The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 4

A4 THE VANCOUVER SUN. FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 2008 OLYMPICS breaking news at vancouversun.com Canada fielding older athletes online 4 i mil ft tt i i A. VALENTIN FLAURAUDREUTERS FILES UK Sport, the British authority that funds elite athletes, Is also presently charged with dope-testing those same athletes. The new antl-doping agency will separate the two and remove any perception of conflict. UK.

keen to tap Canada's anti-doping expertise drugs I New agency to target pushers, gamblers as well as athletes From Al Canadian show-jumper Ian Millar isn't far behind. At 61, Mil-lar is competing in his ninth Olympics, marking 38 years on the equestrian team. His plans don't include retirement or following Hoketsu into the less-demanding dressage event Millar hopes to compete again at the 2012 Games in London. Susan Nattrass a seven-time Olympic trap-shooter, the first woman to compete against the men in the Games and the person who beat out Wayne Gretzky to be named Canadian athlete of the year in 1981 is the matriarch of the Canadian team at 57. Chart the Canadian team ages, and you'll see that nearly as many of the 332 athletes are aged 35 and older as aged 20 and younger.

Canada's youngest competitor is 15-year-old swimmer Lindsay Seemann. Sixteen Canadian team members are 40 and over. Fencer Jujie Luan is 50 and teammate Igor Tikhomirov is 48. Rower Lesley Thompson-Willie is also 48. Race-walker Timothy Berrett is 43.

Diver Arturo Miranda is 37, as is wrestler Ari Taub. Baseball player Ryan Rad-manovich is 36. At 32, Kevin Sullivan is running the 1,500, while 31-year-olds pentathlete Monica Pinette and cyclist Svein Tuft are said to be in their prime. Still, Nattrass frequently tells journalists that her gun is older than many of her competitors. She was also relieved when Millar made the Canadian team; she didn't want to be the oldest.

There are a whole bunch of reasons why Nattrass still competes. One key may be good genes. Her coach and mother, Marie, is 88 years old. Marie didn't make the trip to Beijing and is missing her first major competition. Nattrass could well be the oldest at the shooting venue, but not by much.

Libby Callahan, who at 56 is the oldest member of the American team, will be competing in the sport pistol event. Canada's not alone when it comes to fielding aging athletes. Israeli marathoner Haile Satayin is 53. French cyclist Jeannie Lon-go-Ciprelli is 49. But it's American swimmer Dara Torres who is the poster "girl" for these Geezer Games.

At 41, Torres is the oldest female swimmer in Olympic history and the only American swimmer to compete in five Games. Her first was 24 years ago. "And, of course, a beautiful woman in a bathing suit is always preferable on the sports pages to men in top hats and riding hack, even if she is the mother of a two-year-old and old enough to be the mother of many of her teammates. Torres's presence also belies the common wisdom that older athletes can only compete at elite levels in equestrian, shooting or sailing events that are among the least physically demanding of the Olympic sports. There are theories about why See a photo gallery on older Olympic athletes at vancouversun.combeijinggames elite athletes are older now than in the past.

Developed countries, after all, are facing a shortage of young people. But that doesn't explain why at the same time there are increasing numbers of older athletes, the performances in all sports are generally improving. Torres's entourage a head coach, sprint coach, strength coach, two stretchers, two masseuses, a chiropractor and a nanny puts meat on the bones of some of those theories. An entourage like that costs money. Torres spends at least $100,000 a year on all the helpers.

Other elite athletes are also spending that kind of money, more if they are equestrians because the cost of training, feeding and caring for an Olympic-calibre horse is enormous. What it suggests is that with more corporate sponsorships and commercial endorsements, aging athletes can not only afford the best coaching and all kinds of other help, they can stick around and compete without necessarily having to forego the usual life progressions of finding a partner, establishing a home and having children. Another insight into what's keeping aging athletes competitive is provided by this description of Torres's lean, six-foot frame written by the New York Times' Elizabeth Weil: "Barring the 13 small surgical incisions on her knees, elbows, shoulders, hands and fingers, her physique looks nearly flawless." "The diets are better, the training is better, the physiotherapy is better, the surgery is better, so that prolongs life in sport," says Kevin Wamsley, co-director of the Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Whether they're Olympians or National Hockey League players like 42-year-old Gary Roberts or 46-year-old Chris Chelios, training technology is prolonging athletes' careers. Never before have aging athletes had access to such high-quality coaching, physical therapy, performance-enhancing diets and medical technology.

What makes Torres such an object of interest as well is that never before have enough women competed into their child-bearing years for researchers to determine what some have long suspected that women's strength and physical power may increase after they have children. The oldest Olympian ever was 72-year-old Swede Oscar Swahn, who won a gold medal in 1908 in a bizarre event the running deer, double shot, where marksmen shot not at real deer, but at deer-shaped targets. dbramhamvancouversun.com JEFF LEE VANCOUVER SUN AT THE BEUING GAMES The United Kingdom is looking at Canada's world-renowned fight against doping as an example for how to set up a new national anti-doping agency in advance of the London 2012 Summer Games. Gerry Sutcliffe, the minister for UK Sport, told The Vancouver Sun on Thursday he was looking at the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency for help in developing an agency he wants to set up within the next year. UK Sport, the British agency that funds elite athletes, also has the job of drug-testing athletes, something Sutcliffe said must change.

"There could be a perception of a conflict developing, so we want to separate the two out and create a national anti-doping agency," Sutcliffe said. But he said any new anti-doping agency, will also be paired with Great Britain's Home Office and police and customs agencies, potentially making it a criminal offence for athletes to take banned substances. Noting that Canada's role as a leader in the fight against sports drug cheats evolved in the face of negative out-of-competition drug tests in the days leading up to the 2008 Beijing Games. These Games will also see a record 4,500 in-competition tests, up from 3,600 in Athens in 2004. Nearly four dozen athletes have been caught or accused of doping, including the entire Bulgarian weightlifting team, most of the Greek weightlifting team and seven members of the Russian track and field team, who were suspended for allegedly swapping some- one else's urine for their own to escape detection.

The Chinese have not.iu escaped detection, either. Ab.a least three Chinese athletesrnt have been removed from the team. Sutcliffe said the U.K had its own national shame in Dwain Chambers, the 100-metre Euror; pean champion whose lifetime ban for a 2003 failed drug test was recently upheld by the Court for Arbitration in Sport. Chambers had hoped to com- pete in Beijing. jeffleevancouversun.com online See animations, video, photos, stories, backgrounders and more at vancouversun.combeijinggames "What we also want to put off is the professionals, the people who are trying to influence athletes into taking drugs and, in some cases, bet on those athletes to lose or to win," he said.

Canada is also the home of the World Anti-Doping Agency, set up through the International Olympic Committee and, until recently, headed by senior Canadian IOC member Dick Pound. WADA issues a "code" or list of performance-enhancing substances and masking agents that athletes are not allowed to take. But Sutcliffe said that as good as that list is, it doesn't go far enough in a world where doping seems almost a rite of passage for developing athletes. "We're also working closely with the WADA model, even though there are some reservations about the WADA code going far enough," he said. "We're seeing new drugs being brought on stream that are not detectable, so it is through scientific developments that we are relying on catching the cheats." Sutcliffe's comments come as an unprecedented number of athletes have either been caught or suddenly "retired" out of the Ben Johnson scandal, in which the Canadian sprinter was stripped of a gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Sutcliffe said the U.K.

is looking to Canada for help. "Clearly the Canadian experience is important to us, and you know the reason why, because of what you went through," he said. "The case-management system in Canada is better than what we have in the U.K. in terms of how athletes can appeal. We are hoping to learn from that." It isn't just doped athletes that concern Sutcliffe.

He said he also wants to attack "criminal elements" that pressure athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs with a view on betting on them. Tm just going for a walk' ROLEX Olympic flag-bearing myth that flag-bearers have not fared well in the ensuing competitions. "Did Alex Baumann at Los Angeles double gold-medallist swimmer at the 1984 Olympics or Catriona Le May Doan Winter Olympics flag-bearer and gold-medallist speed skater suffer from the so-called flag-bearer curse?" he asked. "There is no curse. This is the best opportunity I've ever had.

I'm just going for a walk with the flag." Van Koeverden says he understands athletes who bypass the ceremonies because they have to compete this weekend. "I completely identify with those athletes not marching. I too would have had to decline the honour of being flag-bearer if I had to race the next day," said the 26-year-old. Yet some Canadian athletes who compete this weekend wouldn't miss the chance. From Al "We knew it was going to be polluted here but we can't do anything about it right now," he said.

"Maybe when I get home I can do something about personally getting involved in advocating for cleaner air, "I just try to be an ambassadoradvocate for things I believe in. It doesn't make me a better athlete, just a better human," he added. Not that he can't be tempted with thoughts of gaudy excess. He saw U.S. Olympic basketball star Kobe Bryant being mobbed as he strolled through the Athletes Village two days before.

"Kobe looked really frustrated and I don't think I would have traded places with him at that moment, although I would take the shoe deals, cars and house in Malibu," quipped van Koeverden. He rejects a famous Canadian "It's part of the whole Olympic experience," said Richmond rower Darcy Marquardt, a graduate of the University of Victoria, who will march despite competing Sunday in the women's eight Field-hockey player Connor Grimes of Duncan is also jacked up but qualified his enthusiasm for the opening. "It's going to be exciting and it's part of the experience, but I'm more pumped for our opener Monday against Australia. At the end of the day, it's the Games that matter, right?" Apparently so. "I've heard the opening is going to be awesome and it's something I will remember all my life by taking part, but in the end for me, it's all about the hockey," said Team Canada field-hockey captain Rob Short of B.C Cleve Dheensaw is in Beijing as part of the Canwest News Service Olympic Team 58 of B.C.

to watch Games: poll OYSTER PERPETUAL LADY-DATEJ UST STEEL AND I8KT YELLOW GOLD v7 British Columbians are less likely than other Canadians to watch the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, a new Angus Reid Strategies poll suggests. Fifty-eight per cent of B.C. respondents said they plan to watch the Games on television, 10 points below the national aver Beijing, with 68 per cent opposed to boycotting the games, compared to 62 per cent nationally. British Columbians were also the least upset over China hosting the Olympics, with 51 per cent upset compared to 57 per cent nationally. The Aug.

5-6 survey was conducted online among a random selection of 1,004 Canadian adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Please go to vancouversun.com for a longer version of this story. Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun "The fact is, there are some things that have happened over the past few Olympics and they have left a bitter taste," he said in an interview. Asked whether recent doping scandals had turned viewers off professional sports, 59 per cent of B.C respondents said yes' compared to a national average of 51 per cent.

And 43 per cent of British Columbians said they had little to no confidence in Olympic judging, compared to 38 per cent nationally. But B.C. residents still wanted Canadian athletes to compete in age, while 70 per cent of respondents in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces will watch. Pollster Mario Canseco said MONTECRISTO Crtatort of Original Handcrafui JemtUtty itnce HASTINGS AT HORNBY 604.899.8866 OAKRIDGE CENTRE 604.263.3611 the B.C results likely stem from widespread skepticism over athlete doping and concerns over the fairness of judging..