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September 2023

Sports

WECAN Be Nimble – Canadian Sport Institute Pacific

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Be nimble, be quick. Isn’t that how the old nursery rhyme goes?  While Jack is busy jumping over candlesticks in preparation for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, we present lesson number one in the IST Lowdown: ISTs are nimble and ISTs are quick.

The Integrated Support Team (IST) – a collection of experts across a multitude of disciplines that collaborate to enhance performance, is an integral component of any high-performance sport program.

These experts are physicians, physiotherapists, coaches, sport scientists, nutritionists, sport psychologists, biomechanists and others, many of whom come from the four Canadian Sport Institutes (CSIs) and three Centres that make up the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sports Institute (COPSI) Network.

To say that ISTs are nimble we mean they evolve, adapt, and deal; to say they are quick we mean they troubleshoot and solve.

Take Freestyle Canada (FC), the National Sport Organization (NSO) for the four freestyle ski disciplines of moguls, aerials, halfpipe and slopestyle. In today’s warming climate, chasing snow has become a driving force in the program. By necessity, therefore, FC is decentralized, meaning the entire team is scattered across the country and the challenge is optimizing on-snow training and competition around the globe. How do they make it work?

To help manage the program’s complexity, FC relies on the expertise and support of three COPSI Network members: Pacific, Calgary and Québec.

Adrian King, Director of Sport Science and Medicine and IST Lead at FC, says that because the team is decentralized they have created an IST across the country that is an extremely experienced, high level group of therapists, doctors and sport scientists.

King says that accessing experts through the CSIs helps from a quality control standpoint, too. “The CSI helps us bring in IST members that we know are vetted, quality people and practitioners.”  These are the ones who evolve, adapt and deal – the nimble part.

Todd Allison, High Performance Director, Moguls and Aerials at FC, says the partnership with the COPSI Network also allows FC to seek expert guidance on short notice, use facility space for training and logistics, book lab space for testing and analysis, and have athletes access Game Plan services – Canada’s athlete wellness program that strives to support national team athletes in living balanced and holistic lives.

“These things are over and above what we get from the IST,” explains Allison. “CSIs can basically service us wherever we are. They help troubleshoot for all issues that arise — if we have a problem, they can solve it.” That’s the quick part.

Let’s highlight a real-world example of quick and nimble.  A phone call comes in to Andrew Kates, Strength and Conditioning Coach at CSI Pacific and a key part of FC’s IST. “It looks like we might not have a good warm-up facility at the Olympics in Beijing.” He is unfazed: “Yeah, so?”

Dealing with the unexpected is routine for Kates and the entire FC team, IST and athletes included. “We find fast, unique solutions for training all the time” explains Kates. “Sometimes we warm up in cafeterias and hallways.”

Kates is also nimble. His primary role is crafting and implementing off-snow training programs. The key skill he has fostered is carving out specialized knowledge from the halfpipe to understand and meet the demands of the sport.  “There is no textbook for how to build a halfpipe athlete,” Kates explains. “I draw on knowledge I have from more traditional sports and use that experience to see how new things will apply to this niche sport.”

For Kates, that means constantly adapting and refining his training programs, and innovating by building his own data and monitoring solutions to track every single jump.

But the next step highlights the real power of the IST, and is one of its hallmark traits – sharing information and knowledge across disciplines within the IST to help make better decisions and plans to enhance athlete performance. Because FC is decentralized, Kates can tap into the expertise of other experts in the COPSI Network.

“This collaboration is essential to providing an optimal performance environment”, says Lu Bonnett, High Performance Advisor at Institut national du sport (INS) Québec. FC relies on INS Québec to meet needs and standards in data collection, and facilitates sharing knowledge with the IST that directly benefits athletes.

It’s not always seamless and communication can be a challenge, but it’s a way for experts to rub heads together and collaborate, which advances the sport to higher levels of performance.  Build knowledge, share, improve, repeat.

So, there you have it: IST takeaway #1. WECAN be nimble and quick – COPSI Network experts create specialized knowledge, share that knowledge with each other and thrive in a complex, decentralized sport.

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About the COPSI Network

The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network (COPSI Network) provides world-leading training environments to elite athletes and coaches across Canada. The team of experts delivers sport science and medicine, coaching, research and innovation, education and Game Plan services to power podium performances and help Canada win more medals. The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network includes four Canadian Sport Institutes (Pacific, Calgary, Ontario and Québec) and three Canadian Sport Centres (Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Atlantic).

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Media Contacts:

Annie Gagnon, Director, Marketing & Communications

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary

c: 613.262.9644

e: [email protected]

Noah Wheelock, General Manager, Operations & Communications

Canadian Sport Institute Pacific

c: 250.220.2534

e: [email protected]

Jean Gosselin, Director, Communications & Marketing

Institut national du sport du Québec

c: 514.757.9092

e: [email protected]

Laura Albright, Senior Advisor, Communications & Marketing

Canadian Sport Institute Ontario

c: 647.395.7536

e: [email protected]

Jaime Lammerding, Communications Coordinator

Canadian Sport Centre Saskatchewan

c: 306 975-0830

e: [email protected]

Sarah MacNeil, Communications & Project Lead

Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic

c: 902.595.0485

e: [email protected]

Jessie Davis, Marketing & Communications Specialist

Canadian Sport Centre Manitoba

c: 204.891.5441

e: [email protected]

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Entertainment

Why (And When) Scott Disick Finally Stopped Trying To Get Back With Kourtney Kardashian

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Scott Disick is ready to move on for good — now that he definitively knows there’s no going back to the way things used to be with ex-partner and baby momma Kourtney Kardashian.

The 39-year-old Flip It Like Disick alum has a major storyline on this season of The Kardashians on Hulu, and in his arc, viewers see him struggle to accept Kourtney’s red-hot romance with husband Travis Barker.

But as it turns out, Scott is apparently now all the way over the 43-year-old Poosh founder. While he still loves her, he finally understands there’s no going back to a relationship with the mom of his three children! It’s #Kravis4ever, baby!

Related: Scott’s Relationship With Model Rebecca Donaldson Is Already Over! Sad Trombone!

An insider spoke to Us Weekly about Scott’s take on Kourtney’s relationship with Travis in a new report published on Wednesday afternoon. The timing is interesting, of course, considering Kourt just wed the Blink-182 drummer twice — first in Santa Barbara, and then later in Italy — over the past few weeks.

But to hear the source tell it, Scott knows that ship has sailed. In fact, the insider can point to the exact moment when Lord Disick knew it was all over! The source revealed as much to the mag:

“Once she became serious with Travis, he stopped trying to win her back. His feelings for her haven’t gone away — he’s always going to love her — he’s just having a hard time accepting the fact that she’s married.”

Wow!

And it was all over forever from there…

The fact that Scott and Kourt share 12-year-old Mason, 9-year-old Penelope, and 7-year-old Reign makes it so these two will never be fully out of each others’ lives. Maybe that makes it even more difficult, in a way: it can’t be easy to be nearby while watching Kourt fall head-over-heels in love with the 46-year-old tattooed drummer.

Related: Are Kravis Haters Just Jealous About Their Fairytale Italian Wedding??

To that point, fans of The Kardashians will recall how back in April, Scott spoke to Kourt’s little sister Khloé Kardashian about feeling like he’s being “left out” of the famous family as his ex moves on with her new man:

“Feeling left out and not being told anything is super hurtful — especially when I don’t have another family to go to. I rather be around them and be around my family than not at all. Honestly I think for the first time in my life it is finally starting to change. Now that Kourtney has her life with Travis, as hard as it is, it does give me a place to finally be able to move on.”

The Talentless founder didn’t stop there.

In fact, he continued on from his convo with Khloé to add a particularly poignant point in a confessional clip on that episode of the streaming series, as well:

“It was a huge adjustment losing Kourtney romantically, but now it has become a huge adjustment losing her as sort of a best friend. Now we are really more coparents. I would say it is probably one of the more difficult things in my life.”

Honestly, to some degree, we feel for the guy. It definitely can’t feel good to watch your ex move on in such a spectacular and public fashion. But also, Scott brought a lot of this on himself! Like, a lot a LOT of it!! Just saying! Reactions, Perezcious readers??

[Image via Scott Disick/Kourtney Kardashian/Instagram]

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Crypto

What are Lockdrops? Are Lockdrops Worth it?

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Many people are familiar with the term Airdrop in the cryptocurrency world. But have you ever heard about lockdrops?. This article is all about what are lockdrops and what’s the difference between lockdrops and airdrops. Let’s take a look at it in more detail.

What Are Lockdrops?

A lockdrop is a form of allocating tokens to a big network. This is similar to airdrops but Lockdrops are revised airdrops that demand some allegiance from the user to obtain free tokens. In a lockdrop, users stake one token for a particular time and obtain their staked tokens and another token after clearance. For example, token holders of a specific network such as SOLANA will lock their SOL token by utilizing a smart contract.

The longer their funds are closed in, the more tokens they will get from that new network after it launches. This is just like fixed deposits but the terms and durations are variable. 

The period of the staking is irregular. Tokens are locked in a smart contract, and the return is defined on a pro-rata motivation — the more and the longer users stake, the more they get in return. The purpose of lockdrops is to give users an incentive. If users lock in some of their tokens to some blockchain network’s security then they will be more curious about its success.

Lockdrops are formed via smart contracts, with every token that is sealed or locked in, another token is produced. After the network is pitched; the user can plead their initial funds and the new tokens. Another possibility is provided for users to show their backing for the project by logging their token address and obtaining a lower reward of tokens rather.

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Commonwealth Labs first launched the idea of a lockdrop on their Edgeware network and Polkadot blockchain. Edgewares lockdrop proclaimed to have delivered away more than 90% of their tokens via lockdrop in 2019.

Lockdrops vs Airdrops

We have already explained the difference between the two but it is important to understand how both work. Let’s take a look.

Lockdrops: Users lock some number of tokens (for example 50 XYZ tokens of a particular token) in a smart contract before the token is released. They obtain their 50 XYZ tokens and some free PQR tokens when the token PQR launches. The more and the longer users stake XYZ tokens, the more they get in return.

Airdrops: In this, users communicate with the project by testing it on the testnet, supplying liquidity, or other activities that are appropriate to its use case. They get free tokens based on those activities. 

The major distinction is that lockdrops demand a more increased extent of a stake. Users could obtain an airdrop as a motivation for backing the protocol. In the case of a lockdrop, users have to stake their coins with a unique protocol and incur an option price while it’s staked.

Edgeware Lockdrop