Devotees of endurance running will tell you, the beauty of a 5,000 or 10,000 meter race is that those long, fast laps are the closest thing to a chess board that track and field offers. Physical endurance counts. An ability to compartmentalize pain helps. Raw speed matters. But it’s those long minutes of strategic survival...taking and relinquishing control, testing opponents’ fitness, staying upright in a jostling pack of spikes, and carving a path to the finish line. It’s that real time runnin...
Aug 07, 2021•16 min•Season 4Ep. 17
Athletics experts are losing their minds over Damian Warner’s performance in the Tokyo Decathlon. Sports scientists might accurately say what he did was an order of magnitude greater than a single event gold. And in fact, what Warner achieved would have got him in the finals or on the podium in at least a couple of the individual versions of the decathlon’s ten events. But those are details in the face of the two real headlines. First- Warner scored over 9000 points. In the history of his sport-...
Aug 06, 2021•17 min•Season 4Ep. 16
Just like a balance beam routine, Gymnast Ellie Black’s entire Olympic experience teetered on the edge of disaster. She managed to salvage an inspirational fourth place on the beam, despite a freshly re-injured ankle. Which really was a matter of snatching improbable triumph back from the brink of a much more likely painful retreat. Perhaps the least-surprised person in this Olympic drama is Black herself. The 25 year old Canadian Artistic Gymnastics team leader has always led by example, always...
Aug 04, 2021•19 min•Season 4Ep. 15
In a crowd of perhaps overly media-trained athletes, Penny Oleksiak lets it all hang out. Canada’s most decorated Olympian has a knack for saying exactly what’s on her mind in interviews. Shortly after Penny scooped medal number seven into her loot bag, the swimming phenom came through the International Broadcast Center in Tokyo to do her duty with the awaiting media. CBC Sports Player’s Own Voice podcast seized the moment to document a not-too polished picture of the Olympic experience from an ...
Aug 02, 2021•15 min•Season 4Ep. 14
Rosie MacLennan has never lacked for admirers. But the four-time Olympian and only Canadian ever to deliver back-to- back golds in the same event earned a whole new level of respect in Tokyo this week. It wasn’t just that her trampoline routine drew gasps from judges, or that she soared to fourth place on a barely healed ankle fracture. It was more that MacLennan’s first thoughts as she entered the obligatory mix zone, were congratulations to her fellow competitors. A graceful gesture in the spo...
Aug 01, 2021•17 min•Season 4Ep. 13
Felix Auger-Aliassime’s first Olympic tennis events did not end the way he wanted them to. But the world’s youngest top 20 player has perspective on the experience that would be admirable in someone twice his age. His early singles upset loss was partly about his serve having less than its usual impact. That’s tennis, it happens. But Auger-Aliassime corrected his service nicely when he moved on to his first-ever mixed doubles match alongside Gabriela Dabrowski. Imagine trying an event for the fi...
Jul 30, 2021•22 min•Season 4Ep. 12
She's the 2019 world number one junior tennis player. Still only 18 years old, the Canadian competitor has just finished a very respectable Olympic debut. Fernandez won her opening match, and only fell short against Barbora Krejcikova, who happens to be this year’s French Open winner in both singles and doubles. But if you think this young player finds solace in being outplayed only by a current grand slam winner, you’d be sorely underestimating the competitor’s mind. Fernandez hates to lose. Pe...
Jul 28, 2021•16 min•Season 4Ep. 11
Tammara Thibeault, Canadian middleweight, has her first Olympic bout tonight. That’s got to be an anxious time for many boxers, but when Tamm steps into the ring, it's usually kind of a zen experience. Just before the opening bell, no matter what her opponent is up to, Tammara finds herself calm, focussed, knowing her business. When people call it the sweet science- that’s a euphemism, but not Thibeault. She‘s a fan of what she calls ‘pretty boxing’. Thibeault is a mover, a technical fighter, an...
Jul 27, 2021•28 min•Season 4Ep. 10
When it comes to bike racing, the biggest compliment your peers can pay you is when they stay on your wheel at all times. If you aren’t a threat to win, nobody needs to chase when you try to ride off the front of the peloton. So coming into the Olympic road race, Canadian Michael Woods had an excellent strategy in place: keep an eye on the winner of the last two Tours De France, Tadej Pogacar, and do his best to chase Belgian climber and sprinter, Wout Van Aert. Trouble is, guess who those two p...
Jul 25, 2021•20 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Skylar Park is one of only two Taekwondo athletes that Canada has sent to Tokyo. But she’s aiming for the finals in the Olympic 57 kilogram class. The friendly but lethal young Winnipegger has caught the attention of the martial arts world. With sixteen black belts in Skylar’s immediate family, she has been sparring for 20 of her 22 years. That’s not a typo. She was two when she got into the Korean martial art! Just before the high kicks started flying, Park caught up with Anastasia to talk abou...
Jul 24, 2021•23 min•Season 4Ep. 8
World champion Hurdler and acclaimed new author, Perdita Felicien will be covering track and field events at the Tokyo Olympics. She shares her insights about the racing days to come on the Player's Own Voice podcast this morning. Spoiler alert- there are no firm predictions about who is going to take the women's 100m finals, but plenty of confidence in saying that particular race will be one for the ages. Felicien is also frankly obsessed with Beach volleyball. And weightlifting. Which only pro...
Jul 23, 2021•42 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Lauren Bay-Regula is exactly where she wants to be. Thirteen years since the last time she played Olympic fastball, the pitcher is back on the mound, throwing heat and helping a team of mostly much younger players wrap their heads around playing the game at the highest possible level. Just a few weeks before their first tilt (a four- nothing win over Mexico) and a few days more before the Tokyo opening ceremonies, Anastasia Bucsis caught up with the mother of three, and second time around baller...
Jul 22, 2021•33 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Bo Levi Mitchell is back in business. He had his iffy shoulder fixed during the CFL’s pandemic furlough, and he’s raring to QB Calgary toward another Grey Cup. Even though the twice- league MVP is known for his cannon, he takes a back seat to no one in the conversation department. Settling in behind the mic on Player’s Own Voice podcast this week, Bo holds forth on Football in Texas, and his ownership of high school records in that state. He leads us through the highs and lows of his college cam...
Jul 06, 2021•45 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Watch out for the athletes who make it look easy. They are the ones who have poured agonies of effort into every millisecond of their game. Olympic Gymnastics Champion Kyle Shewfelt is a prime example. The ‘Style of Kyle’ was practically balletic, but every ‘effortless’ gesture was the product of intense, obsessive hard work. CBC’s Gymnastics and Trampoline analyst explores the many layers of mental and physical effort that excellence demands in his new autobiography ‘Make it Happen’, but almost...
Jun 29, 2021•42 min•Season 4Ep. 4
If you want to get inside knowledge about Canadian, American, and British soccer, you could buttonhole three players from the three systems, or you could simply check in with Janine Beckie. Born to Canadian parents in Colorado, she’s played top level footy for both countries, and she’s currently under contract with Manchester City. So the forward has deep knowledge about the quirks and qualities of most of the leading women in the game. Sometime teammates, sometime opponents, often both. At this...
Jun 22, 2021•34 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Andre De Grasse, Canada’s top sprinter, was a very young man when he dashed his way into international stardom at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Five years later, the phenomenal athlete has evolved into a competitor who seems wise beyond his years. He’s a plugged-in and thoughtful parent now, who credits his three year old daughter with teaching him patience on the daily. He’s also a published author, having filled his unplanned pandemic down time with dedicated writing practise. His ‘Run With Me’...
Jun 15, 2021•36 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Season FOUR woot woot! Kicks off with Marie-Philip Poulin, Captain of Team Canada, who is doing all she can amid the biggest shortfall in Canadian sports: Women’s Hockey faces roadblocks to play, left right and center at the moment. World Championships postponed, international play down to almost nothing... and years after the CWHL folded, still no professional game and league in Canada that elite players can agree to. Poulin is practically begging for some resolution to the unnecessary friction...
Jun 08, 2021•37 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Winter Olympics are unique for Canadian sports fans. They are one of the rare sweet spots, where national pride reliably lines up with winning results. We can swagger, a little, with apologies, when the games of snow and ice are underway. And maybe, with the Beijing Winter Olympics' fast approach, there's call to celebrate early. Catriona Le May Doan has just been named Chef de Mission for 2022. A reminder of what the speedskater accomplished as an athlete: For about five years, around the turn ...
Nov 17, 2020•38 min•Season 3Ep. 24
No matter how sporty your family happens to be, Kia Nurse has you beat. CFL dad, high performance basketball mom, brother in the NHL, cousin in the PWHPA… and Kia herself, professional and Canadian national team basketball star. When the Nurse family gets together, there isn’t much about the big leagues that they can’t discuss from first-hand knowledge. Which gives Kia the unique perspective from which to consider one of the weirdest years that professional sport has ever seen. From the logistic...
Nov 03, 2020•35 min•Season 3Ep. 23
As goaltender for the national team, Karina LeBlanc was part of the generation that put Canadian soccer on the world map. Olympic medals, World cup expectations, the sky’s the limit. But for LeBlanc, it was never just about the play on the pitch. Even in the big wins- her team aimed beyond the game of the day. The really big idea is to make women’s football a force for global change. Helping young women, particularly, assess themselves in a new light, once they get the chance to participate in t...
Oct 27, 2020•41 min•Season 3Ep. 22
The President of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Tricia Smith has presided over a four year - and counting - cycle for which there is no precedent. Smith was at the helm when Canada put athlete's health ahead of 'compete at any cost' thinking, which helped tip the international decision to delay the Tokyo games. But this pandemic year is certainly not Smith's first experience with interrupted games. Looking back to the boycott years in the 1980s, while she was an Olympic rower, Tricia Smith says...
Oct 20, 2020•36 min•Season 3Ep. 21
Malindi Elmore is either Canada's greatest gift to mature athletes, or she's yet another taunting for every runner who is racing the calendar more than the clock. In January of this year, the now 40 year-old mother of two shattered the Canadian Marathon record, running 2:24:50 in Houston. While endurance running fans were letting that sink in, even more amazing facts emerged. This was only the second marathon Elmore had ever run. An even more unlikely detail: she was done with running, burned ou...
Oct 13, 2020•30 min•Season 3Ep. 20
The NHLPA and the hockey writers association are in full agreement: Leon Draisaitl is the best player in the league this year. With Hart and Ted Lindsay trophies in his collection now, the superstar from Cologne, via Prince Albert ( and how many people follow that route to stardom?) is reflecting on the circumstances of winning individual honours, while his Oilers fell out of the Stanley Cup running sooner than anyone might have expected. In sum, Draisaitl is grateful for the accolades, but he’d...
Oct 06, 2020•16 min•Season 3Ep. 19
When Ted-Jan Bloemen was a young speedskater, he struggled to find his place in Holland’s fabled star system. He was a good skater, in a place that creates the absolute best . Ted-Jan never found that mix of coaching, practice and competition that great performances demand. It’s hard to overstate how much strength of mind it took for him to leave the Dutch team behind and come to Canada, in pursuit of better results. It’s also hard to overstate how incredibly well that decision worked out for hi...
Sep 29, 2020•36 min•Season 3Ep. 18
If there were awards for weathering setbacks, the Canadian Women’s Softball team would clean up. The National squad has found creative workarounds for obstacles since at least 2008, the last time Softball made an appearance in the Olympics. Now that the sport is back on the roster for Tokyo 2021 the team has high hopes to rewrite their fourth place finish. That left a sour aftertaste for veterans - and yes, thirteen years later, there are still four women on the team with personal stakes in winn...
Sep 22, 2020•38 min•Season 3Ep. 17
Jessica Tuomela is an extremely competitive para Triathlete. She was a world leader in swimming before adding the bike and run to her game. Tuomela won the Tokyo paralympic triathlon test event. And while all athletes are bumping up against pandemic-related challenges, the completely blind competitor’s sport is tackling existential questions. Para triathlon brings guides and athletes into extreme close contact. It’s one big scrum of bumping, breathing and sweating all over one another. Not safe....
Sep 08, 2020•45 min•Season 3Ep. 16
When an athlete stands on the Olympic podium, a spectrum of emotions come into play...not all of them joyful. For Brittany MacLean, Canadian national record holder in the 400m, 800m, and 1500m freestyle swim, the Bronze medal in Rio was a serious eye opener. Objectively, she knew it was a huge achievement, but inside? The normally exuberant young woman felt mostly disappointed and depressed about the experience. MacLean took that insight, and built a deep understanding of problems that many athl...
Sep 01, 2020•37 min•Season 3Ep. 15
John Morris has deep perspective on Canadian curling. Morrises have been making waves at Briers since the 1930s. Gold in 2010 in Vancouver, Gold again in 2018 at Pyeongchang, he has played with all the Canadian greats. For Morris, it’s about staying motivated. That’s partly why he needs new teammates- if he can’t face new challenges, solve new puzzles, he just can’t compete with maximum intensity. And that intensity question will make things interesting now that Morris has signed on with Skip Ke...
Aug 25, 2020•40 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Brock McGillis loves a good old hockey game. His passion for playing the sport drove the goalie all the way to the bigs. But McGillis is a gay man in a sport whose culture does not readily accept queer males. So he turned his own miserable experiences, butting up against 'bro' culture, into a working practise- helping leagues become more inclusive. McGillis believes cultures can learn and change. He is determined to mend environments where racism and homophobia are the unspoken norm. As he expla...
Aug 18, 2020•41 min•Season 3Ep. 13
Speed skater Jackson Tomlinson recently won two golds and a Bronze medal at the Special Olympics National Games. But the wins, delightful though they are, aren’t really what turns his crank. The Milton, Ontario native, like many young men, just loves going extremely fast. He calls speed skating ‘ Nascar on Ice’, which is a good phrase for anybody to coin, regardless of where they land on the spectrum of neuro-diversity. Tomlinson talks shop with his speed skating ‘spirit animal’ Anastasia Bucsis...
Aug 04, 2020•26 min•Season 3Ep. 12
