Olympic Insider Report – February 24th

The Insider feels really sorry for Ben Hebert and Marc Kennedy. After a tough day of sweeping for the Old Bear (that’s Kevin Martin, of course!), the boys had grand plans on Tuesday afternoon after the game.They were going to make a quick dash through the media interview area, then get a ride downtown to Canada Hockey Place to check out the big Canada vs. Germany hockey game. Oops! The folks at Doping Control had other ideas! So instead of making a clean escape, the front-enders had to spend a couple hours “delivering the goods” to make sure they’re not doing any performance-enhancing drugs. At least there was a TV in the room, said Marc. “We were able to watch some of the game, but it wasn’t quite the same.” That’s too bad, but you can’t argue with what the tests are trying to accomplish, right? There was a story that Cheryl Bernard had the testers visit her house in Calgary out of the blue (which they have the right to do), and she got nervous that she had just had a glass of wine! Don’t worry, Cheryl, red wine isn’t a banned substance yet! Speaking of the Kennedys, there are a lot of them in town this week. Marc’s wife Nicole, and their wonderful daughter Aubrey, has been at the Vancouver Olympic Centre to watch hubby (and daddy!) in action. Also checking things out here have been Marc’s parents, Connie and Don, as well as his brother Glen and his wife Suzie. And Glen has been keeping busy writing a blog for CBC.ca about his experiences supporting his brother in his chase for the gold medal. Meanwhile, Marc’s front-end partner Ben Hebert also has a pile of family in Vancouver. His parents Bruce and Judy are here from Saskatchewan, as is his brother Chris (but nobody EVER calls him Chris. His nickname is Critter!). His sister Jayne was here last week but had to go home to work. Oh, by the way, the Insider just heard more information on Oprah Winfrey possibly doing a segment with Kristie being a pregnant athlete in the Olympics. It seems that this was much ado about nothing. There was a TV producer who mentioned a connection to Oprah, but it never went beyond that. But there still might be some exciting news, because a maternity wear company has made some inquiries about getting in touch with Kristie. So stay tuned! Poor Cheryl has been fighting a cold over the last couple of days, but it sure doesn’t seem to be affecting her, does it? Even though she said she was drugged up with cold medicine (all cleared by Olympic team doctors, of course!!!), Cheryl played two amazing games on Tuesday to finish her round-robin schedule. She curled 89 per cent in the morning game to beat Great Britain, and then 93 per cent against Russia in the late game. Great shooting, Cheryl! Maybe you should get colds more often! The Insider is hearing all sorts of good things about the house Kevin and his team is staying in. Apparently a friend of a friend of John Morris stepped up and offered the boys use of his house during the Games. It’s in a really nice section of Vancouver, it has enough bedrooms for the team and coaches, and is far enough away from all of the OIympic hustle and bustle that they can get some down time in private to prepare for the playoff round. Sounds perfect! Hope you enjoy the playoffs, everybody!