brilliant video. Potts.... what an athlete.

Laureus event picture.

Simon Whitfield, Emma Snowsill, Boris Becker, Sean Fitzpatrick, Jan Frodeno

some photos from London. Really enjoying this new hobby, thankfully the Lumix GF1 does most of the work.

a terrific guy and great athlete, my good mate Conrad Stoltz.

Laureus event.

Boris Becker and Sean Fitzpatrick team up with world triathlon stars to launch new project in London

LONDON, July 22, 2010 - Laureus World Sports Academy Members Boris Becker and Sean Fitzpatrick were joined by three of the world's greatest triathlon stars for the launch of the Laureus-supported Midnight Basketball project in Kennington, South London. Triathletes Jan Frodeno, Emma Snowsill and Simon Whitfield - in London for the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series event in Hyde Park on July 24 and 25 - were special guests at the project which provides community basketball sessions in areas of high juvenile crime late in the evening to keep youngsters out of trouble. Midnight Basketball, a replica of the successful Laureus-supported project of the same name in Richmond, Virginia, is the 80th sports-based project around the world backed by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which is also the Global Charity Partner of the International Triathlon Union (ITU). German tennis legend Boris Becker said: "This is a great concept. I have also visited the Midnight Basketball project in Virginia and seen how successful it is. I am sure this will make a big impact in the neighbourhood and will keep the kids off the street and out of trouble." As Global Charity Partner of the ITU, Laureus has had the opportunity to field teams at each of the five major events on the international triathlon circuit this year to raise funds for the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and former All Blacks rugby captain Sean Fitzpatrick is one of the Laureus team who will be competing in London. Sean said: "It was great to be at the launch of a new project and I am so delighted that Emma, Jan and Simon were able to come to Midnight Basketball to give them the chance to see Laureus at work. Our partnership with the International Triathlon Union is so important and allows us to get our message to a whole new group of people. I am really looking forward to competing in Hyde Park." Simon Whitfield, the first ever Olympic triathlon gold medallist, in Sydney in 2000, said: "I am delighted to be able to visit the Midnight Basketball project. I know a lot about the work of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation around the world, and it is great to see it all taking place on the ground. It's a real step forward for my sport to have a tie up like this with Laureus as our Global Charity Partner and I'm certainly going to do everything I can to make it a success. It was great to meet the kids who have opted for sport rather than hanging around on the streets and I had a special word with the volunteers and project leaders without whom none of this would be possible. It was really inspiring to be part of it all for a day." Midnight Basketball in London is a replica of the successful Laureus-supported project of the same name in Richmond, Virginia. The project uses basketball activities and competition to engage at-risk young people from South and Central London, whilst also raising their awareness of society and community and creating training and development opportunities. The programme has been identified as a priority area for development due to the popularity of basketball in these areas, where young people are often uninterested in other sports. Support for a basketball initiative to tackle social issues has come from the Metropolitan Police, Nike, the London Mayor's Office and the central London Sports Action Zone. The project has also received the official endorsement of NBA Europe. The project delivers personal development programmes, alongside basketball, including drug and alcohol awareness, conflict resolution, equality and diversity training and community safety. Those participants undertaking both basketball coaching and personal development programme are given the opportunity to participate in weekend midnight basketball events, running from 10pm - 6am, that incorporate basketball and cultural activities, and which help to keep the vulnerable young people off the streets at a difficult tine. Participants in the programme play in a Midnight Basketball League, with matches played monthly. The winning team have the chance to participate in the Midnight Madness event at Wembley each summer.

Laureus World Sports Academy members Boris Becker and Sean Fitzpatrick

The whole team!!!

who got game?

hamburg and too much time with photoshop..

camera at the pool day.

Great company, amazing bikes. Didn't realize they were so funny!.

evening at the track

the next days

the first day in Germany

Slowtwitch interview

Simon Whitfield is not running on empty new

Written by: Timothy Carlson
Date: Tue Jul 06 2010

Simon Whitfield may be the closest thing Olympic distance triathlon has to an icon in the sport. Thankfully, in person he is more wit, elf and sprite than a ponderous stone monument. And with his lively thoughts and humor he lends as much to the sport with his words as by his deeds.

And what deeds they are! At age 25, the first Olympic men’s gold medalist with a longshot, 27th-after-the-bike-to-gold dash with a then-stunning 30:56 10k run. At age 33, an equally thrilling Olympic silver in the 2008 Beijing Olympic triathlon in a duel to the finish with Germany’s Jan Frodeno. A 2002 Commonwealth Games gold. One of the first Life Time Fitness Men’s gold medals and a $50,000 paycheck. 12 ITU World Cup victories, 21 World Cup podium finishes, and 7 top-10 finishes at the ITU World Championships he has never won. And a $200,000 win in the sport’s greatest 6-man duel to the finish at last year’s Hy-Vee Elite race.

This year on May 16, the forever young Whitfield turned 35 years of age. That’s ancient for tennis, cuttable for a star in the NFL, a youngster in golf, past prime as a sprinter, absolute prime for an Ironman. And just on the cusp of the end in Olympic distance triathlon - closer to the end than the beginning.
Some may suspect that Whitfield is past his prime, has lost his speed.

But not at all simple Simon says he would kick the butt of the kid who won Olympic gold in 2000 and is faster than ever.

When he's healthy.

Trouble so far is that after a 5th place at the opening round of the 2010 Dextro Energy World Championship Series in Sydney, Australia, Whitfield has had to pull out of two straight big races – the WCs round two in Seoul and at Hy-Vee with a malfunctioning hip flexor.


Slowtwitch: Where were you when Canada played the US in the gold medal hockey game? 
for the answer and the rest of the interview www.SLOWTWITCH.com

Gunslingin' Dogs

by Ridley Bent


www.simonwhitfield.com @simonwhitfield

Everyone is the media - G20: Street Level

Everyone is the media - G20: Street Level

congrats to all the athletes at COTEAU-DU-LAC, Que

great quote from the mens race winner.

“This is the best thing that has ever happened to me,” said Andrew Yorke following the race. “You name an injury and I have pretty much had it. I have trained so hard through all of these injuries, and that is the hardest thing to do mentally. I usually struggle in the run, but today at the five-kilometre mark, I just ran my guts out and didn’t stop. I have never been so emotional at the end of a race.”



Join us in Kelowna for the Canadian Culinary Championships next Feb.

Culinary competitors drawn to Okanagan

Olympic triathlon medallist Simon Whitfield tries out Delta chef Stuart Klassen’s sezmu beef and foie gras terrine at the press conference held Thursday at the Delta Grand for Canadian Culinary Championships to be held in Kelowna next February.

Sean Connor/Capital News

By Judie Steeves - Kelowna Capital News
Published: June 17, 2010 6:00 PM
Updated: June 18, 2010 6:47 AM

 

Kelowna’s reputation as an “amazing food and wine city” has led to our city being chosen as the Canadian Culinary Championships venue for the next five years.
National culinary advisor James Chatto said the Okanagan is becoming renowned for its food and wine.
As well, it is very central for competitors to access, with direct flights even from Toronto, so it was a natural to host the annual Gold Medal Plates, he added.
The event is a fundraiser for the Canadian Olympic Foundation, and Olympic triathlete Simon Whitfield, a gold and silver medalist, was in Kelowna Thursday for the announcement.
The foundation supports the hiring of world-class coaches and the purchase of top training equipment for high-performance athletes across the country to help them prepare for the Olympics.
Whitfield said he ran his first race here in Kelowna, so it was nice to be back for a visit.
Aside from the economic spin-offs of holding such a popular and prestigious event here, Chatto said Okanagan College students in the chef program will be offered the opportunity to work with competing chefs.
“There’ll be two per chef and they will find it’s an extraordinary experience,” he said.
In addition, in the lead-up to the final competition, Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley will be promoted across the country, with footage of this area, to encourage people to attend the Gold Medal Plates Championship.
Top chefs will compete in regional competitions in all of the country’s major cities over a three-week period during October and November for the chance to come to Kelowna and cook against fellow top chefs from across Canada Feb. 18 and 19, 2011.
Eldorado chef Michael Lyon has competed twice and won twice, and says there’s a certain level of fear going into such a high-level competition. “You’ve got to be your best,” he said.
In the black box competition, one of three the top chefs will compete in next February, Lyon says there are no holds barred.
“It uses all your talent. You’re pitted against the top chefs in Canada. I use a memory of something that worked (in the past) and use the ingredients to recapture that. It’s fun, and there’s a lot of passion too.”
He figures his success is partly to thank for his new Food Network show Chef@Off.
Local chefs who will be competing regionally include Stuart Klassen, of the Delta Grand Okanagan, Roger Sleiman, from Quails’ Gate’s Old Vines Restaurant, and Dana Ewart, of Joy Road Catering in Penticton.
The first event will be held at the Eldorado and will be a mystery wine pairing while the second will be a black box competition to be held at Okanagan College.
The grand finale will be held at the Delta Grand Okanagan. Sandhill winemaker Howard Soon says Peller Estates, including Sandhill and Calona Vineyards, will be among the wineries sponsoring wine matches for the event.
Jim Cuddy, of Blue Rodeo, will entertain and there will be some unique live auction items, including a gourmet cooking class in Tuscany.
The event always sells out, although tickets are $395 for all three events and $250 just for the grand finale. Packages of tickets are available too, ranging from $5,000 to $2,500.

For ticket details, go to: www.goldmedalplates.comwww.goldmedalplates.com.

interview with www.whereparentstalk.com

In the lead-up to Father's Day on Sunday June 20th, www.WhereParentsTalk.com is featuring profiles of 5 Dads who are in the public eye, in our Five Famous Fathers, Five Questions series.  We asked each of them 5 questions about being a Dad.  Here's Part 1.

By Lianne Castelino  www.whereparentstalk.com

The images are seared into the memory, for a lifetime. The result of a phenomenal performance at the 2000 Sydney Olympics by an affable, determined 25-year-old Canadian.

It came in the triathlon - the gruelling discipline that combines – a 1.5-km swim, a 40-km bike race and a 10-km run. Except on this day, Canada’s Simon Whitfield crashed during the bike race portion of the competition. Whitfield got tangled with 14 other riders and was on the ground --- an Olympic medal improbable at best.

Then the Kingston, Ontario native did what he does best.  Persevered.

He got up and started running. He sliced through the competition, with surgical precision. “The Olympic Gold medalist in triathlon from Canada – Simon Whitfield.”  

Pure joy from coast to coast!

Three consecutive Olympics – Gold (2000 Sydney), 11th (Athens 2004), Silver (Beijing 2008).   And he's training for 2012.

Simon Whitfield:  Perseverance.  Iron grit.  Moxie.

These days the 35-year-old is trying to keep pace with two little ones - on a different journey – fatherhood.

Whitfield and his wife Jennie are proud parents to Pippa (3 years old) and Evelyn (4 months).

Here’s Simon’s account of fatherhood, in his own words:

1. What does being a Dad mean to you?

Crazy sleep patterns. Moments I thought I'd never have like dance parties in our underwear, bouncy castle Olympics. My oldest daughter and I having parallel tantrums because we haven't eaten enough, getting teary eyed when she tells me " I love you and mommy but mommy is much funnier, good night". Watching Pippa with her 4-month old sister Evelyn as she tries to kiss her with her snotty nose pretty much guaranteeing us two sick children, jumping from log to log on the beach and wanting to tell everyone in the immediate vicinity that my daughter will be in Cirque du Soleil by the end of the week and finally the dream that someday I can burn all those toys that make random noises even when the kids aren't around distributing those few moments of personal time we have (I imagine the whole ritual around burning the dancing bee toy but suspect that I'd have a change of heart at the last moment and simple hug the toy and end up apologizing.... out loud).

2. What is the one thing you have learned about being a Dad that surprised you?

I'm not sure it surprised me but it reaffirmed to me that I can handle anything as long as I'm not hot or hungry. Jennie's come home many times to find me pacing with Evelyn (and formally Pippa) around the house with the sling, in my underwear with the obvious signs of hastily consumed yogurt on my chest and chin...... smiling and saying "it's good, I got it, nothing to see here".

3. What is your greatest Dad moment that you can share?  

The singing and dancing is special! Pippa can really boogie and thinks she can hold a tune, she loves "da muuzic". Evelyn, Jennie and I often end up as the audience to these spontaneous concerts complete with "no Daddy no, Pippa sing only". Evelyn puts on a brave face and lets out some giggles. Jennie and I usually end up rolling on the floor laughing, until of course we're told to "mommy, daddy, please please sit down".

4. What is your biggest challenge as a Dad?

Patience. My patience has increased 100 fold since Pippa was born, now if I could only figure out the next 10,000 folds..... and the worry, the worry is awful at times, you love your kids so much and the worry can be overwhelming at times.

5.  What is your secret to success as a Dad?

Beyond just appreciating, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing?  I have an active, fun imagination.  We play lots of fun, imagniary games with castles and cows, clocks and cheese, wait I think I just described Switzerland in 5 C's!!.  Anyway, we have tons of fun, play games and I simply dominate the bouncy castle!

Learn more about Simon Whitfield: 


for the other 4 interviews click here

http://www.simonwhitfield.com 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Simon-Whitfield/48601001264?ref=ts