Moms of our athletes get star treatment
SOCHI, Russia — “I must have heard it a thousand times, we’ll cheer so loud for you in Canada that you will hear us all the way to Russia,” says Cheryl Simundson, whose daughter, Kaillie Humphries, won a gold medal in Vancouver with Heather Moyse in the twowoman bobsled and is back to defend that title at Sochi Olympics.
Simundson and Shanne Matthews, whose daughter Rosalind Groenewoud is one of the favourites in freestyle skiing’s halfpipe, arrived in Sochi late Wednesday as guests of Procter & Gamble, an Olympic sponsor.
As a reward for all they have done for their children’s sports careers, the Canadian women and several dozen other mums of Olympians from around the world have been brought to Russia by the personal-care products multinational to soak up the Olympic atmosphere and cheer their offspring.
After being pampered at a smart, makeshift wooden beauty salon, where you could have your finger nails painted with a Maple Leaf design, Simundson and Matthews spoke as you would expect any mother to. Whatever transpires during the Olympic fortnight that starts on Friday, their support for their daughters was unequivocal.
“I hope for [Sochi] the same thing that I hope for in everything she does,” said Matthews, who lives in Calgary. “She does the best she can do that day and skis away feeling proud. That she achieves the goal she has set for herself. That is, to win a gold medal, but it is also about the kind of run that she puts down that day.
“Whether she wins or loses on race day does not make me love her more or less,” she said of her daughter, who is known in the sport as Roz G. “If she doesn’t win and feels she has done her best, I’ll feel well.”
Both mothers spoke of the stresses that they faced while watching their kids compete against the world’s best on the biggest stage that there is.
“There is nothing like standing at the bottom of the halfpipe and seeing that run live and holding your breath until they are done,” Matthews said. “When they fall, to be there to give them a hug and hope they get back up. And if they do well, to hug them just as much.”
Simundson’s daughter, Kaillie Humphries, drives a bobsled, which is one of the most dangerous jobs in sport.
“It is nerve-racking to watch her any time she races,” Simundson said, but there was double the worry at the Olympics because there were four runs, not two, as there are at most other competitions.
“Normally I chat to people. I can’t really watch the whole race. I talk to whoever is close to me, whether they want it or not. That is how I work out my nerves. My husband wanders a little bit away. He deals with it that way.”
Despite the threats of Chechen militants to attack the Games, Simundson and Matthews said they had no fears for themselves, their husbands, who were here with them, or for their daughters, who were living up the mountain at Krasnaya Polyana where the Olympic “snow sports” are being held.
Nor were they joining the chorus of naysayers who have slagged Sochi organizers for not being ready to host the Games.
“I love it here,” Simundson said of this sub-tropical resort on the Black Sea. “I came without any preconceived ideas. The weather is gorgeous. Blue, sunny skies, palm trees, green grass.”
Win or lose, after the Games, Groenewoud is going backcountry powder skiing with her father near Bella Coola, B.C.
And Humphries has already declared her intention to compete in what would be her fourth Winter Games in four years time in South Korea.