Canmore Chaos

From the local paper...

Man goes berserk at ski event
By Pam Doyle
Wednesday February 02, 2005
Canmore Leader - Three RCMP officers were forced to deploy the Taser
multiple times in order to restrain a man who went berserk at the Bill
Warren Training Centre on Saturday at around noon.

The man, a competitive cross-country skier from the Camrose area,
traveled to Canmore to compete in the Alberta Cup cross-country ski
race on the weekend at the Canmore Nordic Centre. After he was told he
was too late to register for the race he became agitated.

Police said he stormed off to the lower level of the Bill Warren
Training Centre where he went on a rampage using a baseball bat and
anything else he could get his hands on to smash office windows,
computers and exercise equipment in the coaching lab area. The large
room houses offices for five national cross-country and biathlon
coaches, who were not in the room at the time. He then went upstairs
and started to smash the large picture windows in the mutli-purpose
area, which is used for weddings, church services and meetings.

RCMP said insurance adjusters estimated the damage to the centre to be
between $40,000 and $60,000.

Three Canmore RCMP officers who were at the scene suffered abrasions, a
sprained knee and nose injuries during the struggle to restrain the
man, RCMP said.

Police arrived at the centre to find the man smashing tables in the
reception area. Canmore RCMP Const. Grant Hoffman, who was on the
scene, said that he and fellow officers advised the man that he was
under arrest. Hoffman said the man became immediately combative and
charged towards the police. The police shot the Taser at the man in
order to restrain and arrest him. Hoffman said the man still did not
obey commands given to him and he continued to be combative.

Hoffman said they restrained and handcuffed the man outside the centre.

"When I came on the scene, he was kicking in the windows," said Tom
Holland, chair of the national cross-country ski team committee.
"There was no way anyone could restrain this guy. He was just a wild
animal, totally out of control."

As Holland was approaching the building, all he could hear was breaking
glass, "like at the bottle depot." Holland watched the RCMP
officers Taser the man.

"When someone is out of control and people are in the building it's
a very dangerous situation. It's very fortunate no one (from among
the volunteers) got hurt," Holland said. "The police did a great
job. There is a lot of controversy on Tasers, but they did an extremely
good job in a tense situation."

A crowd of people watched as the RCMP brought the man down outside the
front of the Bill Warren Training Centre and subdued him, Holland said.

"All the people (and kids) could see is the police taking this guy
down," Holland said. "They don't know the whole scenario. If he
had kept going, with the energy he had, he could have taken out the
whole wall of windows in the multi-purpose room. If someone hadn't
have stopped him, he would have kept going. Who knows what he could
have done?"

Holland does not think the man's tantrum had anything to do with the
cross-country ski race or the ski community but suggested there that
the man might have underlying problems that are not apparent. Holland
said the man has raced at the Nordic Centre at previous races.

"His chemical imbalance was wacky," Holland said. "Making him
extremely strong to destroy what he did in a very short period of time.
He had a lot of energy, all going in the wrong direction."

A wedding that was scheduled for the multi-purpose room on Sunday had
to be cancelled, which inconvenienced the wedding party and the
caterer, Holland said.

Two locally based psychologists who did not want to be named said they
did not want to comment on possible causes for the man's extreme
behaviour. The psychologists said they would need to have detailed
background information on the man's personal life before they could
offer any theories as to why he went berserk on Saturday. They also
said they would require a blood test to determine if he was impaired.
They both said they had not heard of any other high level athletes
losing control in such an extreme way.

The man had a small cut to his ankle and cuts to his hands as a result
of kicking glass and breaking equipment. He was taken to Canmore
Hospital where he was transferred to Foothills Hospital in Calgary for
psychiatric assessment.

Police have identified the man as 23-year-old Menno Boelman and charged
him with mischief over $5,000, three counts of assaulting a police
officer and obstruction.

Phil Villeneuve, manager of the elite cross-country ski team called
X-C.Com, said Boelman travelled with his team to events and seemed to
be a shy, quiet person.

"I supported him at Silver Star," Villeneuve said. "He's a good
skier, top 20 Canada Cup kind of guy. He skis because he loves it."

Boelman is about 6'2" with a muscular build weighing in at about
200 pounds, he said.

"He was one of the nicest guys I ever met, as far as the kind of guy
he was on trips with us," Villeneuve said. "His family has a farm
near Camrose. I'm just blown away by hearing he was involved in
this."

Staff at the centre were cleaning up the mess and assessing the damage
on Monday, Holland said.

The gym was closed on the weekend but opened again to clients on
Monday, he said.

Whoa!

Sounds like the registration desk coulda stayed open a minute longer.

I've been miffed, too, after driving 1000 miles to have someone say
"Sorry we just closed entries." But I took the diplomatic way and got
in anyway. : )

That guy mighta had enough energy for a good race...

Or maybe he was trying a new supplement? Better dial it back a bit.

Yikes!

wrote:

Whoa!

Sounds like the registration desk coulda stayed open a minute longer.

Apparently there are conflicting reports. From the Rocky Mountain
outlook:

"According to a police report, the man had attempted to
register for the Alberta Cup Cross Country Ski Races,
but grew inexplicably frustrated by the application
and threw it at the attendant, who then refused his
application on the basis it was incomplete."

http://makeashorterlink.com/?B2B61356A

--
//-Walt
//
// There is no Völkl Conspiracy

"Walt" wrote in message
...
wrote:

Whoa!

Sounds like the registration desk coulda stayed open a minute longer.

Apparently there are conflicting reports. From the Rocky Mountain
outlook:

"According to a police report, the man had attempted to
register for the Alberta Cup Cross Country Ski Races,
but grew inexplicably frustrated by the application
and threw it at the attendant, who then refused his
application on the basis it was incomplete."

http://makeashorterlink.com/?B2B61356A

Long drive, too much strong coffee?

It is a shocking, tragic thing, whether natural or somehow induced or
however it happened. It musta been very alarming for everyone,
including the skier after he realized what he did or what happened when
something snapped.

On 3 Feb 2005 16:23:03 -0800, wrote:

It is a shocking, tragic thing, whether natural or somehow induced or
however it happened. It musta been very alarming for everyone,
including the skier after he realized what he did or what happened when
something snapped.

Yeah, mental health problems and/or drug problems are sad.

JFT

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Neither account makes much sense. The registration deadline for the race
was on Wednesday. No one who has been involved in this level of competition
expects to show up on race day and register then. The race notice is quite
specific about the registration dead-line. If you started making exceptions
for one skier, you would have to allow everyone to enter at the last minute
and it would be impossible to make a fair draw.

It sounds to me like the man has had a mental breakdown. Fortunately he was
detained before anything more than property was damaged. Hopefully he gets
the medical treatment he needs.

Scott


"Walt" wrote in message
...
wrote:

Whoa!

Sounds like the registration desk coulda stayed open a minute longer.

Apparently there are conflicting reports. From the Rocky Mountain
outlook:

"According to a police report, the man had attempted to
register for the Alberta Cup Cross Country Ski Races,
but grew inexplicably frustrated by the application
and threw it at the attendant, who then refused his
application on the basis it was incomplete."

http://makeashorterlink.com/?B2B61356A

--
//-Walt
//
// There is no Völkl Conspiracy

Scott Elliot wrote:

Neither account makes much sense. The registration deadline for the
race
was on Wednesday. No one who has been involved in this level of
competition
expects to show up on race day and register then. (...)

Aren=B4t all skiers at this level club-affiliated and registered by
their clubs for races of this category (Alberta Cup)? *If* the club
secretary had made an error which was then discovered at the desk...


It sounds to me like the man has had a mental breakdown. Fortunately
he was
detained before anything more than property was damaged. Hopefully
he gets
the medical treatment he needs.

The behaviour strikes me as very much as that of an athlete on
steroids. I=B4ve witnessed one such outburst and heard stories of
others. But it is indeed likely there is a textbook case of a mental
problem behind it in any case.


Anders

This reminds me of a story. I was hiking all day in Glacier National
Park with my coach Julie. We got back to the campsite with our stomachs
basically consuming themselves. You might call it pretty frickin'
hungry. We changed clothes and went to the restaurant anticipating
juicy burgers, lots of fries, and toss in a cup a lard while you're
at it. Hell, don't even cook the meat... We walk in and the guy behind
the register said, "Sorry, the kitchen just closed" and he looked
at his watch "three minutes ago." "You'll have to come back at
5 pm." And he smiled. I couldn't believe it. That little smirk
meant he knew he just screwed us and he enjoyed. I went out to the car,
opened the trunk, and Julie said, you better not....

I opened up a bottle of Captain Morgans and poured two stiff rum and
cokes. Boy I was a cheap date, but man that ****ed me off. So, always
keep a bottle in the trunk.

Jay Wenner

"Anders" wrote in message
oups.com...

Scott Elliot wrote:


Aren´t all skiers at this level club-affiliated and registered by
their clubs for races of this category (Alberta Cup)? *If* the club
secretary had made an error which was then discovered at the desk...

Most skiers would be registered by their club secretary or coach. Sometimes
errors can occur (even the race secretary is not infallible). I cannot
speak for Alberta Cup races, but it has been my experience at BC Cup races
that if an error has been made by the club or the race they will generally
try to slot the skier in. This is not easy in a mass start race because it
is not fair to start the skier after everyone else when he can get splits so
he will know how everyone else has done. Sometimes there are "ghost" spaces
between age or gender classes to allow the course to clear a bit before a
faster class starts and the skier can be slotted in there.

Again, for BC cup races (we are next door to Alberta), registration is
preferrably done on line using a race management program we call Zone 4. It
is very easy to check whether everyone has been registered and we have found
this cuts down many errors.

The behaviour strikes me as very much as that of an athlete on
steroids. I´ve witnessed one such outburst and heard stories of
others. But it is indeed likely there is a textbook case of a mental
problem behind it in any case.

That would be a major concern on my part as well, but would not recommend
voicing a suspicion without some kind of verification. The skier may be
having enough problems without adding something that may be wrong.