Tuesday, February 19, 2002
Brenner scores on rebound
Overcomes several serious injuries to net silver in freestyle aerials
By STEVE SIMMONS -- Team Sun
PARK CITY, Utah -- Veronica Brenner looked around and didn't know who to thank first.
Let's see now. There were the surgeons who put her knee back together; the doctors who fixed her shoulder twice in the past year; the rehabilitation people who didn't charge her; the family that has been so supportive; the sponsors who pay her bills; the coaching she calls "the best"; the team psychologists who got her through when there was so much reason for doubt ...
"And," said Canada's first silver medallist of the Olympic Games, "I could go on and on."
Indeed, she could and she did and the truth is, rarely has an Olympic medal been won, enjoyed, and shared the way the silver medal won by the aerial skiing Brenner was shared yesterday on a hazy Utah afternoon.
And somehow the Humpty Dumpty of the Canadian Olympic team was put together again and won silver -- and the last person to believe it is the one who accomplished it.
"Today is the greatest day of my life," said Brenner, the Scarborough-born, resident of Sharon, Ont., who's having a better Olympics than her one-time neighbour, Curtis Joseph. This follows the previous best day of her life, which happened to be earlier this week.
"After everything I went through, this is worth it," she said. "Everybody told me this was possible. And it was their confidence and belief in me that got me there.
"Just this past week I had the day of my life, just before semis. That kind of put me over the edge. That made me believe that things were going to be okay."
Veronica Brenner always has had the ability to earn an Olympic medal. That never was her problem. Health was her problem, as was self-confidence, focus, and timing.
"The talent has always been there," said Peter Judge, the former Canadian coach who now coaches Australian aerialists. "It was always about finding the moment."
And when could she find just the right moment?
It wasn't last season when she tore up her knee in November, required surgery, and missed the entire World Cup season. It wasn't in summer training when she separated her shoulder. It wasn't in the fall when she re-injured that same shoulder. It wasn't in Nagano in 1998 where the highly touted aerials team crashed unceremoniously to earth.
"This is so unbelievable after everything she's come back from," said her father, Arvey Brenner, and her biggest fan, barely able to contain himself. "If you had asked me last week, I would have said she'd be lucky to be in the top five. There was a complete turnaround in the past few days. You could see how she was acting. She had a couple of great training days. You could see her confidence lifting.
"It's been a really long haul. The mental portion of it is probably the great thing she overcame. When she dislocated her shoulder jumping into the water at Lake Placid, I figured, okay, that's it. How much can a person go through?
"She has accomplished more than I ever, ever expected. When she was injured last year, I said to her, 'Look, if you want to retire, you've done everything you could possibly do.' I thought she was looking for someone to say it was okay. But she said, `I'm going to the Olympics, I'm definitely going to do that.'"
Brenner was in fourth position after her first jump and took the lead after her second. There were only three aerialists left to push her from the podium. She waited at the bottom of the hill, hugging teammate and fellow medallist Deidra Dionne, while the final three jumped.
Only one, Alisa Camplin, a charming Australian, beat them. "It was almost like time had stopped," said the 27-year-old Brenner. "I don't have any concept of how long it took but it seemed like forever."
Forever to earn silver. A wonderful career achievement award for a veteran of the World Cup circuit. A veteran whose ten World Cup wins will not bring her the kind of attention or the memories one second place finish will bring her.
"I'll be thinking about all the people who got me here," said Veronica Brenner, talking of the medal ceremony late last night. "I just had so much help from everyone. This is their medal, too."
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