Stojko’s silver wowed Nagano
Selecting the top moments in Canadian Winter Olympic history isn’t easy. There are so many moments to celebrate. We’ve narrowed it down to our top 25. Visit www.windsorstar. com/olympics and vote on your favourite in our Postmedia poll.
12. 1998: Elvis Stojko, figure skating
The Canadian curse in men’s figure skating was expected to end in Nagano. With Elvis Stojko having won over judges with his technical skill if not his style to win three of the previous four world championships, Olympic gold seemed to be within reach.
The curse wasn’t conquered, but Stojko might have earned even more fans with his gutsy performance to win silver. Skating on a month-old torn adductor muscle — while overcoming a bout of the “Nagano gunk,” a fever-and-chills flu that laid low several hundred athletes in the Olympic Village — he landed eight triple jumps, almost every one of them a struggle, in a remarkable display of courage. “Eight triples with a bad groin injury,” said teammate Jeff Langdon. “His focus is scary.”
Their coach, Doug Leigh, was at a loss for words to describe the awe in which he held Stojko, who hobbled to the medals podium in running shoes after his free skate and then was whisked off for medical treatment.
“The word exceptional doesn’t do it justice,” said Leigh. “The pain threshold, the ability to push through and do what he did ... I can’t think of the word …
“When they put the marks up, he was in acute pain, he could hardly catch his breath. He really hung on to me and he said, ‘ It’s fine. It’s fine. The marks are nothing.’ He’ll live with what he did tonight. There’s no marks for that.”