Clara Hughes Makes Case For Gaetan Boucher
On the topic of who should be the final torchbearer during Feb. 12 opening ceremonies, speed skater Clara Hughes didn’t hesistate for a second when asked her pick.
“Gaetan Boucher,” she said, naming the speed skating great who inspired her to take up the sport.
“Because I think outside of Quebec, he’s under appreciated. I know for me and so many of my teammates we saw him skate in ’88 and we saw him not win but we saw him fight to the death and go out there with courage.
“For me, it was an example that changed my life, that shifted the direction of my life. So I feel like he is the champion, he was the champion and he kind of went down with the ship.
“And to me, that’s the epitomy of the hero and the hero path. Just how he’s led his life. To me, I just feel like he is the person that really out of any Winter Olympic athlete I know really lived up to what it means to be an Olympian. I feel that from my heart.”
Hughes noted these decisions can be controversial.
“I look at Salt Lake City and for me that Eric Heiden did not light the cauldron at the end, I still can’t believe it,” she said. “I cannot believe it. It was the hockey team, the Miracle on Ice, which I know is a big deal, but you know what: Eric Heiden won five gold medals in one Olympics. He won every gold medal possible in his sport.
“And what I liked about Eric is he didn’t hand it off to them and he didn’t make a big deal about it, but he said ‘If I’m not the final person, then I’m not here.‘”
Heiden, who became a doctor and volunteers with the US speed skating team, felt he best reflected the Olympic ideal. Of his decision not to participate in the Salt Lake City Opening ceremonies, Heiden reflected in a New York Times interview last September:
“I was probably just too stubborn. I figured if they don’t appreciate what I did as a skater, if they don’t appreciate now what I am doing as a human being, I’d just as soon hang out with my buddies and watch it. I did not mean to slight the Olympic hockey team in any way. I grew up with a lot of those guys in Wisconsin.”
