Recently we’ve had two interesting opportunities to reconnect with some of the athletes. On the first occasion we met Clara Hughes at The Green Living Showin Toronto in April where she was a prominent guest speaker.

She was dynamic, excited, very well prepared and spoke easily to a rapt audience of several hundred people for more than an hour armed with an excellent video of the Games events in which she participated. After her talk she signed autographs for a large crowd of interested spectators.

On the second occasion Scotia McLeod hosted an evening with Becky Keller – 4 time Olympic medal-winning hockey player, wife, mother of two – and an MBA grad!

Its ten weeks since we returned from the Vancouver Olympics and the spirit is still high. Both recent events were packed with keen patrons of all ages. The Scotia event was smaller, more intimate, yet you could have heard a pin drop during Becky’s talk – except for the erupting laughter at her humorous accounts of training camp life.

Like Clara Hughes, Becky began her talk with video highlights of the Vancouver Games themselves along with excellent footage from her own Women’s Hockey events. It was heartening to see the excitement and the Olympic spirit that was still tangible in both venues. It was wonderful to see how well prepared the athletes were for their speaking engagements. Both video presentations were very professionally put together and the athletes themselves both warm and generous to their audiences and professionally well prepared for their gigs.

With today’s naming of John Furlong as Volunteer Chairman of the Own the Podium Advisory Board, things look good for Canadian athletes in London in 2012 and Sochi in 2014. Maybe they need volunteers in the polyclinics!