Golf Officials Assisting The 2010 Winter Olympics

This week a number of staff and members of the Team Canada sport science support team together with other Golf House staffers are in Vancouver to learn and assist the Canadian Olympic movement.

From the RCGA

The RCGA contingent includes Jeff Thompson, the association's Chief Sport Development Officer, who is in Vancouver as part of the Olympic Familiarization Program conducted by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). The program, first conducted in Beijing, enables key National Sports Organization personnel to experience the Olympic Games and gain a better understanding of the games' environment as well as the COC's game-day operations. The program provides National Sport Organizations with a key learning opportunity and helps to better prepare their sport's athletes for successful performance at future Olympic Games.

Dr. Greg Wells will be on television providing on-camera sport science and sport medicine analysis for CTV and TSN. Dr. Wells serves as the Director of Sport Physiology for the Canadian Sport Centre, where he works closely with athletes and coaches in the area of physiological performance enhancement. His athletes have won numerous medals at the Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Olympic Games. Dr. Wells has served as exercise physiologist for the RCGA and has worked with the association's National Amateur Team program since 2002.

Greg Redman, physiotherapist specialist with the RCGA's National Amateur Golf Team is on the scene as physiotherapy consultant to the Freestyle and Speed Skating teams. Redman has had success with many Olympic medalists as well as international and national champions. He has provided his services to the Canadian Olympic squad at the Athens, Torino and Bejing Olympic Games. In addition to his work with the RCGA, Redman is also a consultant to the Canadian Sport Centre where he works with athletes training in track and field, wrestling, skeleton, luge, diving and swimming.

Dr. Penny Werthner, a renowned sport psychologist who provides mental management services to the players on the RCGA's National Amateur Golf Team, will be working with the men's and women's freestyle ski, aerials, moguls and women's curling teams in Vancouver. A leader and innovator in international sport and in women and sport issues, Werther is a 3M NCCP Level 4/5 presenter. As a former Olympic track and field athlete, Werther represented Canada internationally from 1970 to 1981.

Nutrition specialist Dr. John Berardi, while not at the games, has provided extensive support to a number of individual athletes during their preparations for the Vancouver games. As part of the sport science staff for Canada's National Amateur Golf Team, he provides information on nutrition to Team Canada golfers. Dr. Berardi's continued research has focused on the interaction between nutrition, sports supplementation and exercise performance.

Milaina Lagzdins, a championship administrator who works on both the RBC Canadian Open and the CN Canadian Women's Open coordinating volunteer programs and organizing player's services, will be on hand serving as a Doping Control Officer in Whistler. There will be more than 100 Doping Control Officers who will conduct close to 2,000 tests to ensure the spirit of the Games is preserved.

Brian Teh, a junior accountant with the RCGA, is a volunteer and part of the Vancouver Olympic Games' transportation team shuttling players, officials and VIP's.

ABOUT THE RCGA NATIONAL TEAM PROGRAM
The RCGA National Team Program incorporates advanced coaching, sport science expertise, training camps and world-class competition. The RCGA allocates over $1 million of its resources annually to the National Team program, encompassing strength and conditioning, sports psychology, nutrition, biomechanics and technique development. Players who are selected to the National Amateur and National Developmental Teams represent Canada at six to 10 internationally-sanctioned golf competitions throughout the year. The intent of this comprehensive program is to aid Canada's top up-and-coming amateur players in all areas of their development, helping Canada produce the best golfers in the world.

Team Canada, the pinnacle of the RCGA's High Performance Program, provides access to world class resources including coaching, nutrition, sport science, mental management, equipment, elite competitive opportunities and builds on the support that team members have received in their development years from their family, member clubs, personal coaches, university programs and provincial golf associations.

The RCGA's High Performance Program and Team Canada are proudly sponsored by Titleist, Foot-Joy and Under Armour.

For more information about Team Canada visit www.rcga.org.