Forgive members of Canada’s luge team if they begin to feel a bit nostalgic these days.
Canada’s best sliders are among more than 110 athletes from 20 countries that are taking part in the second World Cup stop of the season on Dec. 9-10, in Whistler, B.C. – site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. It’s the first time since that fantastic February that the team has been back to the Whistler Sliding Centre.
Leading the way for Canada will be Alex Gough, the World Cup champion and world championship medallist.
International training begins today and runs through Sunday, with the Canadians taking to the track on Friday.
The team, which is based out of WinSport Canada’s track at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, will compete in doubles, men’s and women’s singles races, and a team relay, which will make its debut at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
Following the Whistler event, the lugers head east to Calgary for the third stop of the World Cup circuit, Dec. 16-17 at Canada Olympic Park.
The junior luge World Cup, meanwhile, takes place Thursday and Friday at COP, with racing scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. MT each day.
For more on WinSport Canada, log on to www.winsportcanada.ca.

Christine Nesbitt wins the 1,000-metre race on Nov. 20 in Russia.

Christine Nesbitt keeps on adding to her medal collection. The native of London, Ont., who trains at Calgary’s Olympic Oval, captured the gold medal Sunday in the 1,000-metre long-track speedskating World Cup event in Astana Kazakhstan. It’s her third gold medal of the season.
Nesbitt clocked a time of one minute 14.82 seconds, while Thijsje Oenema of the Netherlands was second and Margot Boer of the Netherlands won bronze.
“My race was good. I was really fast first lap, and I think that probably really helped,” said Nesbitt. “I was just so excited to see something so fast for me. Skating under 1:15 anywhere outside of North America is really good. So I’m really, really happy with it.”
Shannon Rempel of Winnipeg was 19th in the A division, while in the B division, Winnipeg’s Cindy Klassen was fourth (1:181.18), Calgary’s Anastasia Bucsis finished sixth and Tamara Oudenaarden finished 14th.
In the men’s 1,000-metre race, Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., took fifth while Edmonton’s Jamie Gregg turned in the 15th-fastest time. In the B division, Regina’s Lucas Makowsky was third,  Calgary’s Gilmore Junio took fourth and Kyle Parrott, of Minnedosa, Man., was disqualified.
Check out some audio of Nesbitt thanks to our friends at Speed Skating Canada: bit.ly/vHGqlu.
WinSport Canada, by the way, continues to financially support Calgary’s Olympic Oval as part of the continuing legacy of the 1988 Games.
For more on WinSport Canada, log on to winsportcanada.ca.

It was a great weekend for Canadian skiers at the Lake Louise Winterstart World Cup, with Jan Hudec of Calgary finishing fourth in Sunday’s super-G race and Erik Guay of Mont-Tremblant, Que., taking sixth place at the Alberta resort.
Ben Thomsen of Invermere, B.C., was 27th, while Louis-Pierre Helie, of Berthierville, Que., was 53rd. Robbie Dixon of Whistler, B.C, and Dustin Cook of Lac-Sainte-Marie, Que., skied off course.
The Canadian skiers, who can often be seen working out at WinSport Canada’s Bob Niven Training Centre, have always had plenty of success at Louise.
“As soon as I came through the finish and heard the people screaming, I knew it was a good run,” said Hudec, who won the downhill at Louise in 2007 and was 12th in Saturday’s downhill. “I put everything on the line, skied smart where I had to and just made that one mistake on the bottom – but that’s a calculated risk.”
Hudec’s time was one minute 24.21 seconds. Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal won the race in 1:23.47, while Switzerland’s Didier Cuche was second (1:23.70), and France’s Adrien Theaux rounded out the podium (1:24.11).
Guay clocked a time of 1:24.29.
For the women, Marie-Michele Gagnon of Lac-Etchemin, Que., was 11th at a World Cup slalom race in Aspen, Colo., while Anna Goodman of Pointe Claire, Que., was 20th.
Austria’s Marlies Schild won the race, while Sweden’s Maria Pietilae-Holmner was second and Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch was third.

Welcome to WinSport Canada’s new blog, where we hope you to keep you informed of what’s going at WinSport’s fantastic facilities at Canada Olympic Park, the Canmore Nordic Centre, the Haig Glacier and the Olympic Oval.

In our first post, we had a chance to catch up to the Russian women’s hockey team that is making WinSport’s amazing new Athletic and Ice Complex home for nearly two weeks.

Russia has always been considered one of the superpowers in the world of men’s hockey.
The women? Not so much.
But thanks to a renewed interest in women’s hockey by the Russian government, all attributed to Russia hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the focus is no longer only on the men’s game.
And WinSport Canada’s Athletic and Ice Complex at Canada Olympic Park is playing a role in that uprising.
“We have only six women’s teams in Russia, very few schools, but they are opening, they are in the process,” said Valentin Gureev, head coach of the Russian women’s national team.
The Russians arrived Monday at WinSport’s AIC. After an exhibition game against the University of Calgary’s women’s team on Thursday, they’ll face the Alberta Hockey Club of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League on Friday at the AIC and on Sunday at the Olympic Oval.
The Russian team consists of 10 players from the women’s national team and 10 players from the national under-18 team.
At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Russia finished with a 1-2 record. The goal is to raise the bar to try to land on the medal podium in Sochi.
“For the Russian federation of hockey, it is kind of the No. 1 priority for this year to take Russian women’s hockey to the other levels,” Anastasia Sarapkina, the Russian team manager and sports event coordinator for the Russian Hockey Federation, said following Tuesday’s practice at the AIC.
“This year is something different. The prime minister is interested and the government is interested in women’s hockey. Mass media is also interested in it as well and trying to give people the understanding of women’s hockey.”
Coach Gureev, by the way, is no stranger to Calgary. He was an assistant coach with the men’s hockey team that captured gold at the 1988 Winter Games held here.
On Tuesday, the Russians face Mount Royal University at 7 p.m. at the AIC, and on Wednesday, they visit the Edge School. The final game of their tour is on Friday, Dec. 2, when they battle of the U of C at WinSport’s Joan Snyder Arena. The game begins at 7 p.m.