Neues » Italy coach Tom Pokel

The slogan of the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games is Are You Ready?Benoit Huot is prepared to answer that question by making host city Toronto his second home. Bob Griese Jersey .One of the decorated Paralympians in Canadian history, Huot trains at the new Aquatics Centre nearly every day and often has two pool sessions in a day.The Montreal swimmer owns 19 medals, including nine gold, from four Paralympic Summer Games. Retired wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc is the only Canadian who has won more with 21. Huot shares an apartment with other swimmers near the CIBC Pan Am/Parapan Am Aquatics Centre and Field House in the suburb of Scarborough. He takes the train home on weekends to Montreal, where the 30-year-old owns a house with fiancee Annie Couture.You want to think you did everything you could to be ready when its really game-day, Huot told The Canadian Press. Thats what Im trying to do.Huot pondered retirement after collecting a medal of every colour and setting a world record in the 200-metre individual medley at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.But the draw of racing in a Parapan Am Games in his home country in 2015 was a pull towards the Rio de Janiero Paralympics in 2016.Competing in the 2013 International Paralympic Committee world swimming championships in his hometown of Montreal was another incentive to stay in the pool after London.Training in Toronto fills a number of needs for Huot, not the least of which is gaining an advantage for the Parapan Ams from Aug. 7-15.Itll feel even more like home when the Pan Ams come around, Huot said. It does make a difference knowing where things are.That excitement when you get to the facility for the first time and sometimes feeling that extra stress you dont need, I wont get that. I know where the ready room will be, I know where the doping will be.Its the same thing in the water, he continued. The way I do my turns when I swim backstroke, I look at the ceiling of the pool and all my references are there. I know how to feel good in that pool from lane one to lane 10. Whatever lane Im going to be in . . . Ill feel confident. Those small things for us as swimmers make a big difference.The opening of Pan Am swim venue in October also solved a problem in Huots training environment in Montreal. The ongoing renovations on his home pool at the Olympic Park Sports Centre will continue well into 2015.Huot felt he could no longer afford the disruption in his training with Rio coming over the horizon.I said I cant wait for this. I need to take responsibility in making sure Im ready for 2015 and obviously 2016 and the best place right now in the country would be Toronto, he explained.To be ready for 2016, I cant start in September 2015. What Im doing now is going to pay off in 2016 as well.Huot was born with a club foot and competes in the S10 classification for athletes with minor physical impairments.Hes training in Toronto with a group of able-bodied athletes including Torontos Martha McCabe, a world championship medallist in breaststroke. Theyre coached by Ben Titley, who is Swimming Canadas national-team coach.But Huot maintains his relationship with Montreal coach Pierre Lamy because Lamy will be coach Huot when he races the 200 I.M. and 100-metre backstroke in Toronto this summer.Huot hasnt raced the 400-metre freestyle since winning Paralympic silver in 2012, but he may add it to his Parapan Am set list.He collected seven medals, including three gold, at the 2007 Parapan Ams in Rio. Huot didnt compete in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2011 because those Games held in November of that year conflicted with his training for the 2012 Paralympics.Paralympic, Parapan Am and Commonwealth Games medals were among the eight stolen from Huots house last year while he was away training in Richmond, B.C.He says hes unlikely to ever recover them as Longueuil police have closed the investigation. Huot is more hopeful about obtaining replacement medals.Were talking to the International Paralympic Committee and Commonwealth Games Federation to try to replace the medals, Huot said. So far things are looking good. We havent got confirmation yet.For a man who has trained his entire career in Montreal, relocating to Toronto was an adjustment. Via Rail helps out with rail passes to go home for short stints, but his relationship with his fiancee is now mostly long-distance.Its not easy being away, especially for her, Huot said. For me, Im living my dream. Im having a great time in the water. I know Im towards the end of my career. Ive had a great adventure so far.I want to take this opportunity for the next 18, 19 months and feel like its the last time I am doing this.Huot is mindful of his legacy in sport at this point in his career. He completed a degree in communications at University of Quebec-Montreal last year and worked with CBC on their coverage of the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia.He says the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., and the 2013 IPC world swim championship in Montreal raised the profile of Paralympic sport, but the impact was limited to those regions of the country.He sees the Greater Toronto Area as another frontier for Paralympic sport. The Pan Am Games will hopefully have good coverage and will be able to give Canadians a better idea of what we are doing, which is kind of a goal, or a mandate that I have at the end of my career, Huot explained.Yes, Im still an athlete, but theres not a better way to do these things than being the athlete doing it. Josh Rosen Dolphins Jersey .com) - The fading Ottawa Senators have a chance to make up some ground in the playoff race on Tuesday night as they play host to the New York Rangers. Cameron Wake Youth Jersey . -- The Los Angeles Clippers chose not to speak publicly about owner Donald Sterling before they faced the Golden State Warriors for Game 4 of their first-round series Sunday. http://www.dolphinsrookiestore.com/Dolphins-Minkah-Fitzpatrick-Jersey/ . MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez also will attend the session, which was announced Monday. The league has discussed placing its next two expansion teams in Miami and Atlanta.MINSK, Belarus -- Defending champion Sweden made the first step in its title defence with a 3-0 victory over Denmark at the ice hockey world championship on Saturday. Calgary Flames forward Mikael Backlund scored twice in the opening period when the Swedes displayed fast, well organized play that was tough for Denmark to match. "It was nice to have a few goals right away, keep the pressure off and the nerves away," Backlund said. Another Scandinavian superpower, Finland, began its campaign with an upset 3-2 loss to Latvia and Norway blanked Italy 3-0 while Germany prevailed in a shootout to beat Kazakhstan 2-1. Backlund scored his first for Sweden when defenceman Markus Lauridsen deflected his shot to the net with his skate and struck again by precisely directing Joakim Lindstroms slap shot. Detroit Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist added the third on a solo effort after intercepting a pass. "Once we got up two to nothing we stopped taking the puck to the net," Nyquist said. "We tried to make too many passes instead of shooting the puck." Latvia failed to capitalize on its second-period power plays when a total of seven Finns were in the penalty box. Finland used its only power play in that period to go 2-1 up with a goal by Petri Kontiola. Kristaps Sotnieks tied the match for Latvia -- the quarterfinalist in the Sochi Winter Olympics -- in the third before Arturs Kulda netted the winner on a power play. It was the first victorry for Latvia over Finland at the worlds. Mark Duper Jersey. . Thomas Oppenheimer scored the decisive goal in the shootout to give Germany the win. Germany outshot its opponent 47-20 but Kazakhstan went ahead 1-0 after a goal from Andrei Gavrilin. The Germans answered through Matthias Plachta at the end of the first period. "I have to look at the positive," German coach Pat Cortina said. "We put the puck to the net and that is extremely important for our team." Niklas Roest opened the scoring in the first period for Norway, Morten Ask made it 2-0 midway through the game and captain Anders Bastiansen rounded off the victory on a breakaway in the third. "I tried to shoot early to surprise the goalie and it went in, so I was really happy," Bastiansen said. "We did a good job. We won and thats the most important thing." Goaltender Lars Haugen made 15 saves for the shutout, but needed help from his posts on two shots by defenceman Daniel Sullivan in the second. "We had a little difficulty in the beginning, adjusting to the speed," Italy coach Tom Pokel said. "However, as the game went on we got better and better. So it was a good game for us." Italy and Kazakhstan are both newcomers to the top division this year. Later Saturday, Canada hopes to rebound from Fridays 3-2 loss to France with a win against Slovakia, while the United States faces Switzerland a day after it routed host Belarus 6-1. ' ' '