programme honed to perfection. Long-standing fans of the duo will be thrilled to learn that their latest long performance is built around The Beatles’ “Day in the Life”- interpreted by the same remarkable busker team whose ‘Starry Night’ electrified crowds for Piper and Paul starting in 2018. The Ice Dancers share secrets of an enduring partnership. Perhaps it’s counter intuitive, but in their case, the professional success together is firmly based in respect for one another’s personal lives. Paul jokes that he doesn’t trust any skate partners who never argue, but he and Piper are serious about making sure that support for one another comes first in every discussion, no matter how heated.

19/10/2021

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38 min
21/02/2023

Camryn Rogers throws out a new challenge

From day one of her athletic career, Camryn Rogers has bucked expectations. As a pre-teen, the first event she tried was Hammer throwing, and it was love at first hurl. Adolescence is when many girls leave sport, sadly, but a 12-year-old Rogers became enthralled with throwing "this thing that looked like a murder weapon," and she committed there and then to becoming as skilled and powerful as possible at the discipline. Eleven years later, it is hard to keep track of how many records Rogers has broken, how many 'firsts' she has landed for Canada, or how many young athletes she is inspiring. Rogers, now 23, is still very young for a Hammer thrower. Anastasia asks the reigning Commonwealth Games champion about her game plan for the next 11 years. Hammer is front and centre, of course, but while Rogers was busily landing all of the top ten throws in the history of the NCAA, she was also getting a B.A. in political economy and a B.S. in society and environment. So yes, Canada's best Hammer thrower has every intention of breaking more records, and she'll be continuing in grad school at Berkeley, thinking about a law degree while she's at it. The great thing for Rogers lately is that there has been a change in the fundamental questions she asks herself as an athlete. Prior to her impressive debut at the Olympics and silver medal at the World Athletics Championships, her question was 'Can I get there?' It's a new line of questioning now: 'How far can I go? Where can I go from here?' Like throwing itself, where subtle changes can yield major results, that small shift in mindset is all the motivation Rogers requires. The world is her 4-kilogram oyster. Let's see how far she chooses to throw it.

21/02/2023

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32 min
23/11/2021

The relentless evolution of Mark Arendz

Mark Arendz delivered performance after performance at the 2018 Pyeongchang Paralympic games. He skied and shot his way into uncharted territory, nailing an incredible six medals in six events. Which left Canada’s undisputed star of the games in something of a motivational bind. It’s relatively easy to train with a goal of doing ‘better next time’. But how to focus on improving after an outing like that? Heading into the Beijing games, as Arendz explains to Anastasia Bucsis, means evolving as an athlete. ‘More’ is not the answer, but ‘different’ might be. Arendz' relentless pursuit of technique and fitness has led him to a place where he can still find flaws in his own gold medal races. He can still see ways to hit more bullseyes, more quickly. He can still bring more of his phenomenal talent and drive to bear on all the notoriously difficult Nordic disciplines. In conversation on the edge of ‘Frozen Thunder’, the shoulder season cross country training track at Canmore, Alberta, Arendz slowed down long enough to describe how his passion for technical excellence in sport likely evolved from his early need to solve the daily challenges of living minus an arm lost to a childhood accident on his family farm in P.E.I. 24 years of overcoming physical problems, as it turns out, is excellent preparation for an unparalleled athletic career. It should come as a surprise to no one that Arendz is already visualizing precisely where he’ll be at noon on March 5th, 2022…the minute, hour and day that his next Paralympic Nordic race gets underway.

23/11/2021

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28 min
05/08/2024

Canada's Thor

Mark and Jem celebrate Ethan Katzberg's gold in hammer throw and chat with Jamaican analyst Leighton Levy about the race that made everyone do a double-take: Noah Lyles' photo finish 100m win. And then comedian White Yardie shares his love for track and field.

05/08/2024

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13 min

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