A brewery. Now there's some irony for you, especially since the last time Canadians who like to stay up late glimpsed Jon Montgomery was on the Olympic broadcast, chugging beer from a pitcher in Whistler Village.
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Q & A: Olympic gold medalist Jon Montgomery
- February 20, 2010 9:31 PM |
- By Joe O'Connor
Story provided by
A brewery. Now there's some irony for you, especially since the last time Canadians who like to stay up late glimpsed Jon Montgomery was on the Olympic broadcast, chugging beer from a pitcher in Whistler Village. It was an iconic Canadian thing to do for a freshly crowned Olympic champion.
Montgomery, the skeleton ace, was still beaming at a Whistler brewery the next day, where the funnyman met with reporters to talk about drinking beer, dealing with Olympic pressure and how winning a gold medal could change his life. This is an edited transcript of the conversation.
Q You looked like you were having fun last night?
JM I'm not going to lie to you, that was a pretty smashing time.
Q How did the beer taste?
JM Free-99 is my favourite price, and after a victory like that it tastes all the better.
Q When you have just won the gold, how do you have the presence to make sure you take the most out of this?
JM You can't not live in the moment, and you have got to be mindful I guess, because you know it is not going to happen again. That was a once in a lifetime opportunity. That will be the pinnacle, I'm sure, of my sporting career, because I will never have another opportunity to compete at home in an Olympics in front of Canadians.
Q Have you heard from Russell, Man. [Montgomery's hometown]?
JM I did. I haven't spoken to the mayor, but I did get lots of well wishes, and emails as well."
Q How is your life going to be different?
JM No clue. I haven't had an opportunity to do anything but brush my teeth and comb my hair, well, I didn't actually comb my hair this morning.
Q What do you say about the whole issue of pressure on Canadian athletes. There are some out there that have not done, obviously, as well as you?
JM I can't comment on other people's frame of mind ... I can only speak for myself when I say I didn't feel pressure. I am not being -- I'm not down playing it -- I really didn't feel pressure from Canadians, from Own the Podium, from anybody. I viewed it as I had an immense amount of support. I knew that the folks that truly love me would have been proud of me regardless of the outcome, and that to me is something that you can rest easy on, and go to the start line with a cool calm collected sense of yourself and not feel the pressure.
Q What do you think you've done for the sport?
JM My cousin said that he is going to take on the skeleton, so there is one possible new recruit we've got ...
Q How did you get turned on to the sport?
JM I got real lucky and chanced upon a race day one day in a self-guided tour of the Calgary Olympic Park ... I thought it was a horrible luge accident when I saw these guys coming down the track head first on their stomachs. And when I looked into it and investigated a little further I found out it was a sport called skeleton, and I made it my day's work to find out how I could get involved and get on the track myself.
Q What was your biggest sporting highlight before the gold medal?
JM We won a Western Canadian bronze in Bantam hockey. That was pretty special. I had a police escort from the Saskatchewan border to our bus to Russell. It was only 15 minutes mind you, and one of the officers' was a father of one of my teammates, and that was a great moment. We earned that as a team, and that was something pretty special for a community of 1,500 people.
Q Were you forward or a defenceman?
JM I was a forward, and I was the smallest player in the entire tournament. I remember I had just flown back from visiting my sister in Japan and the headline of the paper was: "Rangers gobble Blazers' small fry," because there was a few of us runts on the team, and we had to skate like mad to keep out of the way of some of these bruisers that ended up in The Show.
Q What time did you get to bed last night?
JM 5 a.m.
Q That beer last night was your first in how long?
JM [long pause] I don't subscribe, you know, necessarily to all the typical things athletes do, and for me a pint now and then is always a good thing.
Q Are you an auto auctioneer? How would you describe yourself, I have heard you described as a used car salesman?
JM I have described myself as a used car salesman, the Herb Tarlek of maybe the skeleton world. I don't have a white belt or white shoes, but you go to auction school to become an auctioneer, and it is wherever your interests lie, and my education was in the automotive industry.
Q How does it sound?
JM How does what sound?
Q How does it sound when you [auction a car]?
JM Alright-ladies-and-gentlemen-now-where-do-you-want-to-be, you-tell-me. Anybody-got-a-bid-of-one? Got-a-bid-of-one, one-two, two-to-bid-to-three, got-a-bid-of-four-and-all-done-sold-over-there. Good-eye, good-buy, for three dollars.
Q Are you going to have time for the world auctioneering world championship?
JM I don't know if, at this point in my life, that is something I will pursue. But who knows?
About the Author
- Joe O'Connor Joe O'Connor is a roving sports feature writer with an open-ended beat. He joined the National Post in 2002, and has spent the past seven years bouncing from sport to sport, offering fresh perspectives and delivering unique stories wherever he goes. Whether it has been getting Don Cherry to open up about his love life; George Chuvalo to talk about heartbreaking loss; or racing down the side of a mountain with former Crazy Canuck, Dave Irwin, the veteran Postie chases a story wherever it leads. Before joining the newspaper he was a two-time silver medalist at the National Magazine Awards. Vancouver will be his first Olympics.
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