Rio de Janiero

There is no getting around it – the uncertain conditions, environmental challenges, reports of local corruption and even threats of violence, generate considerable anxiety – even cynicism, about the upcoming Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

But let’s put this into perspective. This isn’t the first time the challenges of staging the Games have sparked worries and protests. We had them in Canada too, when we staged the Olympics in Montreal in 1976 and the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver/Whistler in 2010. Moreover, most of the world’s large urban centres face conditions not unlike those found in Rio. Most athletes know this, and have competed in similar conditions around the globe. The University of Toronto athletes and coaches who will be in Rio won’t be daunted — they’re very excited about competing there.

That doesn’t mean we should uncritically accept what isn’t right in our world. We should be dismayed by the cost to mount the Games, by the egregious example of doping and cheating that has rightly eliminated so many from competition, that what began as a project to advance international understanding has now to be protected by billion-dollar surveillance and security. It doesn’t have to be this way, and we need to accelerate efforts to find effective alternatives.

But during the Games, let’s put the contradictions aside and enjoy the Olympic and Paralympic spirit. I wish I could be there in person. I will wholeheartedly be there in spirit, glued to the media coverage.

Here’s why:

1. The global community comes together under peaceful auspices. Delegations from 207 national communities, including first time entrants Kosovo and South Sudan, will march in the Parade of Nations — a record. Where else does the entire world come together in celebration of excellence, humanity and diversity? At a difficult time for the world, with unrelenting wars, poverty and misery, the Olympics showcase the possibilities of an inclusive world, with international and intercultural respect and understanding.

2. Rio will be a feast of sport, with 306 sets of medals up for grabs in 28 Olympic sports, many of which are rarely broadcast in the mono-culture of North American television, such as water polo, canoe slalom, handball, and race walking. Obscure? Perhaps. Athletic? Decidedly. Compelling? You bet. And in almost every sport, the competitions will be genuine world championships (not the parochial ‘world’ of our North American leagues).

3. 313 Canadian athletes, including about a dozen from the University of Toronto, will give us lots to cheer about as they go up against the best of the world. If you got to know them during the 2015 Pan Am & Parapan American Games in Toronto, this is the chance to see them on the world stage.

4. Remarkable competitors from other countries, each with a moving story to tell. Two I will be following closely are Dutee Chand (100 metres, India) and Caster Semanya (South Africa, 800). Both women have been vilified in the media and ostracized by some members of the sports community for challenging track and field’s unfair sex test and both will no doubt face extra pressure in Rio. Yet they have persisted, kept their heads high and made the Olympic standard to qualify for Rio. They are such remarkable and courageous women, I will be cheering loudly for them.

5. Rosie MacLennan. She’s the Team Canada flag bearer, the defending Olympic champion in the trampoline, and a University of Toronto alumna and graduate student. As a budding social scientist, she’s becoming an insightful observer of international sport, as well as a gifted leader. I look forward as much to her comments as seeing her fly through the air.

As the Games begin, let’s stand together as the world is treated to the very best of sport.

Bruce Kidd is vice-president and principal of University of Toronto Scarborough. A former Olympian, he has written extensively about the politics of sport.

Canadian Olympians get green protection against Brazilian mosquitos

lavende4 — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 17:22:15 +0000

Canadian Olympians get green protection against Brazilian mosquitos

lavende4 Thu, 07/21/2016 - 13:22

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Left to right: Greenlid founders Morgan Wyatt, Adil Qawi and Jackson Wyatt with one of the biotraps they'll be donating to the Canadian Olympic Foundation (Image screengrab from YouTube)

Terry Lavender

Author legacy

Terry Lavender

Topic

Creative Destruction Lab

Entrepreneurs

With the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro only weeks away, many athletes – including Canadian tennis star Milos Raonic – have pulled out of the Games, citing fears of contracting the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

But U of T graduates Morgan and Jackson Wyatt, two brothers from Brockville, Ontario, are doing their best to protect the Canadian athletes, coaches and officials who do fly down to Rio. The Wyatts are founders of Greenlid Envirosciences, a Toronto-based company that is enjoying great success with its fully compostable Greenlid compost bin. The Wyatts have developed the Biotrap – a biodegradable mosquito trap based on the Greenlid – and are donating hundreds of the traps to the Canadian Olympic Foundation for use in Rio. U of T News spoke to Morgan Wyatt about the mosquito trap.

Your Biotrap is generating a lot of publicity, with stories in the Globe and Mail and Metro News, among other media outlets. But it’s based on your existing product, the Greenlid. How did the Greenlid come about?

The idea first came when my brother Jackson and I were having to deal with compost and food waste in the kitchen. It was always a mess and the compostable bags always seemed to leak, and so we just thought there could be a better way. I had a PhD in chemical biology (from McMaster University). So I started to look at different ways we could maybe make a fully compostable container that didn’t leak.

We’ve been concerned about the environment for a long time – even in high school – and we just thought we had something that could actually make it easier for people to make those eco-friendly choices.

You introduced the Greenlid a few years ago. Has it been a success?

It’s been very successful. We have a tremendous customer base across Canada. We’re in about 2500 stores across the country. We found a local manufacturer in Ontario that was able to produce the bin. Ontario has a great recycling program so we actually use a lot of end-of-life recycled cardboard that’s collected around Ontario and we repurpose that into the Greenlids.

What’s your U of T connection?

We both have our undergraduate degrees from U of T – I have a BSc in pharmaceutical chemistry while Jackson has a BSc in physiology. We also took the Greenlid through the Rotman School of Management’s Creative Destruction Lab last year, so we were back at U of T quite a bit for that program.

What inspired the mosquito biotraps?

It was developed from the same technology that makes our compost bins leak-proof. We were looking for different applications that we could use this with, and one came up when the Queensland Health Authority in Australia contacted me looking for a biodegradable container to use for their mosquito traps that they set out to combat dengue fever. I worked with them for about 18 months to modify our current formulation so that we could get something that would last in tropical conditions and the conditions that are around a lot of mosquitos.

How do they work?

The biotraps mimic the breeding ground of mosquitos and are coated with insecticide so they target only the female mosquito. You just add water and they’re effective for four to six weeks. We can see a pretty significant reduction in the mosquito population as a whole when you put out enough of these traps in an area. Mosquitos only travel a few hundred metres in their lifetime, so if you put out enough traps you’ll actually decimate the mosquito population in your area. So they’re good for around your cottage or your home.

How effective are they?

Over 1,000 Biotraps were deployed in Queensland and shown to last for six weeks in both wet and dry conditions on a variety of surfaces (concrete, mulch, and dirt). During this time, the kill rate was established as greater than 95 percent within 5 minutes of making contact with Biotraps.

You’re donating Biotraps to the Canadian Olympic Foundation for the Rio Olympics. Did you approach them or did they come to you?

The Zika crisis began about two or three weeks after we began to ship the biotraps to Australia to help them combat dengue fever. One of the big questions was what are the athletes going to do down in Brazil, so we contacted the Canadian Olympic officials. My brother and I, along with our business partner Adil Qawi, will fly to Rio de Janeiro with several hundred traps. Some will be put around the actual Olympic facilities in Rio and some will be put out in trials in Brazil in smaller communities, because the government and the health authorities there are interested in purchasing them.

Obviously, you’ll be cheering for the Canadian team. But what if other teams approach you asking for Biotraps?

We’re focussing mostly on the Canadian team right now, but if other countries are interested in having them around, we can actually facilitate that, since we are bringing extras traps down with us!

What does the future hold for Greenlid Envirosciences?

Right now we’re probably going to be optimizing the Biotrap and working on a larger family format for our compost bin.

We hope to donate and deploy at least 100,000 Biotraps in 2016. And for every Biotrap someone buys, we will donate one trap to communities that are affected by mosquito-borne illnesses. You can learn more at our crowdfunding campaign at https://www.igg.me/at/biotraps.

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UTM’s Alison Dias headed to 2016 Olympic Summer Games

lavende4 — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 17:35:23 +0000

UTM’s Alison Dias headed to 2016 Olympic Summer Games

lavende4 Mon, 07/18/2016 - 13:35

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(Photo courtesy Tennis Canada)

Blake Eligh

Author legacy

Blake Eligh

Topic

When the world’s top tennis players hit the Olympic courts in Rio this summer, the University of Toronto Mississauga’s Alison Dias will be courtside keeping her eye on the ball.

Dias, who is a graphic artist with Information & Instructional Technology Services, is one of two Canadian technical officials who will call the tennis matches at the upcoming Summer Games. She beat out more than 600 applicants to snag one of 80 spots with the Olympic officiating team. As a lines official, Dias will call the ball in or out and assist the chair umpire for men’s and women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles matches.

Dias, who has been involved with the sport for 23 years, is one of a handful of Canadians qualified to chair international tennis matches. She got her start on the tennis circuit as a photographer at the du Maurier Open (now known as the Rogers Cup). She liked being close to the game but wanted to ditch the heavy equipment. “The court officials looked like they were having fun,” she says. “I took a course and a few weeks later, I was on the court as an official.”

Dias has become one of Canada’s top tennis officials, dedicating much of her spare time to her work with the sport. She has officiated matches across Canada, the Bahamas and at the 2012 Paralympics competition in London, and was an assistant referee at the 2015 PanAm Games in Toronto. Dias also trains new officials and is the provincial coordinator for Tennis Canada, managing about 150 tennis umpires across Ontario. Her off-court expertise was recognized with the Excellence Award in 2013.

“I like to see players develop, from being very young to teenagers to professional players,” she says. “As an official, I’ve helped to develop their behavior and discipline.”

Dias brings a sharp eye and long experience to the court, where a typical serve can travel 140 km per hour and the swing of a racquet might reach 70 to 100 km per hour. “It goes much faster than it might seem on television,” she says. “It’s all about putting your eye in the right position at the right time and watching that line to see where the ball will land.”

The high profile of the Games doesn’t faze her. “When you have to make a tough call, your instincts kick in,” she says. “If the player wants to complain, they can complain. You know when you’re right. I’ll have my experience behind me to make those tough calls.”

The Olympics will be Dias’ last big tournament as a courtside official. After five years as a chair umpire, she is training to become a referee, learning how to create match schedules, resolve player issues and supervise rule interpretations. “I’m ready to make the change, and the hands-on aspect appeals to me,” she says. “I’m always looking to learn and grow.”