October 27/05 10:00 am - Dubnicoff Wins Coaching Award

Posted by Editoress on 10/27/05
 

Dubnicoff Wins Coaching Award
Courtesy SIRC

Ottawa - Former world wrestling champion Christine Nordhagen and former world cycling champion Tanya Dubnicoff, both of Calgary, Alta., are among the coaches selected for the Coaching Association of Canada's Women in Coaching (WiC) National Team Coaching Apprenticeship Program (NTAP). Also selected to the two-year program are artistic gymnastics coach Elena Davydova of Oshawa, Ont., who won an Olympic gold medal competing for the Soviet Union, softball coach Marie-Claude Lapointe of Greenfield Park, Que., and cross country ski coach Lisa Patterson of Thunder Bay, Ont.

The NTAP provides opportunities for women coaches to work with their national team programs leading up to and during major international events such as the Olympic Games, the Pan American Games, or a major international event such as a world championship that falls within the timeframe of the apprenticeship.

"These apprentice coaches are an amazing group of talented women," says Sheilagh Croxon, the former medal winning Olympic synchro coach who has responsibility for the NTAP. "The ultimate objective of this 2005-2007 program is to increase the number of women coaching at the Olympic Games, and with young coaches of this high calibre, I am confident of success."

An international athlete for 12 years, Tanya Dubnicoff is a three-time Olympian, a former world champion, and a gold medallist at the Pan American and Commonwealth Games. Since her retirement from active competition in 2000, she has pursued a coaching career and is currently head coach of the National Cycling Centre at the Olympic Oval in Calgary. She regularly coaches the Alberta Provincial Team at national championships and Canada Games and has coached national team athletes at training camps and international competitions.

"The NTAP will give me the opportunity to develop and help accomplish my goals and objectives through to 2008," says Dubnicoff. "It will give me financial aid to travel to competitions and to meet other coaches and assist in national team camps and projects. It will give me the edge I need to further my career as a cycling coach."

CAC is a not-for-profit amateur sport organization with the mandate to improve the effectiveness of coaching across all sports and at all levels of the sport system. Visit www.coach.ca for more information about coach education and training.

The Women in Coaching program is a national campaign to increase the number of coaching opportunities for women at all levels of sport. Since 1987, women coaches across Canada have benefited from professional development grants, NTAP grants, Best Practices grants, and National Coaching Institute scholarships. The program also develops resources for women coaches including the Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching.