1999 Year In Review

 On and off the field of play, Canadians conquered. Who could not be inspired by the story of Emma Robinson, the Winnipeg-born rower who, 19 months before the Sydney Olympics, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer? She underwent surgery in February, missed only a few weeks of training, and that summer won not only a Pan American Games gold medal but, with new partner Theresa Luke, captured a third consecutive world championship in the pairs event in St. Catharines, Ontario. Emma's comeback becomes part of Canadian sport legend and an enduring story of conquest for the human spirit.

 And who did not share the pride of Winnipeggers for the staging of the best Pan American Games in history, from the moment gold-medal cyclist Tanya Dubnicoff marched in bearing the maple leaf flag until the gold-medal equestrian Ian Millar marched it out?

 It was a year in which a scrappy upstart team of minor leaguers beat both the mighty U.S. and Cuban teams in Pan Am baseball and captured a nation's imagination, though falling just short of an Olympic berth. Canada sent champions around the world - more than can be mentioned in this space. They included kayaker Caroline Brunet, who captured three gold medals in the world canoe championships. It was a sweep that no kayaker or canoeist, male or female, has accomplished in the history of the sport. David Ford won the world championship of whitewater kayaking. Mountain biker Alison Sydor won her third World Cup crown, and swimmer Joanne Malar was ranked No. 1 in the world in the difficult 200-metre individual medley.

 Lori Bowden staked her claim to the title of top female athlete by winning the gruelling Australian and Hawaii Ironman triathlons, while husband Peter Reid took the silver among the men in Hawaii. Nigerian-born Daniel Igali won Canada's first-ever world championship in wrestling. The Canadian women's hockey team won its fifth consecutive world championship, speed skater Jeremy Wotherspoon won the world sprint crown, and water-skier Jaret Llewellyn captured two world titles and set a world record for jumping.

 Sport becomes more and more a continuum as the line between professionals and amateurs grows ever fainter. But the pros have this in common: their success is rooted in their amateur careers. A former Canadian Olympic gold medallist, Lennox Lewis, became the heavyweight champion of the world in boxing, and squash star Jonathon Power achieved his life's ambition of being the top-ranked player in the world. Tennis star Sebastien Laureau captured the ATP doubles world championship with partner Alex O'Brien of the United States.

 At the end of a glorious year, Canada celebrated alpine skiing legend Nancy Greene Raine and hockey's Wayne Gretzky - a product of Canadian minor hockey - as our athletes of the century. Even Canadians who did not win golds were major achievers. In a year when Olympic 100-metre champion Donovan Bailey struggled to recover from injury, Bruny Surin of Montréal took up the leader's mantle and matched Bailey's old world record of 9.84 seconds in taking the world championship silver. Likewise, high jumper Mark Boswell set a Canadian record with a leap of 2.35 metres for the silver in his world-championship event.

 Boswell is one of the new generation of athletes carrying Canada forward into the year 2000. Another ready to spring forward into the senior ranks and hold her own is cyclist Geneviève Jeanson, gold medallist in both the time trial and the road race at the world junior championships. So, too, is diver Blythe Hartley, who captured two golds and a silver at the world junior championships. Alexandre Despatie is yet another double gold medallist on the world junior diving scene. Canada has much to look forward to.

 But life is not without pain as well. The entire Canadian sport community mourned when race-car driver Greg Moore died in a gruesome crash. Canada's roller hockey team was stripped of a hard-won Pan Am gold medal after goalie Steve Vezina failed a doping test. Banned sprinter Ben Johnson, after winning conditional reinstatement on an arbitrator's ruling, found himself banned again because of a diuretic drug. Nevertheless, Canada's position of respect played a crucial role in establishing an intergovernmental consulting body to work together and guide the newly created World Anti-Doping Agency.

 In other arenas, too, Canada continued its leadership role in world sport. Olympic vice-president Richard Pound was charged with the task of investigating Olympic corruption and setting in motion the much-needed reforms and modernization plan adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). As part of that plan, five-time Canadian Olympian - and 1984 relay silver medallist - Charmaine Crooks was made one of the new athlete members of the IOC in addition to being on the IOC's ethics panel.

 If there is one achievement that can be shared and appreciated by all of amateur sport in Canada, it is the revival of a voice for amateurs at the Cabinet level in the federal government. After seven years without a specific minister - sport had been just one of the Heritage Minister's duties - Denis Coderre was named Secretary of State (Amateur Sport).

 Coderre had been a key member of the federal commission on sport in Canada headed by MP Dennis Mills. The commission definitively confirmed sport's importance to the country as an economic and social factor. Coderre - who trains as a boxer - brought that philosophy with him into the portfolio.

 "I want to promote sport. I'll fight for sport," says Coderre, who wants to find more resources for athletes. He also wants to see money devoted to the practice of sport, rather than to infighting and litigation, and has been working on a new dispute resolution system that would save precious dollars.

 "I feel the timing is perfect for some changes in real sport policy, and the sport community is starting to take responsibility for itself," the sport minister says.

 One of his first major addresses was not to fellow politicians, but to the national athletes' association, Athletes CAN. Coderre vowed "leadership, partnership, and accountability. I want to bring back the foundation of our sport policy. We have to bring back the passion and stand next to our Canadian athletes not just during the time when they win medals but also during due process. I want to bring back sport as a philosophy and a mentality and a success story. It's a win-win situation."