Diver transfers Olympic dream to bobsled, with a Jamaican twist

Veteran goalkeeper Erin McLeod, whose soccer career has taken her to Sweden, Germany, Iceland and the Unites States, is coming back to Canada as the first player signed by the Northern Super League’s Halifax Tides FC.

The 41-year-old McLeod announced her retirement from international football in January 2023, after 119 caps. But the native of St. Albert, Alta., continued her club career, most recently with Stjarnan FCin Iceland.

The Northern Super League is slated to kick off in April with teams in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa as well as Halifax.

“I’ve wanted this league since I was a kid,” McLeod said in an interview.

“I’m 41 years young and that’s a reality,” she added. “But I definitely want to compete. I’m just excited to be able to extend my career, and, honestly, to come home.”

McLeod is the new league’s fifth player signing, following forward Jade Kovacevic (AFC Toronto), midfielder Charlotte Bilbault and goalkeeper Gabrielle Lambert (both Montreal Roses FC) and midfielder Farkhunda Muhtaj (Calgary Wild FC).

“Bringing Erin into our team is an important step for Halifax Tides FC,” Halifax sporting director Amit Batra said in a statement. “Erin is passionate about Canada finally having our own domestic women’s league and knows there is so much talent in our country that goes unnoticed.

“Her extensive experience at the highest levels of the game will help guide our team and inspire young athletes across the country. We’re proud to have her as the Tides’ first signing.”

McLeod has family ties to Halifax and has spent time there working as an equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility consultant.

“I met a lot of wonderful people there,” she said. “The sense of community and a lot of what they’re doing inclusive spaces is something I’m passionate about.

“And, of course, my sister lives there with her family. And my partner and I just had a fresh baby so we’re going to need family support while we take on this new adventure.”

McLeod and her wife, Iceland international midfielder Gunny Jonsdottir, had a baby boy 10 days ago.

McLeod has spent the last two seasons in Iceland, working on her coaching licences while playing. She had been transitioning to a coaching role but says her desire to keep playing was reinvigorated by news of the new Canadian women’s league.

“My motivation started coming back. And after about a month of not playing any games, I started playing games and playing really really well.”

McLeod last played for Canada on Oct. 26, 2021, in a 1-0 friendly win over New Zealand in Montreal — her 47th clean sheet.

She was in goal for the Canadian women’s bronze-medal run at the 2012 London Olympics and started throughout the 2015 World Cup on home soil. She was an alternate with the team that won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but dressed for the game against Chile when Kailen Sheridan stepped in for the injured Stephanie Labbé.

McLeod was 19 when she made her Canada senior debut in a 4-0 victory over Wales in March 2002 at the Algarve Cup.

She has survived a string of injuries since then, with five knee surgeries and one shoulder operation.

“I’ve definitely changed the way that I’m training and also changed the way I speak to myself and deal with mistakes,” she said. “I’m enjoying it, probably the most I have as long as I can remember. Because I’m embracing the good and the bad. I’m just excited to keep playing.”

McLeod began her career with the Vancouver Whitecaps in the USL W-League in 2004. She went on to play for the Washington Freedom, Sweden’s Dalsjofors GoIF, Chicago Red Stars, Houston Dash and Sweden’s FC Rosengard and Vaxjo DFF before joining the Orlando Pride in February 2020 and being loaned to Stjarnan.

At the collegiate level, she played two years at Southern Methodist University and two at Penn State. As a senior, she led the led the Nittany Lions to an undefeated regular season in 2005 when she was a MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.

McLeod has many strings to her bow.

She has long served as an LGBTQ spokeswoman. In 2014, she combined with fellow Olympian Adam van Koeverden, now parliamentary secretary to the minister of health and minister of sport, in the successful campaign to add sexual orientation to the Olympic Charter.

In 2019, McLeod launched the Mindful Project, developed in tandem with Bethel University professor Rachel Lindvall. The goal is to help focus more on positive thoughts while moving past negative ones.

Away from soccer, McLeod has worked as an artist, musician and entrepreneur.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2024.

OSHU CITY, Japan (AP) — Shohei Ohtani’s hometown in northern Japan is a rural place, famous for its high-quality Maesawa beef, its history of making traditional ironware and the intense green hills and mountains that surround it.

Japanese call such places “inaka” — roughly translated as the “countryside.” No glitz, quiet streets and up north — cold winters. It’s only 300 miles (500 kilometers) from Tokyo, but it seems further away.

These days, Oshu City is most famous for Ohtani himself, and the intense pride local people show for one of the game’s greatest ever players. He started in the local Little League with the Mizusawa Pirates, played for Hanamaki Higashi High School — a route that led him to the World Series. His Los Angeles Dodgers lead the New York Yankees 3-0, and fans here will be tuned in when LA tries to clinch the title early Wednesday morning local time.

The town honors Ohtani at every turn. And to experience it, start first with hairdresser Hironobu Kanno’s salon called “Seems.”

The hair salon that became a shrine to Shohei Ohtani

The waiting room is a museum dedicated to Ohtani with about 300 artifacts hung, stacked and squeezed into every corner. Even more items are in storage.

There are signed Dodgers and Angels jerseys, dozen of autographed baseballs, bats, shoes, caps, gloves, bobbleheads, photos of Othani and his wife Mamiko Tanaka, shirts emblazoned with images of his dog Decopin (Decoy in English), stuffed animals, pillows and life-size cutouts of the superstar.

Kanno said many fans come to town on a kind of “pilgrimage,” and his shop is often part of that.

“My customers and those who come to visit Ohtani’s hometown really enjoy seeing the collection, and I think it is a very effective way for them to feel closer to Ohtani,” he said.

The collecting began innocently when Kanno attended a baseball game on May 23, 2013 — the first professional game in which Ohtani batted and pitched. This was for Japan’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, and Kanno came back with a ball signed by Ohtani.

“When I put the ball with Ohtani’s autograph in my salon, the customers were very happy to see it,” Kanno said. “So I started to collect goods little by little.”

The rest is history.

He said his most treasured item is a cap signed by Japanese players who defeated the United States in the final of last year’s World Baseball Classic at the Tokyo Dome.

Nanno confessed that the cost of Ohtani goods keeps rising. He suggested he’d spent about 10 million yen — perhaps $100,000 — on Ohtani merchandise over a decade, and guessed the value might be five or six times as much.

He said he’d never met Ohtani nor his mother and father — Toru and Kayako — and the superstar has never seen the collection. He said eventually, he’d like to see it in a real museum and added he wasn’t in it for financial gain.

A small town becomes a pilgrimage point for the Ohtani-obsessed

Head across town to the city hall if you need more Ohtani memorabilia. One corner is loaded with photos of Ohtani, newspaper clips and pennants reminding that he won the American League MVP in 2023 and 2021. He’s the favorite to be the National League MVP this season.

The centerpiece of the city hall collection is a replica of Ohtani’s right hand. The golden hand allows you to grasp it and watch a video with Ohtani showing how the replica was made.

Keigo Kishino and his wife Chiaki said they traveled in one day from the western city of Osaka — by plane and train — just to shake the the hand.

“He is a source of energy for me, or something like that,” Chiaki said.

Jeffrey Kingston, who teaches history at Temple University in Japan, described Ohtani as a “combo of pure skill, pride and nationalism that make him irresistible to the Japanese public, and anyone remotely interested in the game, extending even to people who never really cared about baseball.”

His was referring partially to his wife Machiko Osawa, a professor of economics at Japan Women’s University. She is not a baseball fan. But Othani got her interested — at least in the short term.

“Ohtani changed the image of Japanese and helps transcend their complex feelings toward Westerners,” she explained.

“When I was young, there was a huge gap in ability between American players and Japanese players. Japanese players are shorter and not able to compete, but now Ohtani changed the image of Japanese baseball players. He is tall, fit and a superstar.”

Ohtani’s Oshu City impact is unlike any other ballplayer

Ohtani is the only MLB player from Oshu City, although others have come from nearby. Pitcher Yusei Kikuchi also attended Hanamaki Higashi High School, and Rintaro Sasaki — the son of Ohtani’s high school coach — is a phenom who skipped professional baseball in Japan altogether and currently plays at Stanford.

But no one generates buzz back home like Ohtani. Earlier this year, a local rice paddie was used as an “artist’s canvas” with Ohtani’s image in Dodger’s blue and wearing No. 17 — with Decoy alongside — cut into the green field. The likeness if unmistakable.

Oshu Mayor Jun Kuranari talked about Ohtani as an inspiration, and the rice paddie might be an example. He also brought up Ohtani as a role model.

“He plays with such a pure heart, and his performance is amazing,” the mayor said. “But what I think is also amazing is that he is able to stay humble while playing so well. He is a role model for everyone, and also makes the locals proud.”

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AP MLB:

Leasing a car is a unique financial arrangement and while it has its perks, experts say it suits a fairly slim group of people.

The biggest draw for leasing is lower payments, and on a shiny new car no less. This is usually what hooks drivers on a tight budget.

“When it comes to leasing, new vehicles is definitely a big part of it,” said Brandon Wiebe, a fee-only financial planner with Money Helps, based in Saskatoon.

“You’re getting into a vehicle that looks brand new, shouldn’t require immediate maintenance, has updated features, whether that’s safety or audio. And then another benefit that people see is the lease payments will tend to look lower than your purchasing new vehicle payments, so it’s less restrictive on their cash flow, right?”

A car lease is essentially a long-term rental: you’re paying the dealership for use of a car over an agreed-upon period of time, usually a few years. Though you aren’t an owner of the vehicle, monthly lease payments are typically lower on a new car than if you were paying off a loan.

That one detail — the lower payment — convinced Stephanie Wallcraft to sign a lease in her 20s.

It was a mistake, said Wallcraft, a freelance automotive journalist, co-host of Modern Motoring, and former president of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada.

“The reason I call it a mistake is that after a while, I started having problems with the car and I wanted to get rid of it,” Wallcraft said. “And it was very difficult, because getting out of a lease is far more complicated than getting out of financing.”

Young people are still setting up their lives — they might have to move for a job, they might start a family, there may be job change or loss. Although that lower payment may look smart for their budget at the time, Wallcraft says it’s still not worth it for most.

“People in their 20s, trying to get started, I would never advise leasing a car,” she said.

Essentially, leasing means your money is going to the dealership and not your own equity in a car, Wallcraft explained. You are paying for the depreciation of a new car, which loses value sharply after driving off the lot — usually around 20 per cent. You are paying the dealership and at the end of the term, you still don’t have a car.

There can be unpleasant surprises at the end of a leasing term, Wallcraft added. The vehicle will be examined carefully for any damage, and if you exceeded the mileage outlined in the contract, you’ll be hit with fees.

“It can be a pretty surprising amount at the end of the whole thing,” Wallcraft said, “and there’s no way to get out of it.”

When you finance a car to own it, however, you start with negative equity — you owe more on the car than it’s worth to sell — but after a certain amount of time, that equity turns in your favour.

“It takes a few years, depending on the length of the financing term,” Wallcraft said. “It takes some time where you’ve paid off enough of the car that you can then sell it for what it’s worth.”

For car lovers who want a fresh ride every three or four years, financing to own still has merits over leasing, Wiebe said.

“Even with purchasing vehicles every three years, you can still come out ahead by purchasing and reselling, because at least you are building some equity by creating ownership of the car that you’re paying for,” he said.

“But for most young people, buying and owning for a longer period is going to really free you up to be able to put money elsewhere, especially towards longer-term savings.”

As for leasing an electric vehicle, Wallcraft called the financial pros/cons analysis “less predictable” in this relatively new market. Residual values of EVs have yet to be fully understood, she said — the value the car holds over time, which lease payments are based on.

But lease contracts are very hard to break, Wallcraft noted. So if you don’t like the EV lifestyle and all it entails, you’re stuck or punished.

“I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to try to offload an EV lease and try to find somebody who wants to take that over when there’s really only 10 per cent of the market that’s showing a strong interest in EVs today,” Wallcraft said.

“That will change over time, but that would be extremely difficult. Better to finance at a rate you can afford, and then, even if you haven’t fully paid it down, at least the car is yours to make the decision about what to do with it.”

So who is leasing for? Wealthy customers, mostly. There’s less drama with a new vehicle under warranty, Wiebe pointed out.

“Let’s say you’re getting into a high-paying profession that demands a lot of your time,” he said. “You’re not having to deal with buying and selling a vehicle. You sign up, have that simple payment, everything’s under warranty, and you kind of take back both the time and having to think about that area of your life.”

Wallcraft said leasing is also good for corporations that prefer not to have ownership of a car on their record, said Wallcraft.

“It’s also a good situation for highly affluent customers who want to drive the latest and greatest,” she said.

“They know they want to have something brand new every two, three or four years. And they’re happy to essentially treat it like a subscription.”