No longer afraid to be the best
Enter the 33-year-old Winnipegger Clara Hughes, she of the glorious red hair and mega-wattage smile, who here demonstrated inarguably that the two — excellence and decency — need not be mutually exclusive.
Ms. Hughes won her fifth Olympic medal — she already had two cycling bronzes from the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta and silver and bronze in her then-still-new sport of speed skating at Salt Lake City — and her first gold this weekend came in the gruelling 5,000-metre race.
She had to pound out the final two laps against tough veteran multi-medalist Claudia Pechstein of Germany and also beat the pace set by fellow Canadian Cindy Klassen, who won an astonishing five medals in Turin alone and has been toasted by International Olympic Committee boss Jacques Rogge as the woman of these Games.
Ms. Hughes was so spent that seconds after crossing the finish line, she collapsed and lay on the track, her chest heaving like a magnificent thoroughbred.
Then she got to her feet and erupted with what she later called “sheer joy and happiness and the rapture of being alive.”
And then, her work not yet done, she announced that she was emptying her bank account of $10,000 — donating all she has, for speed skaters are hardly rolling in dough, to the Right to Play organization formed by Norwegian superstar Johann Olaf Koss and which helps youngsters in war-torn parts of the world by reminding them, if ever they knew, or teaching them, if they didn’t, about the pleasures and healing qualities of sport.
Already a supporter of the organization, Ms. Hughes said she’d watched a CBC documentary about Right to Play’s work in Uganda the day of her race, and was inspired — and reminded herself that “play can give so much to the world.”
However, lest one get carried away by the young woman’s goodness — and those who know her well weren’t surprised at all by her gesture — consider what else Ms. Hughes had to say.
“This,” she told reporters of her sport, “is what I do.
“And I should not be afraid to be the best in the world.”
I should not be afraid to be the best in the world.
The other Canadians who here proved they are the best in the world are cut from similar cloth, as indeed are most of their fellows, from whatever nation they call home. What most athletes get from sport isn’t a narrow view of the planet, but a broader and magical one, the smarts to know how blessed they are, and the ability to relish the moment, because another like it may not be around the corner.
There are too many illustrations to count, but Ms. Klassen’s quiet and graceful handoff of the Canadian flag to Ms. Hughes, so that she might carry it round in celebration, was one.
