Wednesday, November 14, 2001
Smith a medal threat in first women's event
By STEVE BUFFERY -- Toronto Sun
Christina Smith has been hit with a few pickup lines in her day, but none quite like the one this dude laid on back at the University of Calgary in 1992.
"He came up to me and said that I had the legs of a bobsledder," Smith recalled. "I brushed him off."
Turns out the guy's interests were strictly athletic. A member of the Canadian bobsled team, he figured Smith, an avid alpine skier and speed skater, had the perfect build for bobsledding.
Smith was intrigued, although she certainly didn't rush out to Calgary's Canada Olympic Park for lessons.
A few months later, however, the U of C phys-ed student landed a modeling gig at a fundraiser and ended up winning the door prize -- a four-year membership at the Calgary Bobsled Club. Talk about fate. Ten years later, Smith is the top female bobsledder in Canada and a real medal hopeful at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics this February.
In each of her first two seasons on the World Cup circuit, the Montreal-born sledder won a bronze medal, and finished fifth overall last season in the World Cup standings. Now she's hoping to win a medal for Canada in Salt Lake -- the first time that women's bobsled will be contested at a Games.
Smith certainly has come a long way from the time when she and other members of the Canadian women's team were forced to pay their own way to competitions and training camps in Europe, and had to barter items such as maple syrup and smoked salmon -- brought over from Canada -- in order to afford time on the track and the use of equipment.
"When the IOC allowed women's bobsled into the Olympics in 1999, it was like the seas parted, like a big door opened and lights shone upon us," Smith said yesterday from her hotel in Konigssee, Germany, where she is preparing for a World Cup event this weekend.
Thanks to the IOC decision, the Canadian women now have their trips to competition paid for by Bobsleigh Canada and receive a small living allowance from those pencil-pushing clowns in Ottawa.
Isn't it great when young Canadians don't have to go into hock in order to represent their country?
But money and prestige aren't why Smith, 32, is involved in sport. She loves competing and using her position as a national team athlete and director of the Adolescent Life Enhancement Centre to help underprivileged youth, although what do you expect from someone born on Dec. 25?
When she's not counselling or competing, Smith is a motivational speaker and works as an equine therapist in the off-season, mainly in Europe.
While Smith certainly is a special person, her story isn't all that unique. The Canadian team is full of incredible individuals with amazing stories, further proof that you don't have to be an $8-million-a-year jerk to be interesting.
2002 Games Bobsled Coverage
