Ski Racing - February 22, 2010

After the combination slalom race, Francoise Zweifel, a member of the Organizing Committee of the Games, approached Antun Vrdoljak and asked him if he still wanted to present the medals in that discipline. The International Olympic Committee tries to give representatives of national committees the satisfaction of awarding the gold medal to the representatives of their own countries, and Zweifel, thinking that Janica would not endure the combination downhill but had a great chance in the slalom, advised Vrdoljak to put his name down for the other discipline. Vrdoljak, however, was sure that Janica would triumph in the combination. Seeing whose name was in the database for the protocol for the award ceremony for the winners of the combination, Boris Sakac, the head of the information system of all the Olympic Games since Sarajevo rushed to see Vrdoljak. As head of information at the Games Sakac had access to all data, including times measured at all training sessions. “Toncek, can I tell you something?” Sakac began, “I think, if you want to award the gold medal, then change the discipline. She can’t do it. She is weak in the downhill. I time them every day. Tonci, she was eighteenth now, but she won’t move. She can’t win the combination.” “Don’t worry Boris,” said Vrdoljak, “I assure you, Janica will win the combination. I enjoyed watching the slalom. Janica has built up such a difference, only a fall in the downhill could prevent her winning.” And a joyful, smiling, happy Janica Kostelic sat down in the back seat of the Chevrolet jeep. Her father was driving, and sitting next to him was Doctor Zeljko Sucur. They turned popular Croatian singer Oliver up to maximum and at times sang louder than the sound blasting from the speakers. Janica set off for the slope, where in an few hours the downhill race would be run, as though she was returning to the hotel after winning the race, as though she had already won. She had an unusual glitter in her eyes… Ante Kostelic, in the finish arena of the downhill, had a small wooden pencil in his jacket pocket and on a piece of paper he was calculating Janica’s chances: first for winning any kind of medal, and then for a gold. He tried to assess what time would be good enough. “I am not going to tempt fate, but we could win a medal,” Ante Kostelic muttered. The changes in Gips’ moods were terrible. When only four or five competitors were left before Janica’s run, he told Sucur, who was standing beside him the whole time, “Uh, it’s going to be hard, hard to get a medal, you know, hard to get a medal.” When he concluded on the basis of Janica’s advantage in the slalom and the times of most of her opponents that Janica could win a medal, he muttered, “Uh, super, a medal! But not a gold, she can’t win a gold.” And when finally, Janica reached the finish and Kostelic realized that she had won, he just kept repeating, “Janica, Olympic gold, Janica, Olympic gold, Janica, Olympic gold….”

Excerpted from “When a Father Loves Gold” by Croatian journalist Tomislav Birtic; the book is now available through Amazon.com: amazon.com/When-Father-Loves-Tomislav-Birtic/ dp/1450552528/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=book s&qid=1265646197&sr=1-2