World champion Hurdler and acclaimed new author, Perdita Felicien will be covering track and field events at the Tokyo Olympics. She shares her insights about the racing days to come on the Player's Own Voice podcast this morning. Spoiler alert- there are no firm predictions about who is going to take the women's 100m finals, but plenty of confidence in saying that particular race will be one for the ages. Felicien is also frankly obsessed with Beach volleyball. And weightlifting. Which only proves, when it comes to the Olympics, everyone has their thing. Host Anastasia Bucsis can't resist probing some of the still raw stories from Perdita's book. 'My Mother's Daughter' describes she and her mom's own childhood, and the precarious circumstances that the two of them managed to overcome as they fled poverty, abuse, and uncertainty. Perdita tells a story like she runs: Fast. Powerful. And leaving you no choice but to pay attention.

Lauren Bay-Regula is exactly where she wants to be. Thirteen years since the last time she played Olympic fastball, the pitcher is back on the mound, throwing heat and helping a team of mostly much younger players wrap their heads around playing the game at the highest possible level. Just a few weeks before their first tilt (a four- nothing win over Mexico) and a few days more before the Tokyo opening ceremonies, Anastasia Bucsis caught up with the mother of three, and second time around baller. It has not been an easy return to full time sport for Bay-Regula, or her business partner/husband. But he and the kids got behind her dream. She needed every bit of that support while she was working her way through a serious post partum depression, and the lingering miserable memories of having missed the podium by a tiny margin back in 2008. Compared to that, throwing fastballs for the first time in more than a decade was a piece of cake.

Bo Levi Mitchell is back in business. He had his iffy shoulder fixed during the CFL’s pandemic furlough, and he’s raring to QB Calgary toward another Grey Cup. Even though the twice- league MVP is known for his cannon, he takes a back seat to no one in the conversation department. Settling in behind the mic on Player’s Own Voice podcast this week, Bo holds forth on Football in Texas, and his ownership of high school records in that state. He leads us through the highs and lows of his college campaigns. He threw the most interceptions in NCAA one year, and won it all the next. Bo envisions an XFL-CFL future, with gambling, The Rock, and Drake or Biebs luring younger eyeballs back to the gridiron. And he’s all in for the Canadian game, by the way. The big field, three downs, those are sacred once the two leagues get serious about matchmaking. He’s also got a blunt assessment of economics and the NFL...When is major money a major problem? When it scares owners into dangerously slow development of new players. If the second quarterback looks sharper than the 90 million dollar guy? Owners don’t care for looking like they overpaid. Bo Levi Mitchell is a bit of a lightning rod. He’s probably never going to get hugged on the streets of Saskatchewan, but he’s also never going to zip it for fear of riling the critics. And he’s in fine form today.

Watch out for the athletes who make it look easy. They are the ones who have poured agonies of effort into every millisecond of their game. Olympic Gymnastics Champion Kyle Shewfelt is a prime example. The ‘Style of Kyle’ was practically balletic, but every ‘effortless’ gesture was the product of intense, obsessive hard work. CBC’s Gymnastics and Trampoline analyst explores the many layers of mental and physical effort that excellence demands in his new autobiography ‘Make it Happen’, but almost more fascinating than his years of chasing a perfect routine, is his time spent adrift when the competitive career ended. Kyle tried to fit into a few new careers, and he is no enemy of hard work...but it wasn’t until he was slapped in the face by the obvious that he remembered- Gymnastics! That’s what I love- I’ll open a gym! Kyle and his fellow Calgarian Anastasia Bucsis broaden the talk to issues that define his sport internationally now. Why are male gymnasts revered in Germany and Japan, but elsewhere seen as lesser athletes than those in team contact sports? Why can't robo-judging take some of the bias out of artistic gymnastics scores? And why do Gymnastic routines and difficulty points never stay the same from one season to the next? You'll be watching Gymnastics like a pro when the Tokyo games get underway.

If you want to get inside knowledge about Canadian, American, and British soccer, you could buttonhole three players from the three systems, or you could simply check in with Janine Beckie. Born to Canadian parents in Colorado, she’s played top level footy for both countries, and she’s currently under contract with Manchester City. So the forward has deep knowledge about the quirks and qualities of most of the leading women in the game. Sometime teammates, sometime opponents, often both. At this moment, Beckie is digging in her cleats for the Olympic tilt, and that’s top of mind as she catches up with Player’s Own Voice podcast host Anastasia Bucsis. How is the Canadian team taking to new coach Bev Priestman? What’s going to make the difference in Canadian efforts to finish even higher on the podium than the 2012 and 2016 Bronze wins? What’s the thinking on the current roster? Beckie is forthcoming about the peaks and valleys of her career, and she shows particular class in describing one stinging moment, a missed world cup penalty kick in 2019. Beckie took exactly the right lesson from that saved shot, which is, she is an aggressive, confident penalty taker, and not a dang thing is going to change about that!

Andre De Grasse, Canada’s top sprinter, was a very young man when he dashed his way into international stardom at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Five years later, the phenomenal athlete has evolved into a competitor who seems wise beyond his years. He’s a plugged-in and thoughtful parent now, who credits his three year old daughter with teaching him patience on the daily. He’s also a published author, having filled his unplanned pandemic down time with dedicated writing practise. His ‘Run With Me’ is an inspirational children’s book about mindfulness and perseverance. De Grasse is healthier now too, having learned patience the hard way, enduring the long and bumpy process of rehabbing a nagging hamstring injury. The only area in which De Grasse remains unchanged, we are delighted to learn, is in his approach to big race days. De Grasse has always had an instinct for saving his best performances til it matters most.

Season FOUR woot woot! Kicks off with Marie-Philip Poulin, Captain of Team Canada, who is doing all she can amid the biggest shortfall in Canadian sports: Women’s Hockey faces roadblocks to play, left right and center at the moment. World Championships postponed, international play down to almost nothing... and years after the CWHL folded, still no professional game and league in Canada that elite players can agree to. Poulin is practically begging for some resolution to the unnecessary friction between PWHPA and NWHL . Host Anastasia Bucsis brings her friendly ‘human first, athlete second’ approach to the chat, and even though Pou is disturbed by the current situation, there’s room to laugh through the many good times that followed Canada’s four Olympic gold medals in a row .

Winter Olympics are unique for Canadian sports fans. They are one of the rare sweet spots, where national pride reliably lines up with winning results. We can swagger, a little, with apologies, when the games of snow and ice are underway. And maybe, with the Beijing Winter Olympics' fast approach, there's call to celebrate early. Catriona Le May Doan has just been named Chef de Mission for 2022. A reminder of what the speedskater accomplished as an athlete: For about five years, around the turn of the millennium, Le May Doan was the one sprinter no one could catch. She actually broke the record for breaking records! She's the only woman ever to set eight consecutive World Records in one distance.

So with three Olympic medals around her neck, including back-to-back golds from 1998 and 2002, Catriona Le May Doan brings a lived experience of winning to her new role. She's also an author, hall of famer, and Order of Canada recipient. It would seem to be an understatement to say Canada's current crop of winter athletes are in good hands. Player's Own Voice Podcast host (and fellow speedskater) Anastasia Bucsis draws Catriona Le May Doan into friendly and funny talk about the road ahead for Team Canada, strategies for safe sport, and also some gentle ribbing about Le May Doan's mature passion for league hockey. Spoiler alert: nobody beats her to the puck, ever, but her stick work? Umm, next question please.

No matter how sporty your family happens to be, Kia Nurse has you beat. CFL dad, high performance basketball mom, brother in the NHL, cousin in the PWHPA… and Kia herself, professional and Canadian national team basketball star. When the Nurse family gets together, there isn’t much about the big leagues that they can’t discuss from first-hand knowledge. Which gives Kia the unique perspective from which to consider one of the weirdest years that professional sport has ever seen. From the logistical triumphs and setbacks of the ‘bubble’ seasons, to the Tetris puzzle of building teams amid anything but normal schedules, it has been one for the history books. Amid this year’s upheaval though, one constant remained: the WNBA stayed at the vanguard of social justice causes. Kia Nurse explains how and why her league has normalized good wages and benefits, and standing up against racial, and many other forms of injustice.

As goaltender for the national team, Karina LeBlanc was part of the generation that put Canadian soccer on the world map. Olympic medals, World cup expectations, the sky’s the limit. But for LeBlanc, it was never just about the play on the pitch. Even in the big wins- her team aimed beyond the game of the day. The really big idea is to make women’s football a force for global change. Helping young women, particularly, assess themselves in a new light, once they get the chance to participate in the world’s game.

Since becoming Head of CONCACAF Women’s Football, LeBlanc has had the privilege and pleasure to see it happen again and again in the 41 countries that represent the FIFA association. A shy girl comes to the pitch for her first time, and within a few hours, sees herself as a player, with all the confidence, enthusiasm and strength that goes with it. Player’s Own Voice podcast host Anastasia Bucsis leads Karina LeBlanc through a refreshingly optimistic conversation about a career in sports that even now still feels like the best is yet to come.