June 22, 2013 (Canmore, AB) – Talkin’ with the Gravy Train is pleased to present Part 2 of our interview with Canadian cross-country skiing star Chandra Crawford from Canmore, AB, of Olympic fame who is training on her own for the Sochi 2014 Games… listen to Part 1 HERE.

We caught up with Crawford in Canmore, AB… she was enthusiastic and happy and addressed such topics as her decision to take a step back from competition last February, how well her training is going, and her preparations for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games next February.

Chandra also talks with eloquence about what it’s like to recharge the batteries after what she called a “solid burnout”, and how she has found the joy in skiing and training again. The Canmore, Alberta native also speaks about health and happiness in this inspired interview. At the end, one thing is certain…Crawford will be a force to be reckoned with this coming season.

Interview with Chandra Crawford – Part 2

May 06, 2013 – Here are the final USSA SuperTour standings and Grand National Champions for the 2012/13 season. Rosie Brennan (APUNSC) and Michael Sinnott (Sun Valley SEF) are the women’s and men’s overall SuperTour winners. Brennan also secured the women’s sprint and distance standings. On the men’s side, Sinnott scored top spot in the sprint rankings, while Erik Bjornsen (APUNSC/USST) cleaned up in the distance rankings. The Grand National Champion title went to Sadie Bjornsen (APUNSC/USST) for the women, while Torin Koos (Bridger Ski Foundation/Rossignol) earned the crown in the men’s contest.

Women’s Overall Leader
1. Rosie Brennan (APUNSC) 654 points
2. Sadie Bjornsen (APUNSC/USST) 507 points
3. Kate Fitzgerald (APUNSC) 362 points

Women’s Sprint Leader
1. Rosie Brennan (APUNSC) 232 points
2. Sadie Bjornsen (APUNSC/USST) 207 points
2. Jennie Bender (CXC) 207 points

Women’s Distance Leaders
1. Rosie Brennan (APUNSC) 422 points
2. Sadie Bjornsen (APUNSC/USST) 300 points
3. Caitlin Gregg (CXC) 254 points

Women’s Grand National Champion
1. Sadie Bjornsen (APUNSC/USST)
2. Rosie Brennan (APUNSC)
3. Kate Fitzgerald (APUNSC)

Men’s Overall Leaders
1. Michael Sinnott (Sun Valley SEF) 474 points
2. Erik Bjornsen (APUNSC/USST) 445 points
3. Torin Koos (Bridger Ski Foundation/Rossignol) 334 points

Men’s Sprint Leaders
1. Michael Sinnott (Sun Valley SEF) 200 points
2. Dakota Blackhorse (Bend Endurance Academy) 167 points
3. Erik Bjornsen (APUNSC/USST) 138 points

Men’s Distance Leaders
1. Erik Bjornsen (APUNSC/USST) 307 points
2. Michael Sinnott (Sun Valley SEF) 274 points
3. Brian Gregg (CXC) 249 points

Men’s Grand National Champion
1. Torin Koos (Bridger Ski Foundation/Rossignol)
2. Erik Bjornsen (APUNSC/USST)
3. Tad Elliott (SSC Vail/USST)

Women’s Final USSA SuperTour Rankings HERE.

Men’s Final USSA SuperTour Rankings HERE.

USSA Grand National Champion Rankings HERE.

*The tie on the Grand Nationals Champion document is denoted in yellow and tie breaker in blue.

April 23, 2012 – Although support is still strong for him in many quarters in Estonia, disgraced two-time skiing gold medalist Andrus Veerpalu will lose out on state funding for a while – the stipend that the Cultural Endowment pays all living Olympic champions.

Veerpalu, who tested positive for doping last year, is not among this year’s recipients of the benefit, which consists of semi-annual payments of 1,150 euros each.

Secretary General of the Olympic Committee Toomas Tõnise said Veerpalu’s name could not be proposed this time as it would have gone against international anti-doping rules, which forbid sanctioned athletes from receiving public sector money…

Link to the ERR article HERE.

April 20, 2012 – The indelible picture I have of Randy Starkman is one of him walking on Bloor St. west of Spadina with a bouquet of flowers. They could only be for his everlasting sweetheart Mary Hynes. It is with overwhelming sadness that I write about his death at only fifty-one from pneumonia. What a loss, not only to Mary and their daughter Ella-I cannot imagine their grief, but to everyone who cares about the real athletes of Canada and truly excellent writing.

Randy started covering Canadian athletes in Europe with his then-girlfriend Mary in the early 1980’s. They eventually came back to Canada where he started full-time with The Toronto Star in 1988. Since Sarajevo in 1984 he has covered twelve Olympic Games. In Seoul he gave a comprehensive report on Ben Johnson’s positive dope test and broke the story about Johnson’s second positive in 1993. This won him one of the two National Newspaper Awards delivered his way.

Watching Randy at the Olympics was a lesson in how to file quickly and accurately. He asked real questions of athletes because he knew so much about them. Then you’d see him on the media bus as he got shipped off to another sport, earphones on, laptop up as he wrote the story. He crammed more sport reporting into one day than any other journalist I knew. But still if he bumped into me at the press centre, he’d take the time to say, “Let me buy you lunch. I remember what it’s like to be a free-lancer.”

Randy was also friends with my brother Jonathon-a Toronto fire-fighter who organized a huge media trivia night as a fund-raiser for the Daily Bread Foodbank. Randy rallied the troops-I don’t know how many tables of journalists he managed to produce, but my everlasting memory of the last one will be of Mary’s TVO table arguing with my brother over a fine point on Canadian geography.

Randy and I talked for a few minutes that evening on Bloor St-he had recently filed a story on Mary Spencer-world boxing champion in the 75 kg category and while Spencer was getting more and more ink as women’s boxing makes its debut at the London Olympics, only Randy took the time to follow her to family’s home.

He situated the story at Chippewa of Nawash First Nation where Spencer’s roots are and where all kids love her. He went to their annual pow-wow. How many sports writers would ever take the time to travel 250 km north of Toronto to talk to ten-year-olds in a First Nation community? Only Randy. I coach those kids in cross-country skiing and Spencer is everything to them. His story captured who Spencer is and why it is so important for those children that she fights on all of their behalf. They were thrilled to see themselves in The Toronto Star.

As always Randy was gracious about receiving accolades about his work but I could see he wanted to move on. “Those flowers are for Mary aren’t they?” I said. He nodded like a school boy-still so in love.

March 26, 2012 (Falun, Sweden) – Following her historic crystal globe presentation in Falun, Sweden, Peter Graves caught up with the USA’s biggest XC ski sensation of the last three decades, FIS World Cup Sprint series winner Kikkan Randall. Randall reflects on her incredibly successful World Cup season in which she placed fifth overall in addition to her Sprint Cup title victory. She was finally awarded the crystal globe on Sunday, March 18, and was awed by the trophy’s sheer weight.

Randall is the first American women to win a World Cup overall title ending a 30-year drought as the last time the US won a World Cup title was when the legendary Bill Koch captured the men’s overall in 1982. But her season is not quite over yet. The shining star stayed in Scandinavia a little longer to compete in some invitational sprints such as the Red Bull Nordix and returned home this past weekend to race in the USSA SuperTour Finals and 30/50km National Championships on from March 24-31 in Craftsbury, VT…

Kikkan Randall