Canadian Bridge Federation

CANADA'S REPRESENTATIVES

Men's Team
Nicholas Gartaganis
Peter Jones
Gordon Campbell
Keith Balcombe
Fred Gitelman
Joe Silver

Women's Team
Dianna Gordon
Katie Thorpe
Francine Cimon
Gloria Silverman
Beverly Kraft
Judith Gartaganis

Official WBF IOC Grand Prix site Click Here

WBF IOC Grand Prix News Site from Great Bridge Links Click Here

Canadian Point of View

Linda and Ray Lee reported daily from onsite. Some good stories and hands in the articles below.

Day One - Bridge Report from Salt Lake City

Day Two - The Saga Continues

Day Three - The Playoffs Begin

Day Four - Never Say Die

Day Five - WE DID IT! Linda Lee reports on the Final Session of the Mens Teams.

Uniforms for both teams have been provided through the generous sponsorship of Bridge Base Inc and Master Point Press.

CANADA WINS OLYMPIC GOLD!
CANADA WINS THE GOLD IN THE MENS

The World Bridge Federation (W.B.F.) sponsored an attraction event (Grand Prix) just prior to the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games in order to promote bridge as a mind sport to the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.). The W.B.F. hoped for the inclusion of bridge as a sport in the Winter 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy. Men’s, Women’s and Junior events were showcased to convince the I.O.C., mostly non bridge players, that this type of event is popular and that it reflects the Olympic spirit. Officials from the W.B.F. hope to show the I.O.C. that bridge can fill the vacant time slot between the outdoor events that typically end at about 3 p.m. and the ice events that usually start in the early evening.

As a result of these issues, this event had some very strict guidelines about a variety of aspects of Olympic life. These included restrictions about complicated bidding systems, behaviour, dress code, random drug testing and the overall high level of security. After a day or two, the players and other participants became used to these ways of life in Salt Lake City.

There were ten teams from all over the world competing in each of the Men’s and Women’s events plus a four team Junior event. We were to play twelve boards against each other team using IMPs converted to Victory Points based on the W.B.F. 25 VP scale. The top four teams from each main event would qualify for the semi-finals.

For full PDF article (24 pages)by Keith Balcombe click here

SALT LAKE CITY PHOTO ALBUM
Clicking on the thumbnail pictures below will open a larger jpeg.