Nova Scotia couple takes in 42 Olympic and Paralympic events
When Michelin Tire worker and Wolfville resident George Koszuki was offered a three year position at one of the company’s plants in Brazil last year, the thought of attending the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro was one of the deciding factors.
George and his wife Jacqueline jumped at the chance to attend as many Olympic events as possible. But they could never have anticipated the things they would see – and the excitement they would experience.
By last week, the couple will have attended 42 Olympic and Paralympic events, including some extremely exciting and some very bizarre.
Jacqueline and George were at the wrestling match where two Mongolian coaches stripped off their clothes to protest the result of the Olympic bronze-medal match.
“The one coach protested and took his shirt off,” says Jacqueline. “The other one took his shirt off, took the shoes off and they went flying. And then he took his pants off, and he’s standing up there in his underwear. Well everyone in the crowd was laughing, like ‘are you serious?’ It was crazy.”
But it wasn’t all crazy. In fact, Jacqueline says it’s difficult to describe the electricity and excitement of watching the gold medal soccer match, where Brazil won the gold medal after a dramatic penalty kick to beat out archrival Germany.
Jacqueline and George were in the stands watching, and they say they felt like Brazilians, revelling in the electricity of the match.
“It was a sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat sort of game,” she says. “We went all decked out in our Brazilian finery, we even brought yellow and green wigs. Artificial gold medals, and our flags, we really got into the spirit of things.”
She says it’s difficult to put the feeling in the stadium into words.
“To be there in that stadium, everybody was just sitting on the edge of their seat, holding their breath. Just to be there. Country pride was really shining through it was really exciting to be there, to be part of that.”
Another highlight of their Olympic ex- perience was seeing Usain Bolt make sports history. The Jamaican sprinter won the 100 meters gold medal with a time of 9.81 seconds. That made him the first athlete to win the event three times at the Olympic Games.
Paralympics
The couple have also taken in many Paralympic events, and even had the opportunity to meet Sydney, N.S.’s Pamela LeJean, who placed fourth in shot-put. They also met her coach, Ueli Albert, also of Nova Scotia, and sat with her parents at the match.
It was a chance meeting. The couple were standing around the grounds when they saw Canadian shirts. George asked where they were from, telling the group the couple came from Nova Scotia.
Albert said: “‘Oh, so do I,’” says Jacqueline. “And we asked him where he lived and he lived seven kilometers from our home. It’s crazy!”
He invited them to meet LeJean, and watch her compete.
“She’s an amazing, amazing woman,” says Jacqueline.
She says the entire Paralympics event has been incredibly inspiring for the couple.
“It just goes to show it’s not the physical being that creates the athlete. It’s what’s in the inside, their drive, their determination.”
An example, says Jacqueline, happened at the opening ceremonies. Torchbearer and Paralympic medallist Marcia Malsar slipped and fell, dropping the torch.
“It’s inspiring. She was having great difficulty just walking, and then you’re carrying this torch, too, and then you fall,” she said. “But you get back up, and you don’t quit. No matter what your abilities, what you lack physically, it’s got to come from within.”
The crowd cheered wildly when the Brazilian Paralympian got back on her feet, picked up her torch, and kept going.
Opportunity of a lifetime
“We’ve been given an opportunity of a lifetime we feel,” she says. “These athletes … they’ve spent a great part of their lives, it’s just important to get out there and support, and we’re here, why not?”