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Champions vs. Legends (2018)

A sports science investigation that reveals who comes out on top when today’s top winter athletes compete in vintage gear against legends of the past.

Champions vs. Legends premiered on CBC’s The Nature of Things on Sunday, January 28, 2018 at 8 PM.

The film is an international Canada-Germany-Austria co-production by Kensington Communications, Berlin Producers, and PreTV for CBC, RDI (French Canada), Ici Explora (French Canada), ARTE (France and Germany), ARD (Germany) and ORF Austria.

Champions vs. Legends is a companion to our 2016 film on summer Olympic sports: The Equalizer.

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SYNOPSIS

Every year, winter athletes set new world records. But are today’s champions really superior to legends of the past? Or are they only faster because their equipment is more high-tech?

To find out, renowned sports scientist Steve Haake meets five top winter athletes, and challenges them to beat the world records of athletic legends while using old-school gear.

At Vancouver’s Olympic Oval, champion speed skater Christine Nesbitt wears replicas of 1960s speed skates as she attempts to beat the time of 1960s Russian legend Inga Artamonova. In St. Moritz, German bobsled champs Max Arndt and Alex Rodiger ride a 1940s-era sled to compete against 1940s legends Felix Endrich and Fritz Waller. In the Austrian alps, up-and-coming skier Manuel Feller competes head-to-head with 1980s legend Marc Girardelli in heats designed to measure how the evolution of ski design impacts performance. On the same giant slalom course, German Paralympic sit-skier Anna Schaffelhuber rides the original sit-ski – built in 1982 – as she attempts to beat the speed of 1980s sit-skiers. At a rink in Kelowna B.C., NHL star Shea Weber tries to equal Bobby Hull’s slap shot speed while using a replica of Hull’s hockey stick.

In every event, the winner is impossible to predict. Taken together, the matchups reveal the effect of technological advances on performance, and something shared by athletes of every era: the innate human drive to win.

CREDITS

Producer
ROBERT LANG

Director
HEINZ LEGER

Additional Direction
ROBERT LANG

Writer
ALLEN BOOTH

Consultant
PROFESSOR STEVE HAAKE,
Director, Centre for Sports Engineering Research, Sheffield Hallam University

Editor
GRAEME BALL

Assembly Editor
DEREK McCANTS

Music Composed by
ERIC CADESKY
NICK DYER

Line Producer (Europe)
EVA MARIA WEERTS

Researchers
CONNIE LITTLEFIELD
ULRIKE NEUBECKER

Archive Producer
ELSPETH DOMVILLE

Visual Researcher (Europe)
MICHAEL KOSTABEL

Directors of Photography
MARK CASWELL
KLAUS ACHTER

Additional Photography
SCOTT BURTON
GUY CLARKSON
MARTIN HAUPT
MARTIN STONI

Drone Operators
SCOTT BURTON
HANS HORNBERGER
ALEX ROBINSON
SIMON THUßBAS

High Speed Operator
KEVIN RIGNEY
MARTIN STONI

Camera Assistants
CORY BUDNEY
CHRISTOPH MANGOLD
CLEMENS PRANKL
BRIAN SHIER
JASON TUBBUTT
CHRISTOPH WALLNER

Gaffers
STEVEN DEZWART
ROB HASTINGS
TERRY KIM

Grip
MARTIN PFLÜGER

Production Managers
SUSAN McGRATH
DAVID STEINBACH

Unit Manager (Europe)
MARCEL NAKONI

Sound Recordists
MIKE FILIPPOV
CHRIS MILLER
NINO PFAFFENBICHLER
RENE SCHUH

Animation and motion graphics
EGGPLANT PICTURE AND SOUND

Post Producer
CANDICE MCHUGH

Creative Director
SAM JAVANROUH

Animation Supervisor
PETE AULD

Animator
MARLON CASTRO

Post-Production Coordinators
FEYROUZ ABDULRAHMAN
FLORENCIA MARTINEZ CARRANZA

Sound Editor
GARY VAUGHAN

Sound Re-Recording
RICHARD SPENCE-THOMAS

Colourist
PATRICK HIRLEHEY

Assistant Editors
STEPHEN HILLIER
VIKAS NAYAK
JASON WHITE

Production Accounting
MICHELE DAVIS
LOIS DOU

Business Affairs Assistants
MELISSA MCLEAN
FRANCES NYARKO-MENSAH

Production Assistants
VALENTINA SCHNECK
JASON TUBBURR

Publicist
MARGARET SIROTICH

Social Media Manager
DANILO FERRON

Archival Material
TRANSIT FILM
ALLIANZ
BOBCLUB BIVIO
BOBMUSEUM RIESSERSEE
EBU SPORT
INFRONT SPORTS AND MEDIA
ISBF
ORF
ENGADIN ST. MORITZ TOURIST OFFICE
CBC ARCHIVE SALES/ARCHIVES RADIO-CANADA
ODDBALLS FILMS
SPORTSNET/ROGERS MEDIA INC.
TSN
IHF
NHL NETWORK

Special Thanks to
ALEXANDER RÖDIGER
ALOIS PRASCHBERGER
ANNA SCHAFFELHUBER
CHRISTIAN FINK
CHRISTINE NESBITT
GUIDO RATTI
JOHANNES LOCHNER
JOSHUA BLUHM
MANUEL FELLER
MARC GIRARDELLI
MAREN GOLL
MAX ARNDT
PETER HINZ
CARTER HART
MIKE BENTON
SHEA WEBER
DOMINICK SAILLANT
JARRETT BOUSQUET
CYNTHIA PAQUIN-LEPAGE
YANNICK PAQUETTE
MARC-ANDRÉ FOURNIER
STEVE TARLIT
HOCKEY CANADA
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
THOMAS BÜRGLER
HANS GRÜN
KERRY DANKERS
DAVID VINK
MAGGIE DEKKING
PAUL PATSKOU
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
All trademarks and copyrights of the National Hockey League and its Member

Teams are used with permission. All rights reserved.

A Canada-Germany-Austria Co-production

Executive Producers
KRISTIAN KÄHLER
ROBERT LANG
NIKOLAUS WISIAK

Produced by
KENSINGTON COMMUNICATIONS INC.
BERLIN PRODUCERS
PreTV

Produced in association with
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
General Manager, Programming
SALLY CATTO

Executive Director, Unscripted Content
JENNIFER DETTMAN

Senior Director, Documentary
SANDRA KLEINFELD

Executive in Charge of Production
SUE DANDO

Director of Production, Unscripted Content
ALEXANDRA LANE

Director of Finance, Unscripted Content
JULIE LAWLOR

Produced in association with
ICI Explora www.ici.explora.ca

and

ICI RDI www.ici.rdi.ca
Elisabeth Paradis, Head of Content, Specialty Channels, SRC

Produced with the participation of
ARD ARTE
ORF

Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit