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.

April 04, 2012 – The book titled “Wild Shot” is now available. Wild Shot is outwardly about the external physical demands and internal mental demands of the winter sports of Cross Country Skiing and Biathlon. Author Andy Liebner discovers that sport is not just about training and competition; it’s a metaphor for a deeper aspect of life. Sport is a quest! To rise to the top requires a heroic journey to encounter and overcome external and internal barriers, and Andy runs into far more of them than you might think possible. The barriers are relentless. But he learns that his biggest enemy is inside his head and if he masters his fears then he wins.

Author Biography of Andy Liebner – Wild Shot

Andy Liebner is a fast young Alaskan who went from top junior and collegiate XC ski racing results to signing up for the military the day after 9-11 to then racing around the world to see how far he could go in XC skiing and biathlon. He had many surprising adventures along the way and learned what it means to go it alone (with help from friends). Breakthroughs and frustrations alike abound in his story. The barriers were ENDLESS and only got BIGGER, yet Andy persevered. The finale is fascinating with major twists.

Andy particularly enjoys training with various pals, including some of the best athletes in the world — such as the #1 all-time biathlete, “King Ole,” Ole Einar Bjorndalen. He’s trying to see what they do that makes them so good and he passes along what he learns. Andy includes practical insights on the factors separating skiers who are on their way up, including his best tips for technique, and advice on the toughest challenge: the mind game. His races give us heat-of-the-moment action ranging from DQ’s to big wins.

There’s business and marketing, too, when Andy starts repping for a wax company in the middle of racing and then becomes in demand as a winning wax tech. But he just wants to race!

It’s 250 pages of page-burning fun — with nail-biting cliffhangers.

In 2010 Andy won the US Marathon series and in 2011 he won the U.S. National College Cup and added two more All-American certificates to his resume. Nowadays he’s back to globetrotting, coaching Olympians, and working in the ski industry.