Del Bosco doesn’t settle for sure thing
Ski cross racer always looks for way to win
Looking back, Chris Del Bosco never intended on penning a real-life fable at the Vancouver Olympics.
But in failed pursuit of gold, the Canadian ski cross racer delivered a lesson in striving for excellence that will likely never grow old in his adopted homeland.
“There’s no sense in settling,” says Del Bosco, a transplanted American who will be named to the 2014 Canadian Olympic ski cross team Monday in Vancouver. “If you think you can improve, you might as well go for it in all areas of life.”
Four years ago, Del Bosco roared into the Vancouver Olympics as the favourite to win gold in the new freestyle discipline of ski cross. In the four-man final, the reigning XGames champion gave up a sure bronze by attempting a risky pass in a daring push to the front.
Due to “flight error” and not dumping enough speed, Del Bosco crashed and settled for an agonizing fourth place.
“I don’t have any regrets,” he says. “I’m no one just hang out. If I think I can improve my position I’m going to go for it.
“It wasn’t a totally uncalculated thing. There was history to it, and I had made passes like that to move up a position. That’s just how I race. That’s who I am.”
Back in 2004, Del Bosco was a young man in danger of dying a premature death due to booze and drugs. On one chilly night in his hometown of Vail, a passerby spotted a guy in a black T-shirt lying in a frozen creek bed. Del Bosco, wearing a black T-shirt, was unconscious and near-hypothermia and a broken neck.
To this day, he doesn’t know if he got into a fight or just fell in an alcohol-induced blackout. He knows surgeons needed titanium rods and six screws to fuse his C-4 and C-5 vertebrae. He knows his body temperature dipped to a dangerous 27.8 C.
Still he didn’t quit drinking until nearly two years later when merciful judge sentenced Del Bosco to 10 days in jail and more than 100 hours of community service for driving under the influence.
Del Bosco ended up tiling bathrooms for the Salvation Army and checking into rehab.
“That’s still the focus for me, the No. 1 priority,” Del Bosco, 31, says of his sobriety. “When that’s all in check, everything works out. Sometimes, you have to kind of reset and refocus, but yeah, that’s definitely still a part of my story.
“When I have that personal side of things all straightened out, things just work out.”
Kicked off the American ski team years ago for his wild ways off the mountain, Del Bosco represented Canada — the birthplace of his father Del—at the Vancouver Games. Now, four years later, he’s determined to grace the podium on behalf of his adopted homeland.
Should he succeed, Del Bosco will write a new ending to the story of never settling for second (or third) best.
“For a lot of people, that’s still what they remember,” he says. “They remember that moment and hopefully that inspires.”
In terms of inspiration, Del Bosco competes in the memory of Canadian teammate Nik Zoricic, who died in 2012 after a crash at the finish line of a World Cup in Switzerland.
The death of Zoricic — and tireless lobbying by his father Bebe — led to sweeping changes in course layout and safety regulations in a sport likened to roller derby on skis.
“I still remember Nik,” Del Bosco says softly. “I hold him close. For me, it made me realize you never know. When something like that happens, it makes you re-evaluate.”
The death of Zoricic rocked the Canadian team, and Del Bosco, for one, vows to never forget the lessons gleaned from such an unfathomable loss.
“I have this opportunity,” Del Bosco says of representing Canada for a second time on the ultimate stage. “I want to make the most of it. Sometimes, you’re just going through the motions. You’ve got to remember to make the most of every day and enjoy the time you have with everybody. “His voice trails off. “You never know.” Del Bosco (ranked 10th in the world) joins a Canadian team primed for the podium in Sochi. Dave Duncan, of Golden, B.C., is ranked second, in the world Calgary’s Brady Leman is sixth.
On the women’s side, Whistler’s Marielle Thompson is ranked No. 1 in the world followed by Canadian Olympic teammates Georgia Simmerling (sixth) and Kelsey Serwa (10th).