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.
WATCH ON DEMAND (OUTSIDE CANADA)
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