All Articles, Exercise & Fitness, Featured

An Olympian remembers

Print This Post

February 14, 2010
	Dr. Tim McCrossen : Head Fitness Ego

The start of the Winter Olympic in Vancouver has stirred up a lot of memories of my own experience in a Winter Olympics. It reminded me of how surreal the experience felt and how important the support of our families and the country a whole was to our entire team. I thought I’d share a few of those experiences to give you an insider’s look at the Olympic Games and to remind you to root for the home team, win or lose.

I had the great fortune of being an athlete on the 1994 Olympic Bobsled Team in Lillihammer Norway. I affectionately called them the “Nancy Kerrigan / Tonya Harding Games.   

It was the highlight of a lifetime to represent the United States in an Olympic Games and to actually be called an “Olympian.” As the great John Nabor (World record holder in swimming and numerous gold medals in the 1976 games) states, “Never former, never past…once an Olympian, always an Olympian.”  That sure feels good and I wear that title with a tremendous amount of pride.

And while my team didn’t win any medals we can proudly say we were the first team to use American made bobsleds and competed with pride. 

Let the Games…behind the scenes…Begin
The athletes usually arrive the week before the games. Once we arrived we start the first step of “processing” and were provided with our credentials and identification cards that we were instructed to wear around our neck at all times. With pleasure…as it’s as close as I’ve come to having the keys to one action-packed city. We now had access to transportation, food and all the Olympic venues. Not too shabby.

Free Shopping Spree 
Next we were brought into a huge room with tables and handed a clothes basket. Fortunately it wasn’t some kind of laundry detail. Instead, it was more like Christmas day. You went from one table to the next and they just gave you all of the US. Olympic Gear made and supplied by official Team USA sponsors.

In all we received 7 different winter outfits, USA luggage and a host of other fantastic items that are too numerous to list.  

Processing Continues
After receiving my “gifts” we were then given physicals and drug tested. The year I competed, the bobsled team processed with the figure skating team. We were the last two teams to process for the United States because we had raced a couple of days before in Germany. After being poked, probed and asked to pee in a cup by the docs, we had to go to a FBI debriefing meeting on security. 

In 1994 there was heightened awareness of “athlete sabotage” with the whole Kerrigan/Harding clubbing as well as the terrorist sabotage at the 72 Munich games. I ended up sitting next to Nancy Kerrigan during this debriefing meeting. Believe me when I tell you, there was a lot of “eye rolling” going on there, which I found particularly ironic. Tonya Harding wasn’t there because the US Olympic committee was still pondering whether to let her come and compete at those games.  

Support Team USA
Well, I’ll hit the pause button for now on my trip down memory lane, but there’s one key request I have before I go. Truly and sincerely root for team USA. Don’t be too critical of their performances if they don’t win medals.

Many of the athletes competing have given up most of their lives for these moments. They AND their families have sacrificed in countless ways to get to the Olympics. Odds are you won’t see or hear from 99% of these athletes once the games have concluded and they certainly won’t be cashing in on the fact that they were there.

Support them. Be proud of them and the fact that they are representing YOU and OUR country. They have put politics aside and compete against the world’s best in a peaceful way in this wonderful arena that we call sports. Be proud that they have those three letters on their uniforms that say USA!

USA! USA!

Added Note: All our hearts go out to the family, the country and the fans of Olympic athlete and luger, Nodar Kumaritashvilli who died tragically in his training run. There are no words to adequately convey the sadness and tragedy of such a loss.

Related:
Reflections of Olympic Village
Tri-State Doc Recalls Olympic Moment (video)