Team Canada's home advantage gone, pressure remains

Team Canada forward Brianne Jenner bounces a puck on her stick during practice in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

SOCHI, Russia -- Denny Morrison thought about the Vancouver Olympics every day for months before the 2010 Games. The long-track speedskater saw the Olympic Oval almost everywhere he looked.

"I could literally see it out my window -- my living room, dining room, kitchen, it all lined up to the Oval," said Morrison, who took up residence in suburban Richmond as the Canadian team trained there for weeks at a time. "So I was thinking about it every day ... The pressure I put on myself in Vancouver was a lot more than what I feel here in Russia."

Morrison, a native of Fort St. John, B.C., who calls Calgary home, won a gold in team pursuit and Canada posted career-highs in total medals (26) and golds (14).

Four years ago, Canada had home-field advantage at the Olympics. And with that came huge expectations and pressure -- with family, friends and an entire nation peering over the athletes' shoulders

Four years on, Canada's 220 Olympians are 9,600 kilometres and 12 time zones away from Vancouver, nestled in an Olympic bubble perched on the edge of the Black Sea. For some, the pressure has been eased with each kilometre. For others, it remains a constant no matter where the Games take place.

The fans in the stands may no longer be solidly behind Canada but one can make the argument that the 2014 team may be a tighter crew. All but the women's cross-country skiers are living together in the athletes villages at the coastal and mountain venues.

In 2010, the Canadian alpine ski team had its own digs in Whistler. This time they are rubbing shoulders with their fellow athletes.

Calgary's Jan Hudec, who posted 23rd- and 25th-place finishes in 2010 after a major knee operation, says it makes for a looser, more enjoyable Olympic experience.

"In Vancouver, there was obviously a lot of pressure on the home country to perform well," he said. "I think we had a lot of support from a lot of different entities. And when you have that, all eyes are on you. This might just be my opinion but I think we over-quarantined ourselves a little bit and we didn't really enjoy the spirit of the Games that we could have."

Curling coach Elaine Dagg-Jackson, who is at her fifth Olympics, calls Vancouver a "very unique situation."

"There was no question whatsoever that the eyes of the world were on every single thing that happened in Vancouver. There wasn't a person in the country that didn't know what was going on," said the Vancouver native.

Canada's affection for the Games hasn't changed, she says. But being this far from home means the ties are a little looser.

"We haven't heard much news from back at home. When we're here, we're quite isolated. We're at the opposite end of the clock as they are in Canada. I feel that our athletes are competing with a little less knowledge of what people are saying and doing. So I think it will be different."

Sochi's distance from Canada and the concern over security has kept many family and friends away. For Hudec, that's a relief.

"I kind of told everyone to stay home," he said.

He says his tendency to play host can become a distraction and was definitely on his mind in Vancouver.

"I wouldn't say it was huge stresser but it was definitely a distraction to be kind of making sure that everyone was taken care of and was happy. Even though they can take of themselves at the end of the day. But when it's family you always want to make sure that they are taken care of."

Morrison has no such concerns. He will be cheered on in Sochi by his parents, his sister, his brother and his brother's girlfriend, his own girlfriend and her parents and sister, not to mention his cousin and his girlfriend.

Like Morrison, Toronto figure skater Patrick Chan also piled on the pressure at Vancouver.

"I was young, I was 19, I was like 'Yeah, I'm going to win a medal. How cool would it be to stand on the podium in Canada?"' Chan recalled. "So sure I put a lot of pressure on myself, and felt like pressure was given to me by Canadians in Vancouver. But now I know there was no pressure from the outsiders.

"When I came fifth, people were still partying like crazy outside, so I realize at the end of the day, it's for myself. If I win or not here, people will go on with their lives, I will go on with my life. But what I do want to leave here with is a great skate, finally, where I want it to be."

Canadian chef de mission Steve Podborski says Canada's Olympians came through the home Games pressure "with flying colours." He wants his athletes to maintain their perspective here.

"At the end of the day, even though they are the Olympics, what we must realize is that the athletes they're competing against are the same guys they competed against last week and the same ones they'll go against next week," said Podborski, who skied in two Olympics and won a bronze.

"So despite the fact that the Games are huge, it's still human, It's still me against you. And it's a fantastic thing."

For sports like hockey and curling, however, the pressure is constant for Canadians whether the Games are in Vancouver, Sochi or on Pluto.

"Curling is always expected to win gold," said Dagg-Jackson. "If curling doesn't win gold, you walk down the street in your hometown and people say 'Oh, I'm sorry."'

Canadian flag-bearer Hayley Wickenheiser of Shaunavon, Sask., says the pressure is never off the Canadian women's team.

"The worst thing in the world is to stand on the blue-line with a silver medal around your neck," she said.

Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby, no stranger to the cauldron of competition, says the made-in-Canada pressure of 2010 was immense.

"That amount of pressure is probably the most I've felt in my hockey career. Because it was right there, you were in Canada, there was so much going on. Everyone's talking about it. You're in a Canadian city."

"I think the pressure is there regardless. I think it's always going to be there no matter where it is," added the native of Cole Harbour, N.S. "As far as my game and my mindset, I think that having gone through Vancouver hopefully will help."

Skier Erik Guay was just 0.03 seconds away from making the podium in the super-G four years ago when he finished fifth at Whistler.

Sochi may be a different scenario than Vancouver but Guay, in his third Olympics, knows that the pressure will come.

"For the moment I don't think we have that same sort of pressure that we did in Vancouver," said the native of Mont-Tremblant, Que., who was also fifth in the downhill in 2010. "I don't know what the vibe will be like once we get on hill and once the actual competitions start.

"I mean it is the Olympics. To say that there's no pressure is not realistic. But at the same time I don't think we'll ever have as much pressure as we did in Vancouver."

Pressure can also come from where athletes are in their competitive career.

Short-track speedskater Marianne St-Gelais said she had no expectations in Vancouver because she had only been on the world circuit for a year.

That has changed.

"Right now it's different, I have expectations," said St-Gelais, a native of St-Felicien, Que., who won a pair of silvers in Vancouver. "I did really good in the past four years that I've been working on the World Cup so for me, I have expectations, I have goals, I know I can be on the podium, so for me it's a little bit different but it's not more pressure."

Skeleton veteran Mellisa Hollingsworth of Eckville, Alta., is at her third Olympics and says each has been different.

"Torino (in 2006) was my first experience so I was very hungry and focused, excited and giddy. Naive in a sense, which is a blessing," she said. "The second Olympic Games (in Vancouver) was all business and I didn't realize how much business it was until I got here."

Hollingsworth won a bronze in 2006 and came into 2010 as a heavy favourite. She was second after the first run, but finished fifth and left the track in tears.

In Sochi, Hollingsworth says she has been energized by the excitement of her younger teammates.

"They're really excited to be here for the first time, (which) allows me to tap into that excitement and understand how grateful and how much of a blessing this really is, this opportunity," she said. "To know that we're very focused and here to work very, very hard, but at the same time we can sit back and know that we've done a great job representing our country."

-- With files from Lori Ewing, Donna Spencer and Stephen Whyno