Acclaimed Amateur Sports Series Airs on CTV
Canada’s winter amateur athletes recently completed an impressive 2006/07 season with 77 Canadians reaching the podium, collecting a total of 135 medals at World Cup and World Championship events. How are these athletes able to stay competitive on the world stage? What are they doing to ensure peak performances?
The timely TSN original six-part series, Bell Spirit of the Game, explores these issues and many more with a behind-the-scenes perspective of the intriguing – and often underreported – world of Canadian amateur sports. The series will air Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. across the country (except Manitoba where it will air at 4:30 p.m.) on CTV and CTV HD East/West. Bell Spirit of the Game debuts this Saturday (March 31) and runs through May 5.
The series, which was created by TSN in conjunction with Toronto-based Bradford Productions, is coming off a successful six-week run on TSN. The series is also available to Canadians on demand on TSN Broadband at www.TSN.ca.
Hosted by Brian Williams, each 30-minute episode explores the world of Canadian amateur sports beyond the playing field.
Episode 1 – Saturday, March 31
Brian Williams sits down with General Rick Hillier, Chief of Defence Staff, as part of an emotional feature on ‘Soldier On’, a program that has seen the Canadian Paralympic Committee and the Canadian Forces join together to offer new hope to soldiers wounded in battle. The second part of the episode examines the National Sport School in Calgary, which provides high-performance student athletes with an opportunity to pursue excellence in both their athletic and academic careers.
Episode 2 – Saturday, April 7
Brian Williams examines why Quebec’s funding of amateur sports is greater than any other province, in total and per capita, raising the bar for other provinces. Episode 2 also features a story on the revitalization of Canada’s ski jumping team, where Williams speaks with the man responsible for the revival – Ron Read, Ken Read’s brother.
Episode 3 – Saturday, April 14
In an entire episode devoted to the battle against doping in sports, Brian Williams goes one-on-one with Canadian Dick Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency. The story also allows viewers to go inside doping control and watch how a urine sample is processed and how officials determine if an athlete has cheated.
Episode 4 – Saturday, April 21
As Canada tries to stay competitive in international figure skating with the rise of new skating powers in the Far East, Brian Williams speaks with key figures in the skating community, including Brian Orser, Tracy Wilson and William Thompson, the new CEO of Skate Canada. In the second part of the episode, Williams travels to Newfoundland and catches up with curler Brad Gushue to talk about the personal challenges he has faced in the year following his gold medal triumph at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin.
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