I love stories like this :D Watching the moguls tonight I found myself pulling for the Canadians to get gold (I'm as patriotic as can be, but some things are more importants than winning all the time, so when there are circumstances such as this I find myself pulling for the under dogs).
VANCOUVER – The drought is over. And Canada has a new sports hero.
Alexandre Bilodeau captured a gold medal in the men’s moguls event at Cypress Mountain Sunday, marking him forever as the first Canadian athlete to win Olympic gold on Canadian soil.
The 22-year-old Bilodeau wasn’t the favourite coming in, but on a gloriously sunny day in West Vancouver he brought home a first-place finish — and forever cemented his name in the Canadian sports hall of fame.
He came through with a marvellous performance under incredible pressure, firing up a 26.75 score on the second-last run of the evening in perfect weather. The last skier, Guilbaut Colas of France, had a chance to knock him out of first but couldn’t get it done.
“It’s too good to be true,” he told CTV as the crowd chanted “Bilodeau, Bilodeau, Bilodeau.” “There’s more to come. We have such a strong team.
“The party’s just starting for Canada.”
More likely, the party’s just starting in downtown Vancouver. The place was nuts on Saturday night; packed with all sorts of partiers and tourists listening to live music and checking out the scene. Sunday night should be even crazier given Bilodeau’s gold.
Bilodeau’s older brother, Frederic, who has cerebral palsy, was at the finish line and cheering wildly for his younger sibling. Bilodeau was close to tears when he spoke to CTV about his brother and his family.
“A lot,” he said when asked how much of his historic medal belongs to Frederic. “It’s really getting me right now. My brother is my inspiration. Growing up with handicapped people puts everything back in perspective and he taught me so many things in life. My parents did, too.”
His father Serge Bilodeau says he knew right away that Alex’s run was a winner.
“It is not possible to describe, but I knew it before. I knew it was the best. I have followed the sport for 12 years. I know the sport so well and I knew when he crossed the finish line that it was the best run and no one could beat it.”
The crowd went berserk as the numbers were posted. Dale Begg-Smith, who was born in Vancouver but lives in Australia and skies for the Aussies, almost took the top prize but finished with a silver medal. Bryon Wilson of the U.S. was third, followed by Canadians Vincent Marquis and Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau.
It would’ve been a wicked turn of events if Begg-Smith, regarded as the top moguls skier in the world, had deprived Bilodeau of the glory. Begg-Smith rocketed down the course two skiers ahead of the Canadian and posted a terrific score of 26.58. It looked almost impossible to beat, but Bilodeau bested Begg-Smith by a decent margin.
Asked what he felt at the top of the hill, Bilodeau replied, “I said, I’m ready, the most ready I’ve ever been. It was just ... let it go. I went out and I knew what I had to do.”
Bilodeau will get his gold medal at a victory ceremony at B.C. Place on Monday night, an event that suddenly has jumped to the top of the “must-have ticket list” in British Columbia.
Bilodeau has always had talent. But he felt he wasn’t fully utilizing his gifts and worked with a psychologist on the Canadian aerials team during the 2008-09 season and started using such techniques as biofeedback. He was trying to relax his training performances, he said.
“I do not pay attention to the other skiers,” he once said. “But if I see or hear their result, I do not go crazy. I do not care for the others. If I make the descent which I am able to make, I will be able to win. That’s the confidence that I have.”
It was the second medal of the day for Canada. Kristina Groves of Ottawa won a bronze medal in the women’s 3000 meter speed skating race earlier in the day at the Richmond Oval.
On Saturday night, Jenn Heil of Spruce Grove, Alberta won a silver medal — and just missed gold — in the women’s moguls event.
Canada came into this competition as the only country to have hosted an Olympics and never had one of its own win a gold medal. It happened in 1976 in Montreal and again in Calgary in 1988.
As great as it is to have three medals, it’s still only half of the six that the United States has collected over the first three days of action at the Vancouver/Whistler Games. Canadian Olympic officials have noted, however, that many of the country’s top events come later in the Games and that there likely will be a final push as Canada hopes to bring home the most medals of any country at the 2010 Olympics.
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about_a_chik's journal
Yes, I did it :D and no, I didn't end up winning any prizes for it :/ but hey... this arrangement of the photo would look much better if I had more to write....
