PLAYER'S OWN VOICE: Transcripts | Listen

Host Anastasia Bucsis, two-time Canadian Olympic speedskater, brings her unique backstory to funny, friendly conversations with high performance athletes. No formulaic jock talk here ... these are buddies who understand each other, and help us do the same.

SEASON 7: Tessa Virtue | Jessie Flemming | Josh Liendo | John Herdman | Nick Wammes and Sarah Orban | Luke Prokop | Laurence St-Germain | Hilary Knight

SEASON 6: Tammy Cunnington | Justina Di Stasio | Zak Madell | Tara Llanes | Chuck Swirsky | Konrad Wasiela | Waneek Horn-Miller | Camryn Rogers | Bev Priestman | Allison Forsyth | Jason Priestley | Mimi Rahneva | Cito Gaston | Robert Parish | Chloé Dufour-Lapointe | Aaron Brown | Kaylyn Kyle | Kurt Browning | Bianca Farella | Summer McIntosh | Becky Sauerbrunn

SEASON 5: Rhian Wilkinson | Amber Balcaen | Cynthia Appiah | Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu | Dina Bell-Laroche | Brad Gushue | Charles Hamelin | Greg Westlake | Elladj Baldé | Keegan Messing | Mark McMorris | Laurie Blouin | Lisa Weagle | Kelsey Mitchell | Nancy Lee | Stephanie Labbé | Natalie Spooner | Emma Lunder | Isabelle Weidemann | Laurent Dubreuil | Beckie Scott | Mark Arendz | Ben Hebert | Ivanie Blondin | Legends of Long Track | Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier | Nate Riech | Clara Hughes | Erin Ambrose

SEASON 7

Episode 8: Tessa Take Two

Player's Own Voice45:19Tessa Take Two

A funny thing about great athletes. They tend to keep on surprising us, even after their competitive careers wind down. And so, catching up with Tessa Virtue again, five years after she unlaced the skates and five years after she last came on the podcast, we learn that she has combined her high performance sport experience, a masters in applied psychology, and an MBA to build a unique business advisory role for herself at Deloitte.

Episode 7: Jessie Fleming, the mindful midfielder

Player's Own Voice26:33Jessie Fleming, the mindful midfielder

At just 25, Jessie Fleming has already enjoyed a full decade of being named player of the year, top college player, Top Canadian, CONCACAF All Star, and enough adulation to convince a less modest midfielder of her own greatness. But Fleming has a ‘do the work, and do it well’ attitude that has carried her to the apex of soccer, and helped her become a well-rounded, highly-educated, self-aware young leader.

Episode 6: Josh Liendo, swimming into the record books.

Player's Own Voice24:24Josh Liendo, swimming into the record books.

Swimming is notoriously practise-heavy. The daily accumulation of laps and dryland workouts can nudge elite swimmers toward becoming mono-focus athletes. So it’s delightful to meet Canada’s male swimmer of the year, Josh Liendo, and find a well-rounded young man tearing up the record books.

Episode 5: John Herdman tackles trauma, on and off the pitch.

Player's Own Voice24:09John Herdman tackles trauma, on and off the pitch.

John Herdman, the most successful head coach in the history of Canada soccer, came to Toronto FC at the tail end of a miserable season for the club. But he reminds everyone that TFC is the only team in the history of MLS to win the triple crown: the Supporters’ Shield, the Canadian Championship and the MLS Cup. Why wouldn’t you be optimistic ?

Episode 4: Thoroughly Social Cyclists, Nick Wammes and Sarah Orban

Player's Own Voice24:18Thoroughly Social Cyclists, Nick Wammes and Sarah Orban

Nick Wammes and Sarah Orban, track Cyclists on the Canadian National Team, are doing their best to win their sport more love. The pair are partners on and off the track, and they lean hard into social media, to draw attention to their discipline for those 206 weeks of every 4 year cycle when their sport is not enjoying Olympic audiences.

Episode 3: Out and About with Luke Prokop 

Player's Own Voice23:21Out and About with Luke Prokop

Luke Prokop was only 19 years old when he made pro sports history. A year after the Nashville Predators drafted him, Prokop told his team, his sport, and the wider world that he was gay. He is the first player under NHL contract to do so. He has now bumped up to playing plenty of AHL games, making him the first out gay player at that level, one step away from the top team.

Episode 2: Laurence St-Germain's win for the ages

Player's Own Voice22:00Laurence St-Germain's win for the ages

Laurence St-Germain just delivered a fantastic wake up call to the world’s best skiers. She won the slalom gold medal at the 2023 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Courchevel France. The great Mikaela Shiffrin was both startled and delighted to see the friendly Canadian win her first podium on an international circuit.

Episode 1: Hilary Knight launches a league

Player's Own Voice34:09Hilary Knight launches a league

Anastasia’s long-running passion project returns with Hilary Knight, captain of the US national hockey team, world and olympic champion, the face of the American women’s game, and from a Canadian perspective, public frenemy #1. Knight dekes around all the old Can-Am rivalries talk and focusses instead on the game-changing debut of the PWHL.

Back To Top

SEASON 6

Episode 21: Tammy Cunnington shares life lessons

Player's Own Voice32:02Tammy Cunnington shares life lessons

Tammy Cunnington has made the most of a roller coaster experience in para sport. As the child of a very active Red Deer AB family, she just barely survived a freak accident at an airshow in 1982. By the time she rehabbed sufficiently to get back into sport, at 8 or 9 years of age, wheelchair basketball became her passion. She was a big part of successful national teams, but by the time she was 19- the team culture drove her away. Bullying, being othered, it just added up to no fun. The more we learn about all the ingredients that need to work together to make safe sport happen- the more we understand how easily potentially great careers can fall apart. So almost ten years after retiring from competitive wheelchair basketball, Cunnington felt the need to get back into stronger shape. Trips to the gym became mastery of all three disciplines in triathlon, and even though she didn’t really love time in the pool…great coaching and her own determination eventually made her a powerhouse in Paralympic swimming. Where did Cunnington find the drive to excel again, since swimming itself wasn’t really her thing? In part, that was about being older than the average athlete. She knew that her age was working against her, so she trained with that much more intensity. And as every successful athlete knows- there’s no substitute for hard work. Looking back on the competitive years now ( Cunnington retired after the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics) she realized that part of her enduring success was based on not being relentlessly upbeat. When she hits setbacks, she gives herself permission to be bummed out for awhile, take stock, and carry on. The flipside of that pragmatism is that she has also learned to leverage the career highs. Intentionally summoning the memory of a winning race and a cheering crowd can give Cunnington that little extra squirt of confidence that can make all the difference as she rolls into a job interview, speaking gig, or yet another of her famously intense workouts . Chatting with Anastasia today- she makes a highly persuasive case for the power of not always positive thinking.

Episode 20: Justina Di Stasio In a class of her own

Player's Own Voice28:49Justina Di Stasio In a class of her own

Justina Di Stasio has to be one of the greatest wrestlers that Canada has not yet seen at an Olympic Games. She’s excelled at major international tournaments, time and time again, but when it comes to getting on the Canadian Olympic team, the BC veteran has hit a roadblock in the form of her Gold medallist teammate Erica Wiebe. Canada can only send one wrestler in their weight class…so that explains the history. But Di Stasio is not one to brood on the past. She’s taken the last eight years as a series of chances to learn and improve and refine her technique. And so now the Coach/Teacher/74kg wrestler has definitely got her eyes trained on Paris 2024, and it’s time to say ‘en garde!’ to every opponent she’ll meet en route. Chatting on a wide range of subjects with Anastasia, Di Stasio also shares her perspective as a proud Canadian who is half Italian and half Cree. Food for thought: as a younger wrestler she sometimes felt that her Italian last name crowded her own comfort in talking about indigenous experience in this country. With the passage of time, that feeling has evolved, but throughout her career Justina Di Stasio has delightfully, authentically never swayed from representing exactly who she has been along. One of Canada’s greatest wrestlers, who just happens to also bring two sets of cultural knowledge to the International stage

Episode 19: Zak Madell: Bruising Sport-Healing Attitude

Player's Own Voice25:35Zak Madell: Bruising Sport-Healing Attitude

When a team athlete is named MVP over and over again, that's saying something about their ability to lift everyone's game around them. Zak Madell, one of the world's best wheelchair rugby players, has owned that MVP distinction almost since the day -a dozen years ago- he first got into his notoriously rock 'em sock 'em sport. Madell is as effective an advocate for the power of sport as you'll ever meet, loud and clear and persuasive on the many ways that sport, adaptive or otherwise, has enriched his life. Seeking out, encouraging, and drafting new players is an ongoing passion for Madell. What's interesting to hear now is how his easy leadership is also expanding into areas beyond competition. Madell did architecture technology studies and that, plus his natural tendency to creativity, plus a long interest in better accessibility for all, leads him toward helping firms improve all manner of public structures. From little coffee shops to mondo condo, there's infinite room for truly inclusive improvement. But first, Madell has a whirlwind of wheelchair rugby teams and tournaments to attend to. Anastasia is keen to hear about Team Canada's battle plans for the upcoming Para Pan Am games in Santiago, Chile. According to Madell, Canada is up against new and better competition all the time. The country that invented Wheelchair Rugby (In Winnipeg in 1977, fyi) can no longer count on international podiums in the sport. And that's not because Canada is getting soft. Many more countries are in it to win it now, and even an ultra competitor like Madell agrees, that's a good thing.

Episode 18: Tara Llanes Learns to Lead

Player's Own Voice29:50Tara Llanes Learns to Lead

If Tara Llanes was in the branding business, her personal motto might be "Once a baller, always a baller". As a kid in California she loved basketball, and she played a high level game until BMX caught her attention. And then a professional Mountain Biking career took hold. But just when Llanes began to feel like she had done all she could in cycling sport, a crash left her paralyzed from the waist down. As her rehabilitation work continued, she developed a passion for wheelchair tennis. Friends told her that she could improve her tennis game by practising seated basketball. And so the circle closed, and Llanes, now with 30+ years of perspective on the sport she never stopped loving, brings veteran leadership to the Canadian national wheelchair basketball team. One of her most pressing challenges? Finding the balance between old school hard discipline, and newer ideas of safe sport, and making that work for a team which combines younger and older athletes, all of whom expect to win international medals at the highest level. Catching up with Anastasia, Tara also explains how uniquely inclusive wheelchair basketball can be. The rules mandate a broad mixture of ability classifications on each team. The meshing together of players with varying degrees of activity limitation brings a whole layer of strategy into play, but the real magic happens when athletes maximize one another's abilities to find that winning playmaking combo. Llanes is already rubbing her hands in anticipation of the Para Panam games this November… and Canada's national public broadcaster will be delivering comprehensive Paralympic Games coverage across television, streaming and digital platforms in English and French in 2024.

Episode 17: Chuck Swirsky: Raptors revisited

Player's Own Voice40:24Chuck Swirsky: Raptors revisited

Here's an odd factoid about one of the best voices in basketball. Chuck Swirsky does not care for his own name. He was 'Charlie' til his very first day in college radio, when the anchor struck him temporarily speechless with the intro 'Sports, with Chuck Swirsky'. To his enduring regret, 'Chuck' stuck. Forty years later, Mr. Swirsky is still setting the record straight, and still delighting basketball fans. 'The Swirsk' was the Raptors' first radio play by play guy. By 2001, he had the TV job too. It's impossible to separate his calls, with all their knowledge and exuberance, from memories of Toronto's early days in the NBA. Swirsky introduced countless Canadians to Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Damon Stoudamire, and all the brighter and lesser stars of that new team with the purple dinosaur jerseys. Swirsky became an author last year. "Always A Pleasure" details a life in love with sports and sports commentary. Commentary about commentary sounds like a meta experience, but Swirsky turns everything into a good story, and he's the first to laugh at his own inevitable missteps as a rookie reporter. Do fans need reminding that it has already been 15 years since Swirsky got the offer he couldn't refuse, and moved back to Chicago and his beloved Bulls? He is both Canadian and American, but Chicago really is home. Swirsky's strange way of celebrating a Raps win "Get out the salami and cheese!" stayed in Toronto when he moved back to the midwest. Out of respect for his fellow Canadians, as Swirsky explains to Anastasia, that peculiar custom had to remain in the place where it began.

Episode 16: From CFL to esports- Konrad Wasiela tackles a new game

Player's Own Voice20:06From CFL to esports- Konrad Wasiela tackles a new game

Like the game titles themselves, esports athletes can generate shocking income and audiences. At the highest level, it's gaming in name only. Everything else about the pursuit of esports mastery is hard-nosed, serious business. Elite esports players' training regimens certainly rival those of "real world" athletes. Strength and balance work, hand-eye conditioning, nutritionists, psych coaches, esports stars make use of all the above. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that pro athletes are pro athletes, whether the rectangles they compete in are made of grass or glass. Konrad Wasiela is uniquely suited to comment on the busy intersection of traditional and e-athletes. Formerly a CFL cornerback, Wasiela's 'come to esports' moment was a visit to a live gaming event. He walked into a sold-out stadium, and saw 60,000 people cheering. Amazon had just paid a billion bucks for 'Twitch' the game streaming service. Wasiela added up the mega millions that Intel had poured into this tournament, and took note of Puma and Nike sponsorships in the space. He quickly resolved to launch his own company to get in on the action. ESE Entertainment does several things in the esports space, but it's mostly about pushing new players and audiences to egames. Anastasia probes Wasiela on the many ways esports are played and promoted by real world athletes, but Wasiela flips that question: his interest lies in the ways traditional sports are starting to depend on their virtual counterparts. Simulators from esports are already used heavily by every F1 driver and team. As more coaches and more sports make the jump into using applications from esports in the locker room, game film might be going the way of the horse and buggy. And that's just one way esports are changing the game in real life. Esports are already spinning collossal sums of money. The consensus seems to be, they have only just begun.

Episode 15: Waneek Horn-Miller rocks a new role

Player's Own Voice25:14Waneek Horn-Miller rocks a new role

Excellence was always expected of Waneek Horn-Miller, and her three sisters. Their single mom led by example in committing to activism, feminism, and indigenous rights. From childhood, the message was: whatever you do in life, be great at it, and don't just do it for yourself, do it for the next generation. More than thirty years after she first came to international attention on the front lines of the 1990 Oka Crisis, Horn-Miller continues to honour her mother's teaching. In 2000, the water polo player helped deliver the best Olympic results Canadian women have ever seen. In the years since, Horn-Miller's advocacy has effectively kept important, difficult issues on the table. Two core concerns are abuse in amateur sport, and the role of sport in truth and reconciliation. For Horn-Miller the effort begins at home, raising well-rounded and athletic daughters- and radiates out to coaching at Water Polo clubs, and further afield, to helping the Assembly of First Nations develop an Indigenous Sport, Fitness and Wellness Strategy. While those long-term causes keep Horn-Miller focussed on lasting results, she's also having a blast at this very moment, coaching contestants on Canada's Ultimate Challenge, CBC's new big ticket reality program. Horn-Miller sets the bar high for herself in this role, urging her athletes to compete according to principles that are long understood among Mohawk people- even if they may be new values for western contestants to consider. It's a challenging task, but Waneek Horn-Miller excels at it.

Episode 14: Camryn Rogers throws out a new challenge

Player's Own Voice31:57Camryn Rogers throws out a new challenge

From day one of her athletic career, Camryn Rogers has bucked expectations. As a pre-teen, the first event she tried was Hammer throwing, and it was love at first hurl. Adolescence is when many girls leave sport, sadly, but a 12-year-old Rogers became enthralled with throwing "this thing that looked like a murder weapon," and she committed there and then to becoming as skilled and powerful as possible at the discipline. Eleven years later, it is hard to keep track of how many records Rogers has broken, how many 'firsts' she has landed for Canada, or how many young athletes she is inspiring. Rogers, now 23, is still very young for a Hammer thrower. Anastasia asks the reigning Commonwealth Games champion about her game plan for the next 11 years. Hammer is front and centre, of course, but while Rogers was busily landing all of the top ten throws in the history of the NCAA, she was also getting a B.A. in political economy and a B.S. in society and environment. So yes, Canada's best Hammer thrower has every intention of breaking more records, and she'll be continuing in grad school at Berkeley, thinking about a law degree while she's at it. The great thing for Rogers lately is that there has been a change in the fundamental questions she asks herself as an athlete. Prior to her impressive debut at the Olympics and silver medal at the World Athletics Championships, her question was 'Can I get there?' It's a new line of questioning now: 'How far can I go? Where can I go from here?' Like throwing itself, where subtle changes can yield major results, that small shift in mindset is all the motivation Rogers requires. The world is her 4-kilogram oyster. Let's see how far she chooses to throw it.

Episode 13: Bev Priestman likes a brave game

Player's Own Voice33:31Bev Priestman likes a brave game

The Coach of the Canadian National Women’s Soccer Team is not one to rest on her laurels. While the rest of the country was still celebrating the team’s historic Gold Medal at the Tokyo Olympics, Bev Priestman was looking ahead to a couple of hard years of coaching work. In her mind- a huge win doesn’t teach players very much… but a single loss in a hard-fought series of games, like the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying tournament, that’s where the improvements happen. Priestman says that playing a brave style of soccer is what got the Canadian team to Olympic gold. But keeping that fearless attitude is more of a challenge once a reputation is established, and more scrutiny piles on to a high seeded squad. Priestman tells Anastasia how she makes good use of her experience in three soccer strongholds- England, New Zealand, and Canada. She picks up on national strengths wherever she works. In Canada, she thinks mental toughness is our X factor. Maybe it’s something about a culture that shovels snow in the dead of winter? Priestman says Canadians are uniquely willing to believe they can compete with anyone on the world stage. The challenge, heading into the World Cup, is going to be managing a sustained effort. Whichever team is most fresh gets the glory in the finals, according to Priestman. Canada has no problem attacking from the outset of a tournament. And we have great depth in the roster. Closing strength? It will be the coach’s job to make sure that’s in place at the end of the World Cup. Don’t worry. Bev Priestman is working on it.

Episode 12: Making Sport Safer: Allison Forsyth

Player's Own Voice25:43Making Sport Safer: Allison Forsyth

These are trying times for athletes, coaches and national sporting organizations in Canada. The incidents of abuse and maltreatment in amateur sport seem to be neverending. Hockey dominates the horrible headlines, but very few sports can claim a problem-free record. Olympian Alpine Skier Allison Forsyth has turned her own experience of sexual abuse at the hands of a coach into a positive movement for change. Her career is dedicated to educating all involved, correcting transgressive behaviour, and improving the prospects for Safe Sport. Her advice for parents and athletes is clear and direct. Her warnings to coaches are blunt. And she has run out of patience with senior managers of organizations who fail to see the urgency of their situation. Forsyth has an athlete-first attitude, and that includes a deep awareness of the psychological complexities involved in high performance coaching. As an Olympian speedskater, Anastasia has lived the dynamic. Coaches become quasi-parental figures. Athletes become the sum of their results. In the pressure cooker of high performance, what are the warning signs? When does gruelling exercise become unacceptable punishment? When is a raised voice a red line? Complex problems don't necessarily have complex solutions. As Forsyth explains, three very familiar words- Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, go a long way toward putting an end to the abuse.

Episode 11: Jason Priestley on Harold Ballard

Player's Own Voice19:00Jason Priestley on Harold Ballard

He has been a well-respected, hard working film and television director for thirty years now, so it’s probably time to stop asking ‘Beverley Hills 90210’ questions in conversation with Jason Priestley. Luckily, the lifelong hockey buff is more than happy to chat about another 30 year old bit of business, everyone’s favourite Toronto Hockey gargoyle- Harold Ballard. Priestley has just released ‘Offside’ his documentary about the man who literally lived in Maple Leaf Gardens...and tried to cheat anyone who stepped foot in his house. In a world full of brilliant subjects for sports documentaries- why spend time on a criminal, racist, sexist, homophobic weirdo (who also ruined a hockey franchise)? The answer- as Priestley passionately points out- is that the bad stuff is all most people know about the guy- but in deep private, Ballard was an incredibly generous philanthropist. He gave money away like it was going out of style, and kept it under wraps because he wanted everyone to think he was a hard ass. To his credit- Priestley never puts his thumb on the scale. He gathers all the contradictions he can about Ballard, and leaves us to decide what to make of the man. Meantime- Anastasia also puts the former race car driver to work solving an old tv puzzle. Why is it so hard to show speed on the screen? Watching F-1 or speedskating or Tour de France- you can never tell how quickly those people are moving. Priestley has a deeply detailed answer for that too. Budding cinematographers- take note. It’s all about low cameras, moving ground, and reference objects on screen. Other seemingly random, but definitely entertaining topics of discussion? What the great one, #99 did for hockey culture in Los Angeles. How the million or so Canadian expats in that town fight over slots in the beer leagues. And why actors want to be athletes & vice versa.

Episode 10: Mimi Rahneva's veteran velocity

Player's Own Voice34:10Mimi Rahneva's veteran velocity

Mimi Rahneva is having a wild ride this world cup season. The Canadian Skeleton racer has won, been on the podium, or just barely missed a top three in almost every race so far. What makes that truly special is that this is the Bulgarian-born Canadian athlete's ninth year on the circuit. Gone are the days of blowing away the competition with explosive starting power. So why are career-best results, coming to an absolutely slower athlete? Chalk one up to experience. It turns out that what seems like an eternity, a half-second lead in the first 50 meters, can evaporate over the ensuing minute, when it's all about avoiding micro mistakes. Milimeters add up in a 150 km per hour acceleration to the finish. Skeleton is a beast of a sport, a five second detonation from standing start to hurling headfirst downhill. But that hyper burst start has to immediately give way to calm, cool stillness. Try finding your zen state when your face is a millimeter away from ice, flashing past you at Ferrari speeds. Rahneva and Anastasia discover something in common. They are both in love with their somewhat fringe sports, (Bucsis is a two-time Olympian long track speedskater) and they both love the challenge of persuading curious youngsters – and especially young girls- to give their sports a try. But that's where the similarity ends. As Rahneva says- Canadian kids see what she does and their first reaction is terror! Maybe it's a cultural thing. Some nations- like Germany and England for example, get kids on sleds at much younger ages than Canada does. Which makes for better driving skills at younger ages. Canada tends to wait a few years, then focus on faster starts for older kids. Which brings us full circle to Rahneva, bucking those national strategies with her slower-starting ways, making skilled drivers in other nations sit up and take notice. Go figure.

Episode 9: Cito Gaston's winning ways

Player's Own Voice24:55Cito Gaston's winning ways

It pays to keep your wits about you in conversation with Cito Gaston. The two time Blue Jays world series winning manager is a relaxing presence, even- tempered and genial. But that soothing voice belies sharply independent opinions, formed over a long career of hard-won experience. He will ease you along, sharing memories of his years as Hank Aaron’s roommate and friend, and that will slide into talk about Hank’s record, and then to Aaron Judge, and then Barry Bonds, and then suddenly, the former manager is making a case for us all having a more open mind about Steroid use in baseball. He’s a likeable man, but he is not in it to make friends. Cito is all about winning. It’s remarkable how often ‘winning’ enters his conversation. For Cito- that might be the ultimate complement. A player who wants to win? That’s all he needs to hear. In fact when Gaston says Joe Carter would not let his own children beat him at checkers, he is not saying it as criticism. It’s impossible not to revisit the Blue Jays glory years with Cito, and he’s happy to share recent brushes with George Bell and Dave Winfield and Tom Henke, but even then, his gentle recall does include the ugly truth that he never won manager of the year. People who should know better said he had so many stars on his roster, it was easy to win…but that ignored the fact that he took over a team with a badly losing record, 12-24 and charged them straight to world series victory in 1992. And then 1993- the back to back world series win was no gimme. People forget that the Jays lost 14 men from the 25 player roster between 1992 and 1993. So why no manager of the year when he does it a second time, with more than half a team of new players? Gaston does not say- there was racism in the voting, which explains everything. Instead he runs through some reasoned proposals for getting more diversity in the game, more black players on the field, and more black managers and coaches and executives in the front and back offices. He helped give Toronto its greatest baseball years…and that was thirty years ago, but he’s still got an eye on the future of the game.

Episode 8: Robert Parish: NBA legend among legends

Player's Own Voice27:17Robert Parish: NBA legend among legends

Robert Parish is a big man like no other in the history of the NBA. And not just because the hall of famer has four championship rings, and an incredibly long career. Parish retired in 2003 with 1611 games played. That total game record might NEVER be broken. But no big centre has ever covered the court the way Parish did. He finished fast breaks, and showed speed and shooting accuracy that is beyond rare for the tallest players. His fellow Hall of Famer, Bill Walton says "There was the rebounding. There was the defense. There was the scoring. There was the setting of screens. There was the way he ran the floor. How many centers in today's NBA do any of that?" What set the 7’1” center apart for fans was his puzzling reserve. He was an introvert in a sport that thrives on emotion, and big personality players. If Parish was shooting the lights out, or as he says, if he was having a day in which he should never have gotten out of bed- his silent and serious manner was exactly the same. Management called him a stoic player. He simply says he is most comfortable in his own company. What ultimately set the Celtics (and Warriors, and Hornets, and Bulls) legend apart in the stats though, is another facet of his quiet, loner attitude. Way back in 1976, when he was young and invincible, and nobody was taking these things seriously, Parish got into yoga, nutritional science, weights and flexibilty training. So, decades later, when the then 43 year-old became the oldest Championship winner in history, it was because of that long standing work ethic. Commentators could never get over how fast, fit and flexible the big man continued to be. As the pushing 70 star says to Player’s own Voice Podcast host Anastasia Bucsis, with a deep chuckle, once the interview wraps, he’s got some yoga to see to, and yes he can still touch his toes.

Episode 7: Chloé Dufour-Lapointe's freestyle farewell

Player's Own Voice24:24Chloé Dufour-Lapointe's freestyle farewell

There’s a lot of talk about ‘Quiet Quitting’ these days… which is one luxury that athletes can seldom enjoy. For moguls skier Chloé Dufour-Lapointe, luckily, there was never any plan or desire to simply run down the clock. Like her equally famous sisters, Chloé was determined to make every competition count. Easier said than done, when the pandemic years threw a clunky wrench in her plans. Her training was curtailed by covid restrictions, which led to a loss of competition points, and consequently, her funding dried up just before her fourth and final Olympics, Beijing 2022. But Chloé makes a serious practise of positive thinking. Despite the disappointments, she built herself an amazingly durable shield of upbeat attitude, like-minded people, and unrelenting love of skiing. So now, as a competitive career concludes at the ripe old age of 30- Chloé can look back with satisfaction in the knowledge that she ended her Olympic career doing what she has always done, trained hard, skied hard, and savoured the moment. Not that Dufour-Lapointes are particularly big on dwelling in the past, but Canadians have been dazzled by the bump skiiers for nearly a dozen years. Justine and Chloe finished Gold and Silver at Sochi… and all three of them swept a world cup podium in 2016, which really is a once in a century sort of event. Refreshingly- as she tells Anastasia …Chloé is not suffering terrible ‘what next?’ anxiety. She, Justine and Maxime have built a consistent brand, and the practical fashion side of their business will always be a special focus for Chloé.

Episode 6: Aaron Brown thinks fast

Player's Own Voice33:59Aaron Brown thinks fast

Canadian Sprinter Aaron Brown is a quick thinker. Not just in the literal sense- he has perfected physical speed, as befits a World champion 4x 100 relay racer. But every track and field athlete tries to do that. What sets Brown apart is how he analyzes and dissects the entire economic model of high performance sport. For someone who is so ready to reassure that he isn't a radical- a lot of Brown's questions might rattle nerves among the money managers at the peak of the Olympic pyramid. Brown doesn't worry about the superstars, the household names on the track- the athletic 1% has sneaker deals and opportunities aplenty. It's everyone else he sees struggling to make ends meet. One hundredth of a second might make the difference between being famous in the finals, and toiling in the ninth lane, slinging coffee in the off season. Brown's point is that in no other profession do we see only a handful at the apex actually making a living. How might profit sharing work? Brown considers paydays from the loftiest IOC execs, down through the ranks to the athletes and coaches whose labour- to Brown's thinking- has never been fairly rewarded. Brown's ideas get to the heart of track and field as a profession. He recognizes that NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB salaries might be out of reach- but urges track Olympians to consider business models more like golf or tennis, where athletes are well paid, and not entirely dependent on a windfall every four years, when the Olympics roll around. As he makes clear to Anastasia- All the athletes are thinking it. He just happens to be saying it out loud.

Episode 5: Sorry, not sorry with Kaylyn Kyle.

Player's Own Voice42:45Sorry, not sorry with Kaylyn Kyle.

Kaylyn Kyle has parlayed years of soccer with the Canadian national team and in pro leagues, into a bustling career as a broadcast soccer analyst. What sets Kyle apart isn’t just her deep knowledge of the game and tactics, but her willingness to speak plainly about the issues and players before her. Kyle is not afraid to court controversy, nor to call out poor behaviour when she sees it. She’s brutally honest about the economics of being an NWSL player. And when she argues in favour of a Canadian women’s pro soccer league? Resistance may not be futile, but good luck if you happen to oppose her points of view. All of which makes Kaylyn Kyle an ideal podcast guest. Kaylyn regales Anastasia with tales of an incredibly hardworking mother of two… questions the academic results for preschoolers that she sees in the USA, makes several persuasive points in favour of beginning an athletic career in Saskatchewan, pinpoints the moment in which a lifelong love of playing soccer fizzled into frustration, and then tops it all off with an amusing description of her own not exactly planned dive out of the way of the bronze medal winning goal for Canada in London in 2012. Kyle pushes listeners’ buttons, no question. So if you don’t care for fast-talking, fully-informed, and highly opinionated women, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Episode 4: Kurt Browning: figure skating then and now

Player's Own Voice29:20Kurt Browning: figure skating then and now

Here’s the thing that Patrick Chan wants to understand about his fellow figure skater, Kurt Browning… after 45 years on ice, how has Browning managed to stay in love with his sport? Not just stay active in it- because hey, a job’s a job, but stay enamoured with it all? Browning has a one-word answer to the question: Curiosity. Browning can’t help himself, he’s still curious about the next solo, the potential to make an audience feel something, the process of getting tuned up for performances…That, and the pure simple glide of skating, keep him hooked. With the Skate Canada event at October’s end in mind, Anastasia asks Kurt for his assessment of skating now, and looking ahead. The way he sees it- the scoring system rewards skaters for giving the judges what they want, more or less on a silver platter. The downside is, that makes one skater look a bit like another. If anyone deviates too far from the formula, there’s no way they can succeed. So that puts the more creative routines on the endangered list. But the system also encourages very strong technical skating- and the performance aspect has not gone away, so that’s all to the good. Browning loves the ever-increasing global popularity of the sport. He is a big fan of what he sees from Asian skaters, in particular. Looking a little bit ahead, Browning predicts some necessary growing pains. Like many sports, figure skating needs to come to terms with some abusive situations in the past. And he says the sport still needs to tackle cheating- both varieties, pharmaceutical and judging varieties. That’s all part of the maturation process, and he welcomes it.

Episode 3: Bianca Farella tackles the future.

Player's Own Voice26:30Bianca Farella tackles the future.

People always say Sport teaches valuable life lessons. If true, Rugby Sevens stalwart Bianca Farella has earned a doctorate in the last 18 months. Just before the Tokyo Olympics- something like 55% of players and alumni agreed that there were culture and coaching problems at Rugby Canada. Tackling that messy situation was necessary, and a great long-term project, but the timing was awful for the women's team as they prepared for the games. Undergoing cultural upheaval comes at the cost of short term team focus. Canada's Rugby 7s women are stronger and healthier in every sense now, but the upheaval contributed to disappointment in the most recent Summer Olympics. The success the women enjoyed in their Bronze medal debut at Rio was not to be duplicated. The number two in the world scorer of tries did not get there by ignoring the big picture. She is proud of how she and her team have blazed Safe Sport trails for other Canadian federations to follow. After Tokyo, Farella went back to university to finish her undergrad, and started considering other career goals. She thought she was finished playing Rugby… but a new head coach got her back into training… and back on the pitch. Jump ahead a couple of months, and Farella, now fully returned to peak competitive form, comes down with COVID on the eve of flying to the 7s world cup in South Africa. Cheering on teammates from a sick bed , 9 time zones distant is not anybody's idea of a good time. But for Bianca Farella, it is important to persevere through setbacks. An end to competition comes for everyone eventually. For now, one of the fastest athletes in the sport is content to slow down long enough to consider the next steps.

Episode 2: Summer McIntosh: World champion... keepin' it real in grade 11.

Player's Own Voice21:01Summer McIntosh: World champion... keepin' it real in grade 11.

Summer and Brooke McIntosh’s parents have a good problem brewing. October 28 to 30th, Skate Canada International will likely see Brooke figure skating on one side of the Greater Toronto Area, and on the exact same days, Summer will likely be tearing up the pool in World Cup races on the opposite side of town. Scheduling headaches are part of the price to be paid when raising two high performance athletes. Luckily- as Summer makes clear, sibling rivalry will not add fuel to a fraught parental weekend. The McIntosh sisters are fantastically competitive young women, but they are also each other’s biggest boosters. Summer caught up with Anastasia from Florida, where she and her training partners were spared the worst of Hurricane Ian’s destruction. The swimmers have pitched in to help clear downed trees and debris around the pool facilities and community, but in the meantime, it’s 100% back to the business of training for McIntosh. Well, almost 100%. There’s also grade eleven assignments taking up any spare minutes to be had in the long day. Considering her ranking- number three in the world among female swimmers, it’s easy to forget that Summer McIntosh is still just 16 years old. Without harping on her age- because what teen wants to be constantly reminded of their youthfulness? – Anastasia and Summer have a slightly surreal conversation about being an experienced Olympian at the age of 14. You know you are young if you happened to be eight years old when you watched Penny Oleksiak swim in Rio. Now that they are teammates- it’s the older Oleksiak’s turn to be in awe of so much speed in so few years. It’s impossible not to worry a little when we see huge success coming to a young athlete, but as this engaging conversation makes clear- Summer McIntosh is as level-headed as they come. Being the youngest world champion in a decade might really truly only be the beginning for Summer McIntosh. She likes the longer distances…and typically, performances in endurance events only get better with age.

Episode 1: Becky Sauerbrunn exporting equity

Player's Own Voice25:06Becky Sauerbrunn exporting equity

In the ever-expanding universe of Women's Soccer- very few stars shine brighter than the Captain of USA's national team, Becky Sauerbrunn. With more than 200 caps and counting, her contributions on the pitch have filled scores of highlight reels. So it seems strange to say her biggest impact, and likely her most lasting legacy, will be Sauerbrunn's work off the field, largely behind the scenes. Sauerbrunn was one of the original five women who summoned the determination to put their livelihood on the line and go into battle with their employer for equal pay and equitable treatment. This season six debut episode (woot woot!) of Player's Own Voice hears Sauerbunn acknowledge that the six year back-and-forth was a nerve wracking experience. She details how those years were marked by a number of small milestones. The American Men's and Women's national teams were not very close allies at the dispute's outset, back in 2016, but by the time the dust settled, Sauerbrunn says the solidarity with the men's squad was a key to getting deals done. The women players sued the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2019, seeking damages under the federal Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Three years after that, a $24 million settlement was reached. Pay, though obviously important, is a relatively straightforward issue. Equitable treatment requires a lot more ongoing effort and thought. Coaching, facilities, travel, health care…the areas of discrepancy and unequal treatment extend into so many aspects of the elite athlete's experience. Anastasia asks Sauerbrunn the simple question: what's next? Canadians, take note: For the captain and her like-minded teammates, a goal now is to help spread their know-how and collective bargaining experience to women and sports federations around the world. Starting with their frenemies to the North.

Back To Top 

SEASON 5

Episode 28: Rhian Wilkinson: changing the culture, one win at a time

Player's Own Voice38:10Rhian Wilkinson: changing the culture, one win at a time

‘Culture’, toxic or otherwise, is invoked almost daily in sports. Like a collective mood, it is easily named but much more difficult to manage- let alone improve. Rhian Wilkinson, the new coach of the Portland Thorns, has managed to do both those things. She inherited a club that had recently endured a blistering abuse scandal. Turning that culture around is an ongoing success story, and it’s by no means the only problematic situation Wilkinson has confronted in her long career. In a wide-ranging chat about her Soccer experiences in England, Wales, Norway, the U.S.A., and here in Canada (as a player on the groundbreaking national teams of 2012 and 2016), Wilkinson shares lessons learned from grassroots to elite teams. Anastasia leads Wilkinson back to England, where the younger player had to deal with boys who never passed the ball to their obviously gifted teammate. The talk moves through her national team years, when some coaching advice brought on uncomfortably necessary introspection. And jumps ahead to where Wilkinson coaches now, at the epicenter of the North American women’s game. Are the Thorns the picture of a healthy team culture? G.M. Karina LeBlanc’s toddler is a regular visitor in the locker room. And there are more team mate’s babies on the way. A distraction in the clubhouse ? Au contraire. The team are defending league champions, and it’s exactly for those little ones that Wilkinson is laying down a winning culture today. Looking closely at the unprecedented international successes for the Canadian men and women’s teams, Wilkinson traces a direct line of winning ways and leadership back a decade to her teammates and then coach John Herdman. She names names- and describes how individuals from the class of 2012 have gone on to change soccer culture (there’s that word again- and she does not use it casually) for the better, wherever they landed. It’s the last podcast of a double season- two Olympics in the same year will do that! Anastasia is recharging her audio recording gear and POV will be back later in the summer.

Episode 27: Amber Balcaen at 300kph

Player's Own Voice25:31Amber Balcaen at 300kph

NASCAR drivers generally have a lot in common. For starters, they are overwhelmingly American, male, and coming from seriously wealthy backgrounds. Winnipeg's own Amber Balcaen has got her 'outsider' bases covered. As the only Canadian racing full time on the NASCAR circuit, she's overcoming challenges left, right and centre. Luckily, Balcaen is used to fighting for what she wants.Her background in Canadian dirt track racing only allowed her to drive a few months a year, while her competition in the southern USA enjoyed tracks that were open year-round. Sponsorship, the keys to the castle in this incredibly expensive sport, doesn't come easy for a Canadian either. Why would a Canadian company get behind a sport that is overwhelmingly popular in the USA, but hit and miss north of the 49th? And why would Americans put money behind a Canadian racer? That's where Balcaen's business background, and limitless hustle, made the difference. She noticed that race tracks were always ringed with RVs full of fans, so she started building a business case around that, then courted a Canadian-based, North American firm making RV parts. A winning partnership was formed, and she's racing in a custom red and white rocket to prove it. As a woman among Good Ole Boys, nothing came easy for Balcaen. She had to win respect the only way you can in racing: weekend after weekend of high finishes, quality performances, and fearless competition. Everybody loves an underdog story. The only trouble there is she's so fast on the track that the 'underdog' label doesn't fit the bill anymore. Despite focusing on her race this Saturday at the super speedway in Talledega, Balcaen found time with Anastasia to talk about her unlikely journey from Maniitoba dirt tracks to the heartland of American racing.

Episode 26: Cynthia Appiah Takes the Reins

Player's Own Voice27:07Cynthia Appiah Takes the Reins

The more public the troubles at Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton become, the less easy they are to nail down. More than seventy athletes are calling for a leadership overhaul, amid complaints of ‘toxic culture’ and a serious breakdown in trust and respect between the people who actually do the high speed, high danger sports, and the people who coach, train, manage, repair, and organize on their behalf. There may be more issues than any one athlete can fairly decode, but Canadian Monobob and two-woman pilot, Cynthia Appiah, does her level best. Safety and concussion protocols are part of the contention. Many internal management decisions are stirring resent. Resources appear to be allocated based on criteria that athletes find opaque. Appiah is often asked to comment on these disputes, and she is vocal about doing so, but at the same time, she worries that speaking out might limit her career. With the Beijing Olympics in fresh hindsight, Appiah is certain about a few things. She is much happier with her two woman Olympic performance than her monobob runs, even though she finished a very respectable sixth in both events. She is all-in for the next four years of intense work towards the 2026 Olympics. She is refreshingly open-minded about her strengths and areas needing improvement as a team leader. And she is as balanced as anyone could possibly be in recognizing her role as a BIPOC leader in winter sport. The challenge that Appiah sees is not just about attracting new, diverse people into the sliding sports, but in making sure that once athletes do commit, they don’t bump against glass ceilings. As Appiah says to Anastasia – she’s not just there to represent, she’s there to win.

Episode 25: Back on track with Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu

Player's Own Voice35:29Back on track with Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu

Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu has one heck of a backstory. He was a teen prodigy. A top-ranked world junior speed skater in both long and short track, which is extremely rare. He simply loved skating- and he had his own, happy, idiosyncratic ways that served him well. He was the kind of kid who'd warm up on a unicycle, instead of the usual stationary bike. But a new coaching regime stole all the joy from his sport, and his workouts strayed far into abusive territory. Physical injury from overtraining met mental breakdown in a perfect- but not perfectly understood- storm. At twenty he was broken and beaten and done with racing. Four years away from the sport- travelling, tending bar, anything but skating- began to recharge the batteries, and then a coincidental meeting with another 'outsider' talent, Steve Robillard, lit the comeback fuse. Robillard encouraged Gélinas-Beaulieu to get into coaching, and that slowly rekindled his own love of the game. As he tells Anastasia, it's all about the joy of skating again. Gélinas-Beaulieu determines his own workout regime for the most part, and he revels in helping encourage young skaters, and he is already rubbing his hands in anticipation of the next winter Olympics -Milano Cortina 2026.

Episode 24: Living with Loss: Dina Bell-Laroche, athletic grief counsellor

Player's Own Voice27:00Living with Loss: Dina Bell-Laroche, athletic grief counsellor

After years of working on communications for high performance sports, Dina Bell-Laroche has witnessed many extremes of emotion. But the moment that altered her career forever was the death of her sister, nearly twenty years ago. The grief and her experience in sport combined for Bell-Laroche and led her to coaching and councelling athletes who are dealing with loss in its many forms. With national athletes enduring the Post Olympic Blues right now, the time is fitting for some clear thinking about how we process setbacks and loss in sports. Part of the goal is to get rid of myths. Grief is not the exclusive privilege of people who have had a death in the family. For athletes, bereavement can flow from a big loss, naturally, but it can also accumulate slowly and creep up on competitors. After a career devoted to sport- retirement can churn up many underexamined disappointments and losses, too. The trouble starts when sports rewards a stoic approach. Shake it off. There’ll be another game. Focus on getting that next win. These attitudes mean well, but they can push athletes into traumatizing silence. Bell -Laroche’s discipline is Thanatology. The study of grief and death. The ancient Greeks, who knew a thing or two about tragedy, said there are only two themes: Eros and Thanatos. Love and Death. Bell- Laroche would argue they are inextricably linked. We only mourn losing what we love. And that can include a dashed dream of Olympic glory.

Episode 23: Brad Gushue Saves Bronze

Player's Own Voice11:04Brad Gushue Saves Bronze

Brad Gushue held 40 pounds of granite in one hand, and in the other, the distinct possibility that Canada would leave Beijing without a single curling medal for the first time since the sport was introduced to the Olympic games in 1998. As it happens, the granite hung lighter in the balance. The skip of the Canadian team delivered a shot that locked up a Bronze medal, exactly 16 years after his golden performance in Turin. For Gushue, this Bronze is almost more a source of pride than the 2006 Championship. He tells Anastasia that there are some weeks you have it and some weeks you don't. Everything clicked in Turin, and very little was working for the team here in Beijing. "That's why it can't always be about just winning. It has to be about the experience, about the journey, about the challenges you overcome. And we overcame a lot this week to get to where we are right now." Gushue is a thoughtful athlete- and with the deliberate tempo of curling, that is not always a good thing. Some sports, your fast reactions will carry the day. On the curling sheets, there's plenty of time for an active mind to worry its way into jams. But students of the game could see it happening in Beijing: Gushue harnessed his years of mindfulness work, parked the unhelpful considerations, and made the most difficult situations look manageable.

Episode 22: Charles Hamelin's golden goodbye

Player's Own Voice10:52Charles Hamelin’s golden goodbye

Charles Hamelin knows how to conduct an Olympic Career. Medal at your first games. Keep medaling and staying strong for sixteen more years. Somewhere in the middle of all that, give Canadians a warm fuzzy moment by celebrating a win with a rinkside kiss. Save the best win for the last appearance. In his final skate, the short track G.O.A.T. bagged one last Olympic gold medal. There are only three other Canadians with four gold medals. There is only one other Canadian Winter Olympian, long track legend Cindy Klassen, tied with Hamelin at six medals. If anybody’s counting, at 37 years old, Hamelin is also the oldest man to medal in short track. On that matter, career longevity, Hamelin credits his dad Yves, with building the base of the pyramid on which a sturdy long career rested. Charles and his brother Francois benefitted from a multi sport childhood. He tells Anastasia that the two brothers always had the choice: train hard, or relax with buddies. Hamelin admits he is still working on that ‘relax with buddies’ thing, but that’s his choice. Hamelin has now delivered sport’s most elusive commodity, the story book finish. But there may be a capper coming. Hamelin is heading back to Montreal for his final world cup competition in March. He has 142 world cup medals in the trophy room already. But the last race in front of a hometown crowd? With the Olympic champion team alongside him? Better save some space on the last page of that story book.

Episode 21: Greg Westlake: Para Hockey's Iron man and Spokesman

Player's Own Voice31:13Greg Westlake: Para Hockey's Iron man and Spokesman

Greg Westlake is both ironman and spokesman for para Hockey. Ironman because these are his fifth Paralympic games, and he remains remarkably fit and injury free despite his long and storied career. Spokesman because his ideas and involvement with para sport are only getting more persuasive with each passing year. For Westlake, it’s all about knowing your worth, and not being shy to demand it. The forward is frank about where he takes his inspiration for the future of para hockey. The NHL experience does not speak to him. Parathletes do not weigh 50 million dollar, 5 year contracts. For Westlake, its more Cheryl Pounder or Hayley Wickenheiser whose models he follows. Those women depended on carding money to stay in the game…and they had to fight to get their due respect. Women athletes had to push for equal facilities, equal training, coaching, equal nutrition…just as disabled athletes have had to do. Westlake draws another parallel for Anastasia to consider: there are still small pockets of, (his word) ignorant people who don’t believe women athletes deserve our attention or respect. And disabled athletes know that battle too. But with the benefit of 20 years in the game, Westlake can offer this very encouraging assessment- he says para athletes are fitter and younger than ever before. And for that, proper investment by national sporting organizations gets the credit. The Beijing Paralympic games begin Friday March 4th. You don’t need reasons to watch, but a few minutes in Westlake’s company will provide you with a tonne of them

Episode 20: Elladj Baldé sees the future of skating

Player's Own Voice25:45Elladj Baldé sees the future of skating

When figure skater Elladj Baldé started sharing videos of himself having a ball, skating on frozen lakes, the response almost overwhelmed him. Tens of millions of views piled in…making Baldé quickly realize that he had a responsibility to put this unnervingly powerful new tool to good use. Retired from competition, but more engaged than ever in the wide world of skating, Baldé has become an icon of inclusion. His video music choices are a revelation. Skipping through the old idea that light classical music is the only possible soundtrack for skating, Baldé sees other structures and strictures beginning to fall away too. Clothing, culture, new ideas about who gets to participate in figure skating, Balde's experience has helped young BIPOC athletes see themselves in winter sport like never before. Baldé comes to talk Olympic figure skating, of course. He is CBC Sport's Mix Zone reporter for Beijing. But it's helpful to know that along with being a scholar of the sport, he brings perspective as cofounder of the Figure Skating Diversity and Inclusion Alliance. Baldé is happy to report that at these games he can see Figure skating moving far beyond its overwhelmingly European early days. So- Baldé has props for Donovan Carrillo, the Mexican skater. Not just for how the man performs, but also because now " A young Latin kid can watch a Latin man skate to Latin music and say, ' I can do that too.'" As Baldé sees it, just because Figure Skating represents some of the oldest traditions in winter sport, doesn't mean it can't be home to some of the newest traditions either.

Episode 19: Messing with Keegan

Episode 18: Mark McMorris: relaxed and ready

Player's Own Voice20:45Mark McMorris: relaxed and ready

Considering Mark McMorris' medical history, it's no surprise he jokes about enjoying rare time off between surgeries. It takes another beat to process his comparisons with teammate Max Parrot's recovery from cancer. But that is the unlikely reality: Two guys, buddies on the same team, both at death's door not so long ago… both on the podium in Beijing. You either laugh or cry at life's twists and turns. And McMorris isn't crying. Not everybody can claim a podium every time their sport has been contested in the Olympics. McMorris can: Three Bronze medals in a row. And not everybody at the age of 28 can speak as an elder statesman in their profession. McMorris can do that too. Midway through McMorris' Beijing games (Big Air qualifying begins Monday) Anastasia gives her fellow prairie pal a break from the high octane technical questions. You want to know what's really on McMorris mind at this moment? A whole bunch of music, plenty of love for his home team, respect for the creativity in other people's TikToks, even when he's on the butt end of a meme…and the puzzling appearance of Skateboarder Paul Rodriguez Nikes on the feet of American curler Matthew Hamilton. McMorris loves that. His summary of the situation? It's all sports, It's all good.

Episode 17: All Aboard with Laurie Blouin

Player's Own Voice11:48All Aboard with Laurie Blouin

Picture two radically different sports. Snowboarding and Golf, for example. Nothing in common, you say? Laurie Blouin might persuade you otherwise. When she's doing her Slopestyle or Big Air events- flying and spinning at stomach-lurching speed and altitude, stomping the touch down- she says that's the very same feeling she gets when a round of golf comes together on the links. Mortal athletes are saying "Really? Corkscrewing through the air at 50 kph…that's like nailing a 7 iron?" Blouin clarifies: It's a mental thing, in the quantitative sense. As she tells Anastasia, it's all about doing just the right amount of thinking. Not being relaxed and absent, and definitely not overthinking the process. Just hitting that mental sweet spot. Blouin knows what she knows. She's already got the Silver medal from PyeongChang to prove it. Fresh off an agonizing fourth place finish in Slope Style, Blouin has the balanced attitude in the bag as she waits for next weekend's Big Air to begin. She's proud of her opening event performance but a little disappointed to miss the medals. And that's just about the right amount of thinking to do at this point. So now it's on to part two of Blouin's mission in Beijing. She's keeping herself safe, relaxed, and ready to soar. Negative tests, positive attitude.

Episode 16: Lisa Weagle and tick talk

Player's Own Voice13:24Lisa Weagle and tick talk

Here’s how life works for Lisa Weagle, a curler at the pinnacle of her sport: Sometimes she’s the lead, and an undisputed force in that capacity. And sometimes she’s an alternate, as she happens to be for Jennifer Jones’ team right now at the Beijing Olympics. And for Weagle, you better believe, there is no difference in the approach or commitment, whichever role she lands. The fifth member of Jones’ powerhouse crew, along with Kaitlyn Lawes, Jocelyne Peterman, and Dawn McEwen, Weagle has got the benefit of previous Olympic experience under her belt. So she’s loving her time in Beijing, but she’s also got a healthy perspective on the twists and turns of Olympic fate. “At the closing ceremony at Pyeongchang, I looked around and noticed how few athletes actually had medals, and I felt like such a failure. But looking around, I was like, Well, I don't think they're all failures, so why am I putting that on myself?” As to the international competition: Anastasia questions the old wisdom among Canadian curlers, that it’s almost harder to qualify for the Olympics than it is to actually take on the world. Weagle agrees that thinking is becoming less accurate with each passing year. In Weagle’s view, there is so much talent curling in Beijing right now, they could run the tournament three times and have three different teams wearing the medals when the sheets go quiet. Control the controlables, as they always say, and meantime, rest assured…the alternate Weagle is ready to throw some of her trademark ‘ticks’ at a moment’s notice.

Episode 15: Kelsey Mitchell visualizes victory

Player's Own Voice24:47Kelsey Mitchell visualizes victory

Just as the Beijing Winter Olympic competition was getting underway, Anastasia pedaled up alongside Canada’s most recent Olympic medallist- track Cyclist Kelsey Mitchell. Her golden ride was the final capping glory on Canada’s Tokyo campaign. Olympians, regardless of winter or summer specialization, can always learn from one another. So Anastasia tapped Mitchell for insights and advice on getting into medal contention. Mitchell’s trip to the top followed an unusual course. She had barely pedaled a bike two years before Tokyo when the track team brought her into the fold, straight from an RBC training ground tryout. So there certainly wasn’t any ten year master plan to look back on. Mitchell, like many athletes, is evidence that Visualisation works. In fact- she couldn’t help herself, vivid images of being decorated with the gold medal would occur to her at all hours of the day and night. She almost had to work at NOT visualizing. Mitchell also confides that the oldest advice in the game really worked for her. Trust the process. Trust your training. Do the work and have confidence in your training. That way- when life throws curve balls- a week before her Olympic race, Mitchell came down with a cold- an athlete doesn’t need to panic. Coughs will cease, noses will stop running, and a lifetime- or at least a couple of years- of hard work will take over from there.

Episode 14: Nancy Lee's pursuit of gender equality at the Beijing Winter Olympics

Player's Own Voice33:02Nancy Lee's pursuit of gender equality at the Beijing Winter Olympics

Nancy Lee is the IOC advisor on Gender Equality. The straightforward job title belies a serious complexity of work. For starters, Gender Equality is not simple math. 5000 male and 5000 female athletes is not a one- and-done solution. Some events, such as Nordic Combined, are still men-only at the Olympics. That’s changing by the way… but not in time for Beijing. There are issues with some of the proposed fixes for inequality. In some mixed events, men race longer distances than women. Is that equality? Even where there is agreement on plans and programs, the IOC cannot just wave its wand and command change. There are 206 national Olympic committees who each have say in matters. And before that, every sport has its own federation, not all of whom are equally invested in getting a gender balance in place. Equity questions abound, from minutiae to momentous. Why must women beach volleyball players run around in butt floss? How is it possible that Beijing will be the first winter Olympics to do away with “Ladies” events? Nancy won that linguistic battle for women by arguing that if we’re going to call them ‘Ladies’, the guys have to be referred to as ‘Gentlemen’. Aha! The penny drops. Media has a role to play too. Do we see images of active male athletes, and emotional female athletes? Do we linger on video of ‘pretty’ athletes? Do we ask male coaches more probing questions than their female counterparts? Do men’s events get better slots in prime time? Are women competing when audiences are smaller? Anastasia Bucsis asks Nancy to guide Olympic fans through the gamut of things to look and listen for during the Beijing competition. Never one to shy away from contentious issues- Nancy also lays down firm guidance on how the Canadian government should be spending your tax dollars in the area of sports and equality. When groups petition the feds for money to host Commonwealth games, or Canada Games, or Pan Ams, or FIFA events…Nancy wants Ottawa to make sure there are strings attached. Will women be playing soccer on plastic turf while men are on actual grass? Do men compete downtown, and women find themselves in facilities in the boonies? Are there provisions to mentor and bring more qualified women officials, coaches and governance on board? Once you start looking, you can see progress is being made, and still needs to be made. It’s an eye opening half hour, your decoder ring for the politics of equality in sport.

Episode 13: Steph Labbé: 30 years in 30 minutes

Player's Own Voice28:09Steph Labbé: 30 years in 30 minutes

Shortly before Stephanie Labbé dropped a surprise retirement notice on the soccer world, the Canadian national goalie and Olympic champion hunkered down with Anastasia to talk through her motivations, her historic career, and her plans for the future. First thing many people want to know about, is that remarkable, disarming smile on Labbé's face as she braced for Swedish penalty kickers to do their worst, with Olympic gold on the line in Tokyo. Labbé says that was pure joy. With a little bit of gaming thrown in, just to give the Swedes something to think about. But if Labbé was doing exactly what she loves most…why is she doffing the gloves so soon afterward? When its time, you know. And she did. 20 years on the national team, 13 years a pro. 85 international caps. Fresh Olympic gold hanging around the neck. As far as competition goes, Labbé has nothing left to prove to anyone. But post competition? Labbé’s the first to say, Sports is all she really knows. So she’s going to be in the mix somehow. She points out that one of the side benefits of Canada’s historic Olympic win, is pressure is mounting for a professional women’s league to finally come to this country. Good luck keeping Labbé on the sidelines when that comes to pass!

Episode 12: Natalie Spooner, primed for the puck drop

Player's Own Voice31:26Natalie Spooner, primed for the puck drop

On the eve of Olympic competition, it is bracing to see that Women’s international hockey is no longer a tale of two countries. Canada- USA is the rivalry that North Americans love of course, but Finland, Russia, Germany are all serious contenders nowadays, which is all for the good of the game. Canadian forward Natalie Spooner is counting the days to Beijing now. And it may seem like a paradox, but she is convinced that all the pandemic isolation has actually brought the Canadian national team to new strengths. Nobody asked for time alone, but when it happened, everyone had the scope to work on individual skills, and to focus on the many small things, on ice and off, that can make each separate member of the Beijing roster stronger. Believers in wholistic team building might demur, but there is no arguing with Canada’s domination in last August’s World Championships. And isolation or not, when the team comes together, as Spooner tells POV host Anastasia, it really really really comes together. Veterans like herself are more than happy to help the newest generation of players find their happy place in the mix. Good vibes in the locker room translate to good team cohesion on the ice. This is a national team that has every reason to believe in itself. Like Spooner says, “If we’re a goal down…we know we are a team that can score four times in a period.”

Episode 11: Emma Lunder aims for the podium

Player's Own Voice26:20Emma Lunder aims for the podium

Vernon B.C.’s Emma Lunder began this biathlon world cup season with a bang. She landed a 6th place finish in Sweden, in the 15 k individual competition. That is a deceptively strong result in a sport which Europeans have dominated since, well, forever. And although the Canadian national team veteran recognizes that cracking the top 10 is always a good sign, for Lunder, this year is all about the Beijing Olympics. In Biathlon, as in all competition, everything has to go exactly right on race day, but Lunder is happy to itemize the many ways that her team has their proverbial ducks in a row. From new, specialist shooting coaching, to demanding but considerate leadership from Justin Wadsworth, to good old camaraderie and mutual support among the skiers and shooters…everyone seems to be in 'work hard, enjoy the process' mode. How many successful campaigns begin with that same simple formula? Counting down the days now to the winter Olympics, Lunder, like most athletes, is focusing on staying smart, staying healthy, and giving herself the best chance possible to get on the podium. As she tells Anastasia, nobody has ever competed in the Beijing facility before. It’s a totally new venue. So why not a Canadian podium?

Episode 10: Isabelle Weidemann in fine form

Player's Own Voice28:02Isabelle Weidemann in fine form

Isabelle Weidemann is having a year. The Canadian speedskater is number one in 3000 and 5000 meter racing. She is the woman the rest of the world is chasing, heading into the Beijing Olympics. Weidemann is also the acknowledged diesel engine in Canada’s pursuit trio, along with Ivanie Blondin and Valérie Maltais. Why Diesel? Because once the lanky 26 year-old gets up to speed, she has fantastic efficiency and endurance. Weidemann hauls her teammates in her wake for extraordinarily long distances. Weidemann hunkered down for a chat with her old teammate Anastasia, at home in Calgary, a short jog from the Olympic Oval. The Ottawa-born skater is as surprised as anyone to find herself a team veteran. Time flies when you are logging hundreds of hours toward saving fractions of seconds. One of the surprises for Weidemann, amid the inevitable slog of training, is the recognition that try as she might in every way to be a better athlete, life away from the ice has more influence than most people acknowledge. The week she got a new puppy was also the week Weidemann smashed personal goals in training. A trip out of town with family set off a streak of racing successes. It happens too often to be a coincidence. For the truly driven athlete…there’s an art to discovering when and how to step back, take the foot off the gas, and return to even greater results. Anastasia has often said Isabelle Weidemann is one of the most underrated athletes in Canada. Before the Winter Olympics get underway, here’s a chance to discover why that quiet background buzz about the Canadian Speedskating team is getting steadily louder.

Episode 9: Laurent Dubreuil and baby makes speed

Player's Own Voice33:47Laurent Dubreuil and baby makes speed

Veteran speedskater Laurent Dubreuil is having a career season many, many years after he took up the sport. So he faces a friendly and blunt question from Anastasia: “What took you so long?” Dubreuil is quick to acknowledge that he had some great advantages coming up in Canada’s most successful Olympic sport. For starters, he is the child of two Olympians, Robert Dubreuil, and Ariane Loignon. Having made their mark on the sports world, there was no stage parenting going on, no pressure to do anything but try hard and love what he did. Dubreuil had no problem trying hard. His workouts were as long and tough as anyone’s on the circuit. And he had flashes of excellence, but his self-imposed desire to win big was getting in the way. The harder he worked, the heavier he felt, and top tier results eluded him. Away from the ice, life was ticking along beautifully, and Laurent was delighted to announce a new daughter. And that’s where things get surprising. The pull of parenting made Dubreuil decide to spend more time hanging out with baby Rose, and less time training. He did fewer, but perhaps better workouts and his times started to plunge. The less he cared about racing, wouldn’t you know, the better he did. So now, eight races into this world cup season, Dubreuil has eight podiums in a row. He smashed the Canadian record in the 500m this weekend. His idea about rounding into form for the Beijing Olympics is obviously on track. He is having more fun than ever. He is going like thunder in all his races. And Rose, the girl he calls the most important person in his life? She couldn’t care less. And Dubreuil wouldn’t have it any other way.

Episode 8: Beckie Scott: still making history

Player's Own Voice25:09Beckie Scott: still making history

Truly history-making athletes are few and far between. Nordic skier Beckie Scott qualifies, beyond dispute. What’s quietly amazing about the Canmore, Alberta native though, is that she is still changing the world, fully twenty years after becoming the first North American woman to win an Olympic medal in her sport. It took a while, but that medal became Gold, as the worm turned. Most athletes have known for years about Scott’s standout integrity in a notoriously doping-plagued sport. The rest of the world woke up to her commitment to fair play when they saw her in the 2017 Oscar-winning documentary ‘Icarus’. Beckie Scott, alongside hurdling great Edwin Moses, did everything in her power to steer the World Anti Doping Agency toward binding rulings for clean competition. In the eyes of many athletes, both WADA and the IOC are still coming up short in that regard. But Scott’s principled fight for fair play kept the pressure and the spotlight on. And if the world ever gets the upper hand on cheating nations and athletes, it will be Scott’s work that led the charge. Which brings Scott to her latest history-making work for fairness. Nearly five years ago, she threw her energy into Spirit North, a nonprofit working with indigenous communities to give young people opportunities for sport that they would otherwise be denied. Why is this historic? Because it’s working. Every year, around 6300 Indigenous kids are getting a first chance to try a variety of land -based sports. Skiing, canoeing, mountain biking… the list of sports, and communities joining the program, just keeps growing and growing. Talking about this today with Anastasia, Scott makes clear that a strong moral compass has been her guide all along. An analogy that served her WADA years was that doping was like being a starting gate that is ten meters ahead of everyone else. Scott points to the convergence of historic, systemic factors and practices that have relegated many young indigenous kids to a starting gate ten meters behind other Canadians. For Beckie Scott, it’s a clear matter: a deep unfairness needs to be redressed. Making history again? That just goes with the job. And on a minor note, Beckie Scott is helping us make history yet again…By our calculations, she is the one hundredth guest on CBC Sports’ Player’s Own Voice podcast.

Episode 7: The relentless evolution of Mark Arendz

Player's Own Voice27:40The relentless evolution of Mark Arendz

Mark Arendz delivered performance after performance at the 2018 Pyeongchang Paralympic games. He skied and shot his way into uncharted territory, nailing an incredible six medals in six events. Which left Canada’s undisputed star of the games in something of a motivational bind. It’s relatively easy to train with a goal of doing ‘better next time’. But how to focus on improving after an outing like that? Heading into the Beijing games, as Arendz explains to Anastasia Bucsis, means evolving as an athlete. ‘More’ is not the answer, but ‘different’ might be. Arendz' relentless pursuit of technique and fitness has led him to a place where he can still find flaws in his own gold medal races. He can still see ways to hit more bullseyes, more quickly. He can still bring more of his phenomenal talent and drive to bear on all the notoriously difficult Nordic disciplines. In conversation on the edge of ‘Frozen Thunder’, the shoulder season cross country training track at Canmore, Alberta, Arendz slowed down long enough to describe how his passion for technical excellence in sport likely evolved from his early need to solve the daily challenges of living minus an arm lost to a childhood accident on his family farm in P.E.I. 24 years of overcoming physical problems, as it turns out, is excellent preparation for an unparalleled athletic career. It should come as a surprise to no one that Arendz is already visualizing precisely where he’ll be at noon on March 5th, 2022…the minute, hour and day that his next Paralympic Nordic race gets underway.

Episode 6: Throwing stones with Ben Hebert

Player's Own Voice31:42Throwing stones with Ben Hebert

It’s kind of an open secret, regarding Curling in this country: the best of the best will agree that qualifying for the Canadian Olympic team is harder than facing the entire world at the actual winter games. If that sounds unCanadian, maybe a little too bragodocious, judge for yourself in the week ahead, as Saskatoon hosts the national team qualifying tournament. If you need some insights about how that’s all going to play out… can we recommend lead Ben Hebert? The gold medallist, world champion, and four-time Brier winner is an excellent source of unvarnished wisdom about the game that he has devoted 25 years to perfecting. According to Hebert, at this level, and with these teams in the running, the whole tournament might come down to a couple of shots. Which means it could be anybody who’ll get to wear the maple leaf once Beijing begins. And - looking ahead to the Olympics themselves, Hebert is quick to say, Sweden and Scotland are the nations to respect, come February. Connecting in Calgary with his old Olympian pal Anastasia, Hebert holds forth on crucial topics such as whether a Saskatchewan team winning gold in Curling, or the Rough Riders winning the Grey Cup, would make Sask hearts beat hardest… on his lingering dismay at being swept off the podium in PyeongChang, 2018… and on how money and medals have driven everybody in the game to heights of professionalism and athletic fitness that would be unheard of barely a generation back.

Episode 5: Ivanie Blondin is back on track

Player's Own Voice29:11Ivanie Blondin is back on track

She makes it look easy, flying around the oval at world class times, but for Speed skater Ivanie Blondin, the years since her medal-less return from the PyeongChang winter games have been marked by deep depression and poor mental health. Strangely enough, the versatile long-track athlete takes comfort in that history. Her attitude is: if she can still post winning times, even when she’s not feeling anywhere near top form, then she has to admit, the process is working. Fresh off becoming the new national champion in the 1500m –while still feeling sub par- the skater sat down to chat with Player’s Own Voice host Anastasia Bucsis, surrounded by a small menagerie of rescue animals. Blondin lays out her plans for the road to Beijing, and goes deep into the unusual living arrangements she and her husband, Hungarian speed skater Konrad Nagy, find themselves in, as the two athletes train and practise an ocean apart in Canada and Europe. Blondin has tasted competition peaks and valleys and she is making no secret of her drive to perform better than ever at the Beijing Olympics.

Episode 4: Legends of Long Track

Player's Own Voice30:13Legends of Long Track

There’s a buzz on about the Canadian Speed skating team, heading toward the Beijing Olympics. The recent national trials revealed surprising strengths and plunging race times from veterans and newer hopefuls alike. Before the cheering echos from the trials had a chance to dwindle away at Calgary’s Olympic Oval, Player’s Own Voice podcast host Anastasia Bucsis convened a 'state of the skate' meeting with three champions of the sport. It's a raucous sit down chat about Speed Skating then and now. Chef du mission for the Canadian team, Catriona Le May Doane, Assistant team Coach Shannon Rempel, and multi medallist and commentator Kristina Groves all piled around the table to talk through the challenging pursuit of crazy speed on dime-thin skate blades. None of these women care much for clichés, but they all agree- this is living proof that if you build it, they will come. Canada’s most successful winter Olympic sport got to be that way, because decisions were made, back in 1988, to keep the Olympic skating Oval and institution, and coaching, training and expertise firmly in place. There are Olympic medal hopefuls right now, who got to be that way because they could see and skate alongside the best of the best, when they were first trying it out. Legends of Long track- this week on POV podcast.

Episode 3: Piper and Paul's time to shine

Player's Own Voice37:55Piper and Paul's time to shine

Ten years after Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier began Ice dancing together, they have landed in a spot that is novel for both of them: Top of the heap. Creative, athletic, and artistic as they have always been, the duo’s dynamics have long contended with outsized competitors like Tessa & Scott and Kaitlyn & Andrew. It’s Piper and Paul’s turn in the sun now. And with the Winter Olympics coming on fast, they don’t have time to savour the spotlight. It’s all about getting their programme honed to perfection. Long-standing fans of the duo will be thrilled to learn that their latest long performance is built around The Beatles’ “Day in the Life”- interpreted by the same remarkable busker team whose ‘Starry Night’ electrified crowds for Piper and Paul starting in 2018. The Ice Dancers share secrets of an enduring partnership. Perhaps it’s counter intuitive, but in their case, the professional success together is firmly based in respect for one another’s personal lives. Paul jokes that he doesn’t trust any skate partners who never argue, but he and Piper are serious about making sure that support for one another comes first in every discussion, no matter how heated.

Episode 2: Nate Riech's race to remember

Player's Own Voice31:00Nate Riech's race to remember

Nate Riech came into his first Paralympics under a burden of heavy expectation. Not just because his family tree is overstuffed with elite and pro athletes. Riech owns the world record in the T38 1500m. He set it, and then lowered it, in the months leading up to Tokyo. So he was confident and ready to race when the gold medal day dawned. But that’s where the going got interesting.... As an athlete enduring traumatic brain injury, Nate has learned to roll with a variety of symptoms. But even he was a bit freaked out to discover his right leg was suddenly not working properly during race day warm up. Incredibly, he and his coach had a backup plan for just such an outcome: he ran a series of short sprints designed to reboot his unpredictable nervous system. It worked. He’s sporting the gold now. And hungrier than ever to keep tearing up the record books, keep showing the world what determined people with TBIs can do, and keep inspiring anybody, who like himself, woke up one fateful day,young and motionless in a hospital bed. The term is overused, but Nate Riech is an inspiration, and a fascinating young runner to get to know on this week’s Player’s Own Voice.

Episode 1: Clara Hughes remembers everything

Player's Own Voice28:38Clara Hughes remembers everything

Clara Hughes is one of those rare athletes who finishes an exceptional competitive career, and goes on to even more widespread fame. The former speed skater and cyclist met overwhelming success with her work in support of mental illness in the ‘Let’s Talk’ initiative. The advocacy and outreach work proved so involving that Hughes needed to step away again to recharge, and that led to an ongoing series of epic hikes. Clara Hughes has walked the famous east and west coast mountain trails for thousands of kilometers. Usually solo, always finding reflection and meditation in the process. For her old speed skating teammate Anastasia Bucsis, Clara’s reflective state opens the gate to lingering memories from a stellar career, and also to thinking through how today’s vocal athletes, like Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles, are ushering in social change that extends to every corner of the workplace. If that all sounds a bit nutritious, Clara Hughes has not lost her knack for blunt assessment of any situation, including her own delight at a 43rd place finish, not sooo long ago. Also, and this made us feel thoughtless, we got messages from our deaf audience, readers of the POV essay series, asking for transcriptions of the podcast. Hoping to make this a permanent part of the publication...

S4 Episode 19: Erin Ambrose: the defence never rests

Player's Own Voice28:00Erin Ambrose: the defence never rests

Erin Ambrose, pro defender in the PWHPA and on the national team, has a decidedly un hockey - like tendency to blow right through the usual scrum clichés... She's honest about all of it. Team USA?. Ambrose makes no bones about hating them. Is that the word she wants to use? Oh yes. She hates them. And guess what- she says we should love that hate. There's plenty of fire in that outlook. And having a brand new IIHF championship gold medal slung around her neck allows Ambrose to visit fresh memories of those excellent hard feelings. But she's not just another hockey star with a gnarly temper. Ambrose's passion is just as strong on the other side of the emotional spectrum. She is a supremely compassionate advocate for mental health, having fought, and continued to deal with her own intense anxiety and depression. Feared on the Ice, Erin Ambrose is welcomed everywhere else, because her mental health advocacy is so respected and received. She is a complicated and fascinating figure.

Back To Top