Just before the introduction of Ken Read, we had a step back in the past. Our song master, Des DeFreitas, went through the archives and brought forward the piece written by our past president and club member, the late Harold Sharlow, which he had written for us to sing as a club back on the opening day of the 1988 Olympics here in Calgary. The tune was to "Take me out to the ball game" and we delivered a loud and in-tune rendition of Harold's masterpiece about hosting the Olympics in Calgary. Thank you, Des, for the opportunity!

Chris Davis introduced our guest speaker, Ken Read. Chris noted that Ken really needed no introduction and then he went on for three minutes and 10 seconds, or so, to introduce Ken! Good thing Chris kept the introduction short!

Ken wowed us with information about the Olympics, Olympians and Canada. It was a very informative presentation. He started off noting that what Harold Sharlow had written in his song back in 1988 was so very true.

Ken then went on to talk about the "Own The Podium" program undertaken by the government, sponsors and citizens to further develop our high performance athletes and see if we can truly earn more overall and more gold medals than any other country in Vancouver this year. He spoke about the development of high performance athletes which was critical to succeed. And he noted it was about the need for human, technical and financial resources to make this all possible.

Back in 2002, the total budget dedicated to our high performance athletes in Canada - that is for all our high performance athletes combined, those training to win gold at the Olympics - was $20 million. At the same time, Austria spent $20 million on their Alpine Ski Team alone! Yikes, if we wanted to compete, we needed to put our money where our mouth was. Our goal is to go from the 17 medals we earned in Torino in 2006 to 35 medals in Vancouver this year.

In November, 2004, the "Own the Podium" concept came into existence. For this Olympics our government has committed over $40 million (twice that in 2002) to our high performance athletes in human resources, technology and training. This is then supported by almost another $20 million from corporate sponsors. The results have already shown even before the Games begin. The Canadian Para Alpine team was ranked 9th in the world a few years ago. This year it is ranked #1 because of the financial resources, technology and human efforts committed to these high performance athletes to "Own the Podium" in 2010.

As Ken described it, Vancouver will be the third Olympic to be hosted in Canada. First it was Montreal in 1976, which really showed Canadians what the Olympics was all about and brought the talk from the kitchen table to the forefront. People began to talk about our athletes, and our country, and say it with pride.

In 1988, the Calgary Olympics were all about legacy. Calgary built properties like the Nordic Ski Centre in Canmore and the Olympic Oval and the Saddledome and Canada Olympic Park that have lasted and served athletes at all levels of experience. Truly, Calgary was about legacy. And, finally, this year it is Vancouver and it is all about the athletes. These games are bringing our athletes to the forefront and providing them with the tools, resources and ambition to "Own the Podium".

Ken closed speaking about Canadians' need and desire to win. Not just at the athlete level, but at all levels of our citizenship. The expectations for Vancouver 2010 are set. Go, Canada, Go! David Hamilton, an avid skier himself, then thanked Ken appropriately and delivered to Ken our world famous Boltman.

reported by Brent Barootes