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Looking fit and trim, Chris Rudge comfortably slid his arms into a black jacket with a red-and-white maple leaf logo yesterday as the one-time professional lacrosse player became the new chief executive officer of the Canadian Olympic Committee.

Rudge, a 57-year-old father of two teenagers and the husband of former Canadian diving champion Janet Nutter, immediately indicated he will champion the cause of his predecessor, Jim Thompson, carrying the torch for raising the profile of high-performance athletes. Thompson died of a heart attack in August, four months into his term as CEO of the COC.

"Very clearly, I'm in Jim's corner," Rudge said after a news conference at the information centre of the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corp., the group seeking to bring the Winter Olympics to Canada's west coast. "You have to create role models for young people to believe that they can aspire and achieve great things.

"I think we have to celebrate success more in this country. That's one of the things that we don't do as well in Canada as we might do. We don't tend to champion our heroes perhaps as much as the [United]States. Maybe they go a little bit overboard, but I still think that's a good thing."

The former senior executive of print giant Quebecor World Inc. was once a physical-education teacher and claims to be in good shape after working out for three hours a day since his retirement from Quebecor a year ago.

Rudge was a finalist when the Canadian Football League was seeking a new commissioner, with that job finally going to Tom Wright in November. Rudge indicated yesterday that negotiations for the COC position came after. His salary was not disclosed.

"The CFL job would have fulfilled many of the needs," Rudge said. "But I think at the end of the day, if they were both going on at the same time, there's no question that this is where I wanted to be. [Especially]when you look at my background, particularly with the relationship with my wife -- 20 years of living with an Olympian and understanding what it's about.

"If you think the Olympics is just about young people preparing themselves for going to the Olympic Games, it goes much beyond that. If you really want to understand that, you should sit with Janet when she watches [sports on TV]. . . the emotions that well up at that time, I think they live with you forever. And some of that has rubbed off on me."

Rudge and family reside in Thornhill, Ont., where they often discuss new mountains that need to be climbed, along with the dreams of young Canadians.

"He has a great passion for sport," said Nutter, a Pan Am and Commonwealth Games gold-medalist. "I think he brings all the right attributes to the role that he'll be assuming.

"He wanted to find something that was different than the corporate business world, so I think this is great. It's a love of mine, being an Olympic athlete, and I just think it's wonderful."

Raising funds for Canadian athletes, along with promoting the Vancouver-Whistler bid for the 2010 Olympics, will be priorities for Rudge. The Canadian bid book was delivered to the International Olympic Committee this week in Lausanne, Switzerland, with the final decision being made July 2 in Prague.

"Clearly, there will be an increased role for [the COC]in supporting what the Vancouver bid does," Rudge said. "We are part of the executive of that bid and one of the partners in the bid.

"I guess if there's a No. 1 priority right now, it's to do whatever we can to make sure Vancouver wins 2010."

COC president and chairman Mike Chambers described Rudge as the right person to lead the COC, which represents all amateur sports, athletes and coaches in Canada, to the next plateau in international competition.

"High-performance sport in Canada currently operates in a somewhat-fragmented manner," Chambers said. "We need to work with government and the rest of the high-performance sport community to address questions of fair and equitable funding for athletes, coaches and sports federations.

"We need to look at our development system for young athletes to ensure we are providing proper resources for our next generation of Olympians. We need to see to it that our very best athletes have the resources they need to win the medals they are capable of winning.

"And, most of all, we need to win an Olympic Games [bid]for Canada, reflecting our country's reputation as a truly sporting nation.

"With Chris at the helm, the COC will leap farther and jump higher than it ever has before."

Rudge said he isn't likely to become involved in the local debate on hosting the Olympics before Vancouver's "yes or no" plebiscite on Feb. 22. But his support is behind the bid, he added, because of the benefits for the city, the province and the country.

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