KISZLA: COLORADO ATHLETES SEND THANKS
Each of the 35 world-class Coloradans competing in South Korea would humbly and gratefully like to send a thank-you note to people who might not realize how big a role they played in making these dreams come true.
The Winter Olympics are a love letter, written to Colorado and sealed with a kiss from athletes that could never have gotten here without the strength of 5.5 million friends back home.
“Kids growing up in Colorado can’t dream too big,” snowboarder Arielle Gold told me.
When the Games begin Friday at the opening ceremony, 35 athletes from Colorado, more than any other state in the country, will realize their Olympic dreams.
But know what’s really cool? Each of these world-class Coloradans would humbly and gratefully like to send a thank-you note to people who might not realize how big a role they played in making these dreams come true.
So here’s to Shelly Fullhart, a teacher at Brush Creek Elementary in Eagle, for nurturing what snowboarder Jake Pates called this “insane idea I had as a kid about going to the Olympics.” Let’s give a big fist bump to Jillion Potter, who spotted a super-fit, 30-something sales rep in a Denver gym, then encouraged Lauren Gibbs to try pushing a bobsled. And sincere thanks to Hayden Pike, who welcomed a young Colorado girl named Nicole Hensley to play street hockey with the boys on the cul-de-sac.
While the larger-thanlife tales of Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, the once and future queens of alpine skiing, will be shown on a continuous loop as NBC promotes the Winter Games, they are only the beginning of the story Coloradans will write in South Korea.
Take a seat in the back of the bandwagon, Jimmy Fallon. Prime-time players from Colorado will dominate your network for the next 17 days, as we wave the state flag from the ski hill to the hockey rink. This is U.S.
With a population of 5.5 million, Colorado is a world power on the Olympic stage. Athletes from Denver to Telluride could win more than half the gold that the United States takes home from the Winter Games. From precocious 17-year-old Red Gerard on his snowboard to the 33year-old Gibbs in a bobsled, Coloradans have a chance to beat proud sporting nations such as Sweden and Italy in the medal count.
It takes more than a village to build an Olympic athlete. Vonn is a transplant from Minnesota. Hockey player Troy Terry grew up in Highlands Ranch and skates for Denver Pioneers. Athletes in Colorado are organically grown, because one of the earth’s primo playgrounds is right out the back door.
“Colorado means everything to me,” said Gold, competing in her second Winter Games. “The state is the reason I’m a snowboarder in the first place. In Steamboat Springs, where I’m from, kids basically ski out of the womb.”
Yes, we are obsessed with the Broncos, but after a bummer of an NFL season around here, the home team that can make you stand up and cheer wears red, white and blue. It has roots in Colorado as thick as a forest of Lodgepole pine and brings a passion the size of Mount Massive for doing the state proud.
The stars from Colorado shine so brightly they can leave anyone awestruck.
Hensley, a 23-year-old goalie for the women’s team that will battle Canada for the Olympic championship, accidentally bumped into Shiffrin for the first time in Seoul, shortly after they both landed in South Korea for the Games.
“I got in the elevator with her,” Hensley said. “And I had a moment there, where I was like, ‘Oh. My. Gosh. This is Mikaela Shiffrin. She’s done so much in her athletic career.’ I tried to play it cool, and say, ‘Hey, Mikaela, how are you?’ But I was thinking: ‘This is amazing.’ ”
Unlike four years ago in Russia, which invited the world to a house party before the bathroom plumbing worked, everything about the Olympics in South Korea is ready for its close-up on your high definition television. Even the weather feels like winter. When the competition begins in earnest Saturday night, the first American hero could be Gerard, the favorite to win America’s first gold of the Games at the mind-bending, gravity-defying slopestyle contest. In the bleachers will be 14 of his best peeps from Colorado. When taking on the world’s best more than 6,000 miles from Silverthorne, these are the people who make Gerard feel at home.
“They keep things pretty mellow; they don’t really stress on too many things. It’s definitely nice,” Gerard said. “They knock me back in place when I get all cocky and stuff. They are nice to have around, and sometimes even annoying.”
Isn’t that what friends and family are for? There will be Coloradans to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” delightfully off-key if Gerard wins, or offer a soft shoulder and quiet whisper if he falls.
Look out, world. Here we come.
Colorado rocks.