23 février 2006

Scott and Renner were Canada's top hopes,
but upstart Albertan stole show

PRAGELATO, Italy—She jumped up and down on the top of the podium and did a riff on an imaginary air guitar for her pals back home. The kid who gave up biathlon because she couldn't shoot straight was right on target for Olympic gold yesterday.

Meet Chandra Crawford, Canada's newest sports hero, an irrepressible 22-year-old cross-country skier from Canmore, Alta., who loves the outdoors and wants to inspire kids — heck, everyone — to get up and get moving.

On a day where veterans Beckie Scott and Sara Renner were expected to provide any hardware won for Canada, it was the plucky and unheralded Crawford who seized the moment by the scruff of its neck to capture gold in stunning fashion in the women's sprint event.

Her performance afterward was just as impressive as the way she crushed the veteran opposition in three straight races, including a final that saw Scott finish a disappointing fourth.

Crawford was funny, irreverent and charming, laughing the whole time she was on the podium, except when "O Canada" was played and she belted it out with all her heart. She drew an ovation from the assembled journalists at the end of her news conference for her fresh enthusiasm and witty responses, her father Glen recording the proceedings on a video camera.

"I was just so surprised," said Crawford. "It just happened so fast. You're so focused, you're in a tunnel of focus, thinking only about your skiing. I could hear these thoughts coming into my head right before the final like, `Medals, medals.' I just went, `Get out of here. Get out of here. I've just got to ski and get to the front and keep it really simple.'

"And then the next thing you know you're across the line, 200 people attack you and you're on the podium."

Crawford was a darkhorse entering the event, a young skier whose stock was on the rise with steadily improving results, including a third in the sprint in the last World Cup in Davos, Switzerland, before the Games. But she's only been in six World Cup races and this, after all, was the Olympics.

But the kid's got chutzpah-plus. The team had kept her out of the relay to rest her just for this event and it was a course that suited her talents — she's got a lot of alpine experience and knows how to pick up time and deke around her opponents on the downhills.

"She thinks like a champion," said Renner, who also hails from Canmore and has trained with Crawford for two years. "She's not a modest person. She puts it out there. She'll go for it. I'm so proud of her. I've never been so sure of anything in my life. To be honest, when she was in the final I knew she could do it. She shows no respect, which is something phenomenal for a Canadian and a rookie."

We have Canadian biathlon great Myriam Bedard to thank for inspiring Crawford. The star of the 1994 Lillehammer Games for Canada came through Canmore when Crawford was 10.

"I was just blown away by Myriam Bedard and her two gold medals from Lillehammer," said Crawford.

She took up biathlon right away and lasted five years, finally derailed by a shortcoming that has felled many a biathlete before her.

"I was a terrible shot," she said. "I was brutal."

Crawford was rolling her big, shiny new medal with the hole in it around in her hands during interviews, gesturing with it at one point to show how the race unfolded.

"It feels amazing and it feels heavy. It's pretty friggin' solid," she said, adding her guitar riff on the podium was something she did for friends in Canmore. "You know when you're really excited, the air guitar comes out. It's a very natural progression."

There could be a natural progression taking place on the Canadian cross-country ski team as Scott is almost certainly skiing in her final season, while Renner is also contemplating retirement as her husband, alpine skier Thomas Grandi, looks at wrapping up his career. Neither expects to race in the Games' final event, the women's 30-kilometre race. Scott wants to chase the World Cup title.

"They've been such amazing inspiration for us," Crawford said. "We had so much momentum going right from Salt Lake when they did so well. They're phenomenal teammates."

It turns out Crawford didn't inherit her competitiveness from her parents, Glen and Louise, who are both pretty laidback when it comes to sports.

"I think competitiveness is an innate trait," she said. "I think it's just in there. My parents are awesome because they're so relaxed about sport, which is what you need.

"They don't care how you do, they love you, anyway. And then you're free to just go out there and do what you feel like. And if you feel like hammering and beating every girl out there, then go for it."

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