MEDAL DETECTORS
Canadian Olympic athletes including gold-medal figure skater Patrick Chan, front, and freestyle skiing gold medallist Cassie Sharpe, second from front, return from the Pyeongchang Games at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond on Monday.
If young freestylers were thrilled when Cassie Sharpe brought her first-place X Games medal to Mount Washington two years ago, how will they feel when she takes her shiny, new Olympic gold to her home hill?
“Do you want (to see) it?” she asked after landing and clearing customs at the Vancouver airport Monday morning.
Unlike other Team Canada athletes on the same flight from South Korea who wore their medals around their necks, Sharpe’s gold was stuffed in her front right pocket.
“It feels phenomenal,” she said after digging it out and holding it up for display. “It feels even better to hold it on Canadian soil. It feels good bringing it home. I’m so happy to be home. I just want to go lay in my bed and cook myself some food and just hang out for a bit.”
Sharpe won her gold in women’s freestyle halfpipe, dazzling judges with her audacious tricks, spins, big air and pat landings. The 25-year-old Comox native’s gold is part of a record medal haul by Canada: 11 gold, eight silver and 10 bronze.
As Patrick Chan emerged from customs, Maple Leaf-waving fans began singing O Canada. The 10time Canadian men’s figure skating champion was returning from his final Olympics as an athlete.
A Cantonese speaker, Chan said he would love to be at Beijing 2022 as a coach. The 27-year-old won gold in the team skating event at Pyeongchang.
“I’ll take a look at (the gold medal) every once in a while,” he said. “It’s sometimes better to keep it away and then just enjoy it once in a while.”
A recent transplant to Vancouver, Chan hopes to open a skating school after a short rest.
“I’ve waited for so long, in a way,” he said.
“It’s a new beginning and a rebirth. I’m going to just take a week to not do anything, not be a skater, not be an athlete and just enjoy B.C., enjoy everything I love about this place.”
Hockey player Meghan Agosta returns to her job as a police officer in Vancouver after leaving a Winter Games without a gold for the first time in four Olympics. Team Canada gave up a late tying goal against the U.S. in the gold-medal game, then lost in a shootout for silver.
“It’s amazing to be back on home soil,” the 31-year-old said. “It’s unfortunate that (the shootout) was the way it happened, but I’m so proud of us and happy for the girls in that room. We showed a lot of character.”
Agosta put forth a strong defence of Jocelyne Larocque, who removed the silver from around her neck during the medal ceremony. Agosta stood immediately to Larocque’s right.
“You know what? It was the heat of the moment. The decision she made, there was no ill will. She didn’t mean to disrespect anybody. We train so hard. We went there for gold. Jocelyne Larocque is an amazing leader, an amazing person and a great teammate.”
Sharpe sacrificed four years of her young life, dedicating herself to Pyeongchang after watching the 2014 Games in Sochi, where the women’s freestyle halfpipe debuted as an Olympic event. That’s four years of hard work, four years of 24/7 thinking of the Olympics and gold.
It was probably a needless question, asking her if it was worth it.
“Absolutely,” she said, gold medal stuffed back into her front pocket. “Holding onto (the gold), bringing it home, it’s absolutely worth it. Personally, it’s a bucketlist thing. How many people get to say they won gold at the Olympics? But then, of course, feeling the pride, everybody from Canada being so proud of you and so happy you’re bringing it home to them, all of a sudden everybody knows you.
“It’s incredible.”