Healthy Choices: Gold

Clara Hughes takes a deep, long, hungry breath. She has just won yet another Olympic
medal, a bronze in the gruelling 5000-metre speed skating race at the Vancouver 2010
Olympic Winter Games. The cool air of the Richmond Olympic Oval fills her lungs.
This is her farewell race and the patriotic Canadian crowd is going crazy. Clara is one of
our most successful winter and summer Olympians. Skating her victory lap around the
Richmond Olympic Oval, Clara smiles and is flooded with memories of all the decisions that have led to this moment.

“When I was younger I made a number of bad decisions. I smoked. I drank. I ran away from home a few times and I certainly didn’t try so hard in school. It’s amazing that I made it as an athlete.”

Then her life changed. She remembers sitting on her floor and watching speed skating legend Gaetan Boucher on the TV.

“I was 16. This looked so cool, gliding around the ice and going really fast. Somehow I knew right away that I wanted to do that. My mother called the local club in Winnipeg and within a couple of days I started turning my life around.”

Clara started working out instead of hanging out. She started paying attention in school, becoming a straight-A student. She gave up the bad habits. Making good decisions isn’t always easy, but once
she made the decision to turn things around she stuck with it, and grabbed the opportunities when they came. Even though speed skating was her first love, it was cycling where she first found success.

“I met a great coach, Mirek Mazur, who saw my potential as a cyclist. He pushed me even harder than I push myself. I decided to listen to him. He was tough but he was right and I started to get better and better.”

Clara went to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and won two bronze medals in road racing. But she still felt the call of her first love so after cycling again in the 2000 Olympic Games she decided to test herself as a winter Olympian. Her sport of choice was, of course, speed skating.

“That had been my dream since I first watched speed skating on TV. I had told my mother years before I was going to be an Olympic speed skater and I was determined to make it.”

Clara did more than just make it. She surprised everyone by winning a bronze medal in the 5000-metre race. She had only been training for a few months! Four years later, in Turin, she won the gold
medal in that same event. But she always remembered her own childhood and, after her gold medal victory, Clara made headlines for an inspirational act of giving.

“The morning of my race I watched a documentary on the group ‘Right to Play’ and their work in Uganda.”

Right to Play is an organization that uses sport to help children in underdeveloped nations. They donate sporting equipment,for example, and send ambassadors such as Clara around the world to help kids learn about sport.

“The children lived with war, poverty and violence, yet they were so visibly happy when they were engaged in sport and play. I thought if these kids can do this, so can I
during my Olympic race that same evening.”

Clara began tiring halfway through that race. Her legs ached, but she remembered those kids for inspiration. “I had written ‘joy’ on my hand as a reminder of those shining eyes from Uganda that I saw via my TV. I looked at this word temporarily tattooed on my hand with a ball point pen as a reminder of what I was capable of.”

After winning, Clara felt she needed to say thanks to those children. With the world watching her gold medal press conference, Clara announced that she was donating $10,000 to Right to Play.

“I wanted to give back to allow for more children of the world to know, quite simply, what it is like to be a kid and feel an ounce of the joy I experience as an athlete.”

That joy has carried through her life as an athlete and a person. She has been awarded one of Canada’s highest honours by being named as a Member of the Order of Canada. She was chosen as Canada’s
flag bearer for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and continues to raise awareness for charity, doing her best to help children.

Clara grabs a Canadian flag and skates a final lap around the oval.

“Success has given me a voice and I tell people all the time that you just never know where your decisions may lead. Each and every one of us has a part in making the lives of those around us better just by our own actions.”

CONNECTING: Building a foundation for new learning

Healthy Choices and Decision Making Discussion

Watch “Hughes competes for bronze medal” at www.olympischool.ca/podcast

Ask students to identify a time when they made a bad choice. In small groups, generate a list of the choices that the students may have made. Students will become aware that there are times when everyone makes a bad choice. Explain to the students how success is reflected in the choices they make. As a class, brainstorm some everyday choices that would be considered positive ones. Compare their choices to those they think Clara made that led to her success.

PROCESSING: Using strategies to acquire and use knowledge

Joy of Effort – Physical Activities

Clara Hughes is an advocate for “Right to Play”, an organization that promotes play for children who have experienced war, poverty and violence and donates time and equipment to allow them to be kids.

Discuss with students the importance of giving back to your school and local community. Assign them the task of being a leader within the school. Find or develop a fun Daily Physical Activity game that could be shared with younger students within the school. Games may be Tag games, Low Organized Games or may include activities from the Canadian Olympic Movement Skills resource that promotes moderate to vigorous activity for everyone. Have students research web sites or classroom resources that provide daily physical activities. Team up with a colleague who teaches a class of younger students and allow the older students to present the games to the younger students.

TRANSFORMING: Showing understanding in a new way

Healthy Choices Public Service Announcement (PSA)

Clara admitted that she made some bad choices growing up. She turned her life around by making more positive choices that lead to her success. As a class, brainstorm some of the choices she may have made that helped contribute to her success.

From the list of possible choices, or using a choice of your own, create a Public Service Announcement emphasizing the importance of making healthy choices (ex. not to smoke, being active every day, choosing homework over television).

Create an announcement displaying the importance of making healthy choices. It can be displayed in a number of forms such as: a school announcement, commercial, pamphlet, slideshow, rap or jingle. Have the students present their work to the class.

EXTENDING: Making further connections to Olympians

Explore numbers and the Olympic Games by developing numeracy problems from Olympian results and sport specific numbers.

Sample Numeracy Exercise:

The following is a table showing Clara Hughes’ interval times during a 5,000-metre speed skating event.

• Graph the data from the chart.
• What are some possible reasons for changes to Clara’s speed?
• Determine Clara’s mean and median times.