Skeleton sliders’ nicknames
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Adam Edelman represents Team Israel in the skeleton by way of Brookline, Mass., just a short drive from MIT, where he played hockey before transitioning to sliding sports after his graduation in 2014.
He is Adam to his parents, presumably, and to his former teachers, coaches, casual acquaintances and, upon introduction, the Pyeongchang media corps.
Among his fellow sliders, on the other hand, Edelman goes by something else entirely: “The Hebrew Hammer.”
Athletes participate in a sport that sends racers hurtling headfirst down slick tracks overflowing with treacherous nooks and crannies, where every curve carries with it the chance to slide out of medal contention, if not worse.
So it might come as no surprise that off the track, sliders tend to take things a little less seriously than some of their Winter Games peers — as seen in the nicknames passed around the track by many of those on the World Cup circuit.
“We all have our personal nicknames,” Edelman said.
Australia’s John Farrow is “Farrow the Arrow.” It’s a play on being fast, he explained, his eyes narrowing as if to say: Well, obviously.
Farrow is following in the footsteps of former Canadian slider Paul Fraser, known among his peers as “Fraser the Laser.”
And Canadian-born slider Joseph Cecchini, here representing his father’s home country of Italy? His nickname is Joe-Nino, “Because there’s a storm coming,” Farrow explained.
“That’s something we played around a lot with when we were first starting,” he said. “We just kind of rhymed our names.”
Great Britain’s Dom Parsons, who finished 10th in skeleton in the Sochi Games, is known as “The Wizard.”
Well, that’s because you can work magic on the track, a reporter offered. Not quite: Parsons’ nickname comes from a teammate taking his picture on Snapchat and adding a wizard’s cap — sorry to disappoint, Parsons said.
Ghana’s Akwasi Frimpong might be the only slider with two nicknames. One, “The Ice Dancer,” stems from his tendency to dance at the finish line after wrapping up his sprint. The other, “The Ice Rabbit,” comes from his helmet, which features a pair of rabbits leaping out of a lion’s mouth.
“I just call myself Akwasi,” he said. With the help of an interpreter, the Republic of Korea’s Jisoo Kim explained his nickname, but a word was lost in conversion:
“He has a big …” the interpreter said, her hands forming a halo around Kim’s helmet, “so it’s rock …”
Rock head, maybe?
“Yes, rock head.”
The USA’s Matt Antoine is “Matty Ice.” Unfortunately, that leaves him as just the second-most famous American athlete with the moniker, behind Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan.
With his finely maintained coif, John Daly also could be known as “The Hair,” said New Zealand’s Rhys Thornbury, who led sliders with a time of 50.98 during Tuesday’s training heats.
“You know, ‘The man with the $1 million haircut,’ ” Thornbury said. “That’s why I have my helmet on, I can’t compete.”
Thornbury doesn’t have a nickname, he said, dejectedly.
“I’d love a nickname. I always wanted a nickname growing up,” he said, and then things turned sadder. “Sometimes I’ve given some self-appointed nicknames. None of them ever stick, but … I haven’t really been involved in the nickname game.”
To the suggestion that it might be only fair if he didn’t use his fellow sliders’ nickname in response, Thornbury shrugged. I guess, he said.
It’s just part of sliding, these nicknames, as another outlet for athletes in need to exhale and unwind before and after participating in an event that requires perfection, or at least a close approximation.
In the end, it can help to remember we’re just riding a sled, Daly said.
“There are definitely some times when it gets you down and you get upset and you get very serious about it — I mean, we are at the Olympic Games — but in the end, we are still having a great time.” Daly said. “You try to keep it light and realize that, and you’ll always have fun, you’ll always have a nickname.”
“That’s something we played around a lot with when we were first starting. We just kind of rhymed our names.” John Farrow Australian skeleton rider, on the origin of coming up with nicknames for each other