Play Time
Sportsnet’s Jamie Campbell suits up for Sochi 2014
By Robin Roberts
Although he won’t be slope side at Sochi 2014, Jamie Campbell will be high–fiving Team Canada’s triumphs at The Winter Olympic Games from the broadcast booth in Toronto, and that’s thrilling enough for him. The Sportsnet host, who was on–site for Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Games and London’s 2012 Summer Olympics, says Canada has a shot at acing just about every competition, with many major–league frontrunners.
“We have a tremendously strong ski cross team, both men and women,” says the Oakville, ON, native, 46. “Snowboard cross is also going to be fascinating, with Maelle Ricker defending the gold she won in Vancouver. And Dominique Maltais, who was one of the favourites to win a medal in Vancouver and then never ended up qualifying, will be back.”
Campbell also has high hopes for men’s moguls, particularly the showdown between current top dog Mikael Kingsbury and 2010 gold medalist Alexandre Bilodeau, both from Quebec. “Bilodeau has only beaten Kingsbury a handful of times in the last three or four years so it’s going to be an ‘in with the new, out with the old’ kind of scenario. You could conceivably see gold and silver in men’s moguls this year.”
As for the new events introduced this year, Campbell is pumped to see two–time X Games gold medalist Mark McMorris go for gold in slope style snowboarding. “The kid’s the best in the world and he’s from Regina, of all places! Probably one of the flattest places in all of Canada has produced one of the most exciting young snowboarders in the world.”
And then there’s hockey, which is among the most buzzed–about events, not only at Sochi 2014 but at every match–up there ever was and ever will be. It is, after all, Canada’s game. “You know how much is at stake every time they play in this country,” says Campbell of the men’s team. “We take it so personally when they lose and we celebrate so passionately when they win. I’d say [the same] for the women but I think there’s such an imbalance in women’s hockey right now whereby there are two dominant nations, Canada and the US, and then there’s everybody else and nobody else is even close. So it’s pretty well assured that Canada and the United States are going to fight it out for the gold medal in women’s hockey.”
Campbell, who will be doing double duty prepping for spring training coverage as host of Blue Jays Central, says he’s fired up for all the action in Sochi, but nothing could top his experience in Vancouver. “Vancouver was a once–in–a–lifetime experience,” he says. “It was and probably always will be my most cherished broadcast experience because you had an entire city celebrating almost every hour of the day, and because we did remarkably well as a nation in the events themselves. I grew up in an Olympic era when Canada rarely won a gold medal in anything. It’s hard to fathom winning the 14 in Vancouver.”
And if Team Canada comes home from Sochi with less of a haul, that’s OK by Jamie Campbell. “To me the Olympics is about celebrating the ones that you win and respecting the performances of those who didn’t.” Sounds like fair play. Game on!
Robin Roberts 