27 février 2006

Duff Gibson/Chandra Crawford Canada's oldest medallist in Turin and a rising star compare thoughts on their Olympic experience

SESTRIERE, Italy—Duff Gibson and Chandra Crawford are attracting an awestruck crowd.

They're posing with their Olympic gold medals outside the athletes' village — Gibson, a Scarborough native, won his in men's skeleton; Crawford, of Canmore, Alta., got hers in the women's cross-country skiing sprint event.

The Star brought them together for an Unplugged interview with the idea that Gibson, at 39 the oldest winner in Olympic history in an individual event, and Crawford, at 22 one of the country's bright lights for the future, could provide unique perspectives on Canadian sport as we now head towards the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

They did that — and a lot more — as they really hit it off and had a lot of laughs, too, while talking about trying to use their 15 minutes of fame to get Canada moving, paper medals and the new sport of Olympic hitchhiking.

What's life like as an Olympic champion so far ?

Chandra: Now I've got a big challenge, which is success. For me, I just start thinking, `Oh man, I'm sweet.' I guess I already have a good level of natural confidence and then throw me a gold medal and I can get a little cocky and then I start to not work as hard and I start to suck. This is the next big challenge to stay humble and keep working.

Duff: That's what my wife said : `That's the last thing your ego needs is a gold medal.'

Chandra: (laughs) That's hilarious. One of my coaches said, `Maybe you can get a house now, and you'll have to have a house for your head.' He cut me down right away. It was perfect.

Duff: Well, I'm a firefighter and when I go back I will be cleaning toilets because I am the junior man.

There was once an Olympic gold medallist who used to wear her gold medal shopping...

Duff: Is that right ?

Chandra: I would do that. I'm going to do that next week. You go out and everybody will be going, `Where's your medal?' and you pull it out and everyone will be so stoked.

Duff: I pulled the medal out in the crowd at the women's hockey game to show someone in particular and then everyone saw it and it was autographs and photos. That was a really neat experience being the centre of attention for a while. Before I even competed, I was committed at three elementary schools. I have a banner at home that has the Italian colours and says, `Bring Home a Medal' and it has a signature from every single student and every single student made a medal for me. So I have 400 some-odd medals, paper cutouts. So I am going to be thrilled to go there and my message for that school is the impact you can have on the people around you because of the impact they had with me — and I don't care if it takes five hours they can all wear my medal.

If your Olympic gold was a magic wand and you could wave it and change anything you wanted to about Canadian sport, what would it be ?

Duff: For me, it's a big thrill to watch a Canadian win a medal. But it's not the be-all and end-all. It's more important that we would have more people participating in sport for physical and mental well being. ... I think if you funnel your money towards recruitment, development, participation in young people, then the success will probably take care of itself because the exposure will be that much greater.

Chandra: It will because that would be success in all the senses that really matter. It will be a success in medal counts, but it will be a success in the health of a nation. ... So many kids are so unhealthy. I think if I could wave it as a magic wand, it would get everybody off the couch and doing some kind of sport.

Duff: Just walk. It doesn't have to be a competition.

Chandra: We're so cerebral and we're sitting there being miserable about our body image and watching the skinniest people alive on TV as we sit on the couch getting fatter and fatter. ... We did this amazing ski day for girls in December. It was called Fast and Female. You should see these T-shirts. I had my artist friend draw a T-shirt and it's a superhero woman with huge muscles in a bikini holding a pair of skis. She was just so confident.

Duff: I'd like to get one of those for my wife.

The medals look like CDs. Imagine that they are. What song would they play if you put them in the CD player ?

Duff: (claps his hands) I got one. "Golden Years" by David Bowie, because of the dual meaning of golden years. It's on my iPod right now.

Chandra: Remember what I did in my press conference? This is one of my top three dork moments. They asked me what song I was thinking about during the race and I started doing that (starts singing a current Madonna song ...)

Duff: That Madonna, Abba...

Chandra: It's so top 45.

What's you're favourite behind-the-scenes story of these Games ?

Duff: Getting to meet Ron MacLean — I'm a big fan — and having him mention one of the guys from the fire hall, Kelly Wanvig, whose son Kyle Wanvig plays for Minnesota. He's going to love that. And it's a tie-in to the fire department for me, which is a big part of me.

Chandra: After my race, I saw on the side of the trail my good friend from the Italian team, Cristina Kelder, who was showing so much promise as a sprinter and was getting top threes in World Cups last year. Then she developed a heart problem in the spring and had an operation that didn't help it and has been unable to do any physical activity since then. I hadn't seen her since last year, when we were all ripping and loving life, so I went over and we hugged. To connect with my friend who's had such a brutal year, when I've had the best year of my life, and share it with her was the best moment of my Games.

Any other interesting moments ?

Chandra: When we first got here, we figured out that the buses were totally disorganized. I haven't taken a bus since. I just go and stop a car and ask them to drive me somewhere in Italian.

Duff: (laughs) You what ?

Chandra: I know that's bad. I'm going to scare my mom. You just stand in the road — they won't stop if you put your thumb out — but you stand in the road and stop them and then you ask them to take you to Sestriere. I ran into Jason Myslicki from the Canadian team — he's in Nordic combined. He'd been waiting for a bus for over an hour and was freaking out because he was cold and he had a race the next day. And so I jogged out to the road and stopped a car and asked them to drive him to Sestriere. He was just so relieved. And I thought that was an Olympic moment because ... I was able to help him out a bit.

How do you think your life will change, if at all ?

Duff: Well, I'm excited to potentially do some public speaking. I'm totally confident that I'm in my 15 minutes and it's almost up. That's why I'm happy to pull out the medal and have everybody make a big fuss at the hockey game, because I won't have that option very soon, so I'm enjoying it while I can.

Chandra: I read a great quote from Pierre Lueders a week ago that said that at the ... ('98 Nagano) Olympics when he won his gold, he wished he'd celebrated it more because the next day he went out and prepared for the next event and he was ninth. I've had no problem in that department. I'm really celebrating and enjoying it. Think of the hours and hours of doing things like roller skiing on the roads when you're just thinking about this performance, this kind of scenario.

Do you keep pulling your gold medal out and looking at it ?

Duff: My wife made a big scrapbook. It's got newspaper clippings and a Canadian flag and pictures and she emailed everyone on hers and my contact list and said I'm making this book for Duff going to the Olympics if you want to contribute. Sixty people are in it. Like I could live if my gold medal was stolen, but this is by far more important because it is personal, heartfelt messages from friends, family.

Chandra: I pull my medal out every five minutes because there's a photo op happening with all the Italian volunteers. I've used it to get a ride down the hill. I waved it at one guy driving by, but that guy didn't stop.

Duff: (laughs heartily) Oh, that's awesome.

Chandra: It just goes to show there's some things a gold medal can't get you.

page mise en ligne par SVP

Consultez notre ENCYCLOPÉDIE sportive