Road to the Olympic Games: 4 things to watch this weekend

Hosted by veteran broadcasters Scott Russell and Andi Petrillo, Road to the Olympic Games chronicles athletes' journeys on and off the field of play. Here's what to look for on this weekend's shows on CBC Television and CBCSports.ca.

Olympians meet youngsters on Sports Day In Canada

On Saturday, our sixth annual national celebration of sport comes from the Olympic city of Vancouver, and more specifically, the Olympic speed skating oval in Richmond B.C.

We'll try to reflect how central sport has become to the Canadian cultural landscape, not only from the perspective of something which is consumed by spectators, but perhaps more importantly, as a pursuit which inspires active participation.

To that end, more than two thousand sporting events are taking place at the national, provincial, and community levels across the country involving legions of Canadians who will be taking to arenas, swimming pools, and fields of play with the aim of trying something new while making a connection with like-minded people.

While the purity of sport is a hard thing to come by these days, it may be worth the effort to at least turn our attention to the grassroots for a brief moment. We'll encounter RBC Olympians as they interact with youngsters who are only now beginning their journeys to greatness on the international stage.

• Marc Gagnon of Chicoutimi, Que., is Canada's most decorated short track speed skater, having won three Olympic gold medals while ascending the podium on five occasions. He'll be helping out a local speed skating club in Richmond.
• Three-time world figure skating champion Patrick Chan -- who also won two silver medals in Sochi in 2014 -- will engage kids in a learn to skate program.
• One of Canada's most successful swimmers, two-time Olympic medalist Ryan Cochrane, who has also won an astounding eight world championship medals over the course of his career, will be on hand to help children navigate the brand new "Richmond Olympic Experience," North America's only interactive and IOC accredited Olympic museum.

Behind the RBC Sports Day in Canada philosophy is a belief that sport, in its most elemental form, is a good thing. Over the course of the last few months while preparing for this broadcast, I've spoken with countless high-performance athletes and mentors who reinforce the notion that sport and play are not only central but also essential to the way we live our lives.

It's enlightening to hear what they say on the subject of why sport matters.

"Sport makes up the very moral fabric of our country," said Paralympic swimmer Michael Edgson, who won 18 gold medals at three editions of the Games.

"Giving back to the community is so important and most of the time we do it through sport," Olympic gold medal cyclist Lori-Ann Muenzer emphasized.

"I don't believe we can have a healthy and vibrant country if we don't have sport," stressed three-time Olympian and 2006 gold medalist in mogul skiing, Jennifer Heil.

"It's amazing to believe in sport that anything really is possible," speed skater and five-time Olympian Susan Auch said.

"You mourn the losses, you rejoice in the victories and in the end winning is the main objective. You do not compete to lose and through sport we build better citizens," said  longtime national field hockey coach Marina van der Merwe, a newly-minted member of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.

"Seeing my kids compete in sport is inspiring," offered Canada's most prolific alpine skier Erik Guay who has been a world champion and is on target for his fourth Olympic appearance in South Korea in 2018.

Perhaps the most striking thing I heard from a high performance athlete with regard to the meaning of sport came out of Los Angeles where our production crews are gathering content for the upcoming Rio de Janeiro Olympics next summer.

The thoughts of 29-year-old middle distance runner Alysia Montano quite simply blew me away.

Montano finished fifth at the London 2012 Games in the 800m behind two Russian medalists, Mariya Savinova and Ekaterina Poistogova who have recently been implicated in systematic doping allegations against the Russian athletics federation. While a redistribution of medals is possible and Montano could conceivably be elevated to the bronze position, her immediate concern seems to have more to do with the sanctity of sport than with the attainment of her just rewards.

"This is not good for the sport and it's not good for the future," Montano said. "I have a 15-month-old daughter and I believe I owe it to her and everyone else behind me to make sure that sport is clean. Sport is supposed to be about integrity. It is supposed to be about self-betterment. It is supposed to be inspiring. It is supposed to be motivating. It is supposed to be a place where we come together and we see who we are at the end of the day…the best version of ourselves."

RBC Sports Day in Canada, in association with ParticipAction and True Sport, is all about those kinds of lofty ideals and while they are inevitably subject to corruption as sport intersects with the real world, it's encouraging to focus on their purity for at least one day.

Watch: RBC Sports Day in Canada, Saturday 2 p.m. ET

Commentators: Scott Russell from Richmond, B.C.; Brenda Irving from Ottawa; Bruce Rainnie from Halifax

The fastest ice in the world is in Calgary

One of the great legacy pieces in the history of Canadian sport is the Olympic Oval in Calgary. It produced not only spectacular competition during the 1988 Winter Games, but it also continues to set the global standard for lightning-quick skating.

Over the 27 years of its existence, nearly 300 world records have been set on this ice — and at the opening ISU World Cup of the long track season three long standing marks come tumbling down.

This week we'll feature the women's 1500m event where American Brittany Bowe erases Canadian Cindy Klassen's decade long reign at the top of the charts. In addition, Pavel Kulizhnikov of Russia comes close to breaking the 34 second barrier at 500m and surpasses the record of Jeremy Wotherspoon of Red Deer, Alta., which was set in 2007.

As well the surprising Canadian male sprinters led by Saskatchewan's Will Dutton serve notice they are rounding into form early in the season on home ice.

Watch: ISU World Cup Calgary, Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET

Commentators: Scott Russell, two-time Olympic champion Catriona Le May Doan

Canadians meet rivals at Russia's Rostelecom Cup

The fifth stop on ISU Grand Prix circuit unfolds in Moscow and in the wake of an abbreviated event in Bordeaux, France last week, the race to the Grand Prix final in Barcelona in early December intensifies.

In men's competition, 17-year-old Canadian title holder Nam Nguyen takes on world champion Javier Fernandez of Spain, who captured the Cup of China in his opening event of the season.

The friendly-but-intense ice dance rivalry between 2014 world champions Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy and Canadians Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje continues to evolve.

The Canadian couple wound up a mere .02 points behind the Italians at the 2014 worlds and took second place while finishing just ahead of them in Shanghai earlier this year to claim bronze.

Watch: Men's and ice dance on Saturday at 4 pm ET; pairs and ladies on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET  

Commentators: Andi Petrillo, 2002 Olympic pairs champion  David Pelletier, Olympic ice dance coach Carol Lane

Barber ready to vault into indoor season

There are less than nine months to go until the opening ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and one Canadian gold medal prospect is hoping to soar to new heights as the indoor season approaches.

The 21-year-old pole vault phenomenon Shawnacy Barber has had a remarkable run which has seen him win NCAA, Pan American Games and world championship titles over the course of this past summer. He'll likely be a candidate for the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's athlete of the year when the decision is made in mid-December.

Barber is now vaulting consistently over 5.90 metres both indoors and out, and is part of an elite group of athletes who have been assembled for training and competition by the legendary Olympic and world champion Sergey Bubka of Ukraine.

Andi Petrillo will spend some time with Barber on this week's show as he works out and interacts with some Canadian Special Olympics athletes at the University of Toronto.