The Canadian Men took gold and silver and in women's skeleton bronze.
Duff Gibson came in first to become the oldest Canadian to ever win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, he's 39. He's a firefighter in Calgary. He also has a master's degree in Exercise Physiology and he comes from a family of athletes. His dad was a Canadian Judo champion and his uncle was a rower that went to the '84 Olympics in L.A.
Jeff Pain attributes his getting onto the podium to finally realizing that his attitude and aloofness to his fellow skeleton team mates was hurting his performance. He stated that when he realized that they could have cared less if he was competing or not he figured he better start making some changes. He attibutes some of his poor attitude to bobsledding, which is what he previously competed in. He says that in that sport everyone is out for themselves and what team can steal who to create an even better team. Jeff was born in Alaska and makes his home in Calgary. Jeff's "day job" is as a landscape designer.
Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards (25) took bronze, she's from Alberta as well. (Katie, you'll like this part), she's married to rodeo competitor, Billy Richards.
Pierre Lueders (driver) and Lascelles Brown (brakeman) took silver in the two man bobsled race last Sunday. The best combined time of four runs determines the winner in two man bobsled.
Pierre is 35 and is from Edmonton. He has won 69 World Cup medals in his racing career! Here's an interesting fact about him that was posted on CBC Sports: "Lueders was a decathlete in 1989 when he visited relatives in what was then East Germany. His cousin, Gunnar Meinhardt, a sportswriter, told Lueders that his physical attributes could one day make him a world-class bobsledder".
Lascelles is 31, he lives in Calgary but is originally from Jamaica. He is currently considered one of the top three brakeman in the world. He set the push start record for the Jamaican team at Salt Lake City Olympics: 4.78 seconds.
Brown recently became a Canadian citizen, his application was fast-tracked so that he could compete for Canada. I've heard the same thing for a number of athletes in this Olympics. Changing citizenship for better training opportunities, although some have simply moved to another country and still kept their birth citizenship so they could compete for their country. I'm conflicted on how I feel about this. Part of me feels that if a country has a talented athlete, and they are going to take credit for that athlete, then they should be providing the training opportunities in their country. Another part of me looks at it from the athletes point. It's not their fault their country is in turmoil and can't support them, so go where there are opportunities, follow your dreams, do whatever it takes. Feel free to post how YOU feel about all this. I'd like to hear how others view it.
1 comment:
My opinion on the topic is that EVERYONE should not only have the opportunity to follow their dreams regardless of their nationality, but should also have the opportunity to marry a rodeo cowboy. :D The second opinion is mostly selfishness. :) Although I do think that once they change citizenships, they should stick with it, not jump around depending on what offers another country makes.
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