ITALY: OLYMPIC GAMES - Snowboarding boardercross medallists react to historic wins

Record ID: 332021

  • Title: ITALY: OLYMPIC GAMES - Snowboarding boardercross medallists react to historic wins
  • Date: 17th February 2006
  • Summary: WIDE: BORDER CROSS PISTE (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 4th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA4AHUW8CDXLD59VP1F7PULVGTH
  • Story Text: A U.S. athlete, a Slovak and a Frenchmen made history on Thursday (February 16) by winning gold, silver and bronze at the Winter Olympics's first ever snowboarding boarder cross race.
    Riders got bumped on the jumps, sometimes falling in tangled heaps on the snow, as they jostled for the lead at speeds of up to 60 kph (35 mph).
    Only in Olympic snowboard cross could an athlete literally see his medal hopes vanish down the 'Toilet Bowl', just one of the evocatively named twists and turns of the 900 metre obstacle-strewn course.
    All three medal winners left the doping tent at the end of the day's race in top mood, joking with each other.
    Slovak silver medallist Radoslav Zidek said: "I feel really good. I am having a great time, finally."
    The Russian news agency Tass said that Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda has sent a congratulatory telegram to Zidek for winning the first Winter Olympic medal for Slovakia since the country was established in 1993.
    Using snowboarding slang, bronze medal winner Paul-Henri Delerue said: "It's great. I'm stoked."
    Delerue's older brother, Xavier, was disqualified early in the race. Paul-Henri's only champion's title to date was in the junior boardercross World Cup which he won in 2004.
    Gold medal winner Seth Wescott showed a more serious side.
    "It's amazing, it's a dream come true. Well it's the first time the sport's been in the Olympics and I'm the first Olympic medallist," Wescott said as he was being hurried down to Turin for the medal ceremony.
    His parents had a little more time to spend on praising their golden son.
    His mother, Margaret Gould Wescott, described Seth as a great thinker.
    Seth himself said earlier at a post race newsconference that, after a less than great start to the race he had patiently waited for his time before pushing for gold.
    "He's a really big thinker, he's a reader, he's very articulate, he's wicked smart as we say in Maine. Yeah, he does a lot of stuff, in addition to snowboarding. But he's trained really hard. I am extremely proud of him and grateful he is in my life," his mother said.
    His father explained how his boy started boarding.
    "He read a snowboard magazine and he thought 'Gee, I can skateboard in the winter with a snowboard' so that's how he made the transition and you know we build the little jumps in the backyard and its just neat to think two people have seen the transition from the little jumps in the backyard to higher jumps, faster speeds, what he does," Jim Westcott.
    Wescott hopes boardercross could appeal to the same sort of fans who have made Nascar the country's biggest draw on wheels.
    "I am proud of him of who he is as a human being not just as an athlete and I think he's going to be an incredible ambassador for the sport. I don't think there could have been anyone better who could have gotten the gold medal today," said his sister Sarah.
    Down in the village, champion U.S. downhill skier Daron Rhalves praised Seth's technique.
    "Taking the gold was sweet. You know it was a good battle all the way. Its not like he ran away from the beginning. You know it was impressive," Daron Rhalves said.
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