13 février 2006

Canmore's Chandra Crawford blows away experienced field to claim sprint gold

George Johnson,
CanWest News Service

PREGALATO, Italy - Swami Sara Renner claimed she'd never been more sure of anything in her life.

"Oh, I knew,'' she said triumphantly. "I just knew.

"I've been training with her for the last two years. She's young, but she thinks like a champion. She's got a sprinter's persona. She's not a modest person. She's puts it out there. She shows no respect. She just gets after it.

"I think that's great.''

And how. In this horse race, Chandra Crawford was, at 22, the thoroughbred in a star-studded field.

Remember the line in the movie Seabiscuit when the 'Biscuit's jockey turns to the opposing rider in the legendary stakes race against War Admiral and, before leaving the prohibitive favourite far up the track, says : "So long, Charlie" ?

Well, with the finish line of the ladies' cross-country sprint in sight Wednesday, a massive upset and history in the making, Crawford might as well have tossed the same sort of cheeky aside over a shoulder: So long, Claudia. So long, Beckie. So long, Alena.

So long, anonymity.

"When Sara and I were younger,'' mused the outgoing Beckie Scott admiringly, "we probably showed too much respect to the older, more experienced skiers and maybe that hurt us. Chandra doesn't have that mindset.

"She has no fear. She attacks.''

Crawford is precisely what Canada needed at these Games. A young, dynamic, chatty, out-of-the-blue thunderbolt. A fresh face to put on success. This is someone who didn't qualify for the Olympic team until November. Who arrived in Turin with a paltry six World Cup races, including one third, at Davos, on her resume.

She belted out O Canada on the podium with gusto. She performed a little dance of delight. An ecstatic kid, savouring the moment. Her words pour out, like water spraying from a number of spouts on a fountain.

When the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee goes about scouting for faces to hype the big show in four years time, here's one to start with.

Own the Podium? Crawford certainly did that on Wednesday.

But she also owned the one-kilometre of snowy, hard-packed northern Italian real estate as if it were her backyard in Canmore. She didn't just beat the field. She bulldozed it.

In her quarter-final of the four-stage sprints event, she blew 'em away by 1.5 seconds.

In her semi, by 1.7 seconds.

Then in the final, staring down cross-country legends the stature of Germany's Claudia Kuenzel and teammate Scott, she won in a relative breeze, by 0.7 seconds.

Aggressive. Confident. In your face. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Why, that's so ... that's so ... so un-Canadian. So refreshing, too.

"Oh, that's a lie,'' chastised Crawford good-naturedly when informed of Renner's comments on her precocity. "On the boards, maybe my attitude is 'OK, I'm going around you!' But when you see someone like (Claudia) Kuenzel beside you ... you know she tripped me (at one World Cup race). So today I figured I'd better stay ahead of her. I thanked her at the finish. I actually did. I told her 'I just wanted to stay away from you.' "

Cornball as it might sound, the outdoorsy little girl who watched Myriam Bedard win two gold medals in Lillehammer, took up biathlon and then switched to cross-country full-time at 16, has apparently always felt this was her destiny.

I remember Myriam coming to Canmore and showing off her medals,'' recalled Chandra's dad, Glen. "That made such an impression on her.''

So why did she put down her gun, anyway?

"I was a lousy shot,'' giggled Crawford. "Just brutal.''

Okay, she may not be Annie Oakley, but,with the finish line in sight, there's no female cross-country sprinter possessed of a deadlier aim.

"She's agile, thinks well on her feet,'' said head coach Dave Wood. "She's never compromised by a technical or tactical problem. That's an innate characteristic.

"Sara and Becky were a little tired after five races. Sara's legs seemed heavy. And we kept Chandra off the relays specifically for today," Wood said.

"Chandra has a lot of development ahead to be a Sara or a Beckie. They can race at any distance.''

The sprints, though, belong today to a precocious kid who works with the Canmore Jackrabbit ski program, who could make motivational speaker Tony Robbins seem clinically depressed and who is not intimidated by reputation or credentials. Someone with no fear. Someone who attacks.

Scott is almost certainly set to retire after this World Cup season. Renner said she will weigh her options. Neither will be around in 2010 (although Wood hopes Renner might reconsider and stick around).

So what is the future of women's cross-country skiing in Canada?

"Chandra,'' replied Renner without hesitation.

One amazing performance does not a top-level international career make. But announcing yourself by claiming an Olympic title in devastating fashion is a helluva way to kick one off.

"This is amazing,'' Crawford bubbled, hoisting the gold medal around her neck, then letting it drop, testing its weight.

"It feels heavy. Pretty friggin' solid, I'd say.''

The medal. And on the day, the medallist, too.

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