Gold Medals & Lost Lilly
I skated really well this past weekend, placing 3rd out of the 19 juniors and seniors in the America’s cup sprint, I even won $50 for my 3rd place, whoo-hoo! Also I am writing from one of my favorite places on this planet, the upstairs tables at the Lakeshore Alterra Coffee Shop in Milwaukee. But my heart is all churned up right now for 2 reasons.
Reason #1
Shani Davis should be triumphant in his 1000m gold medal. Incredible! Amazing! But his interview right afterwards left me really depressed. One of my cool cousins called me a few moments after the NBC coverage ended and asked me “You know these guys, is Shani a complete jerk?” No, he is not a jerk. I can barely imagine the media crapstorm he has endured, and some of the articles about him & the whole team pursuit thing were frankly stupid. Chad is visibly annoyed as well from the incessant media pounding on this simple issue.
I can only imagine that Shani was so utterly infuriated with the media, that after his gold medal, he did not want to talk with them. But it’s too bad it came across as it did to my cousin, and I imagine, others as well. It was his chance to really say “here is who I am”. It was his chance to be overjoyed, and for those of us watching to share in it. The interviewer was so flummoxed; she asked him if he was angry… Wow…
Do I know who the real Shani is? His mom has written me and said I am only an acquaintance, not a friend. I can accept that, and I totally understand her instinct to protect her son from the many people who try to glom onto someone with his talent.
How I know Shani is that last year at US nationals, I was staying at the same house as he was, and I drove him to the races each morning, and did some hanging out at the house in the evenings. I wish I could substitute the mental image I have of the soft-spoken, low-key guy for what I saw on NBC. Sure, he is a complex person, and has a complex story, and I can’t imagine how anyone could capture him in a media sound bite. I would not even begin to try.
Actually, the thing I want to really put in place of that NBC interview is Shani on the ice in Milwaukee evening sessions. Kids are drawn to him, and he relates superbly well to them, and when he is not skating too fast for them to follow, he often is completely surrounded. Before his race, he said “this is for the kids in the Evanston speed skating club”. Yeah, that is Shani… my friend Carla said that her first memory of Shani is at a short track meet, he was carrying several kids around on his back.
Sure there is skating politics going on about this and that & blah-blah, but it’s gotten out of hand, and it’s ludicrous in this happy moment, that this is being talked about, that I am even talking about it. In the paragraph of the future, still to be written, I hope people remember him for how he skated to a gold medal, and all the other championships he has won. He always wanted his skates to do the talking….
Reason #2
My dog ran off yesterday afternoon, she is still missing. I am in Milwaukee, and Jessica is at a continuing education Vet Symposium in Las Vegas. Our beloved Husky/Shepard cross Lilly was staying with next door neighbors. Lilly knows them & their dogs, and we have left her with them before. They were hiking up in the snow-covered mountain trails above our house with a whole gaggle of happy canines, and Lilly ran off.
This was yesterday. Last night it snowing, and got down to 15 degrees in urban Salt Lake. Surely it was much colder up in the hills. Lilly did not show up at home, the local shelters have not found her. Lilly is a very fearful dog, she was abused before we got her, and is quite scared of people she does not know. This was her last week, on the same trail she dissapeared from.
I have this sinking feeling that she avoided people, and froze to death last night, under some bush up in the mountains. She is an indoor dog, and has not grown the thick coat she would need to survive.
The whole family who is taking care of her is making huge efforts to search. I fear for the worst.
This is why my heart is churning. Usually, when I feel bad, looking at nature gives me some perspective, some grounding, no matter what is going on. Not today.
Here is the view of lake Michigan. I love the colors that change by the day, the shape of the shoreline, even through the blustery, damp cold. It froze my hands to take this shot (Click on the image for a huge L-R panorama). I thought of my dog, is she cold? is she still alive? Lilly, come home!!
UPDATE!!!: LILLY HAS BEEN FOUND!!! Very late last night, in a snowstorm, some good Samaritans noticed a scared and freezing dog, who was obviously lost. Lilly had headed down the hill when lost, and not uphill into the mountains, it saved her life. The good samaritans spent a lot of time to get her to trust them, (she actually jumped into their car before she would let them touch her). Lilly is micro-chipped, and has a tag indicating that she is, and the micro-chip company number. This morning, they called, and got in touch with the number on her collar. So all is well!
Filed under: from the coffee shop
Man, I was feeling bummed out until I saw the text in Italics. My cat door-dashes all the time; I used to panic when that would happen, but I learned that I don’t need to panic because she’ll come back because she hates the cold.
Over & out, off to indoor skating I go!
Wow!
I am so glad your dog was found!
That happened to me years ago, and like you, my dog was found, but not before I spent a day filled with worry and heart rendering concern for my girl.
I’m very happy for you and her!
And well done on your racing!
Whew! We rescued a dog in the same way, cold winter day, she jumped into the car. She needed vet care but then no one claimed her so she lived with us and our dogs for a year until she succombed to congestive heart failure. Glad to hear your dog is well and waiting for you.
Congrats with Lilly and thanks for the balanced perspective on Shani Davis,
cheers from Amsterdam, Holland
Oh, I’m so happy about Lilly. The other, I’ll plead the fifth, other than to say that it’s quite sad and very disturbing that the Olympics has turned into such a media nightmare.
As Lily’s uncle, I’m really happy she was found. Not to mention all the other stuff. Keep Rockin’ Bro.
Good that Lily was smart and was found! Shows one a bit of perspective on life, albeit in a hard way.
Re Shani/Chad, one Norwegian daily reports there is a feud brewing between the two; Shani not wanting to skate the team pursuit and Chad saying one should put the US team first, not one’s own agenda. Doesn’t sound like Chad, I would expect him to be super focused on his single distances, and I expect Shani to pick his races as he wants, not as everybody else would like him to. Good comment on his website about that.
Team pursuit is a crock; out of sync, out of contact, hard to watch, boring tv programming, and it turns out that not every participant has even trained for it. Throwing super focused egos in a team for one event doesn’t always work well.
I think they should drop team pursuit, and try a pack style race at the next Olympics. We accept that sprinters and long distance are two classes of skaters, maybe team pursuit skaters should be composed of totally different skaters? What would have been interesting were to take the runners up in the Olympic trails and form pursuit teams out of them, mentally and in training. I’m willing to bet they could have beaten the existing ad hoc teams.
One idea is to put 4 teams @ 3 people on the ice at the same starting line and let them skate, third one determining the position/time. Clothe athletes in kevlar if the proximity of people running around with razor blades on their feet is scary…
is there a feud? or is the media desperate for a story, & doing its best to create friction & annoy the crap out of these two guys..
Dunno, Andrew, just gossipping…
The problem is that 90% of our journalists are sitting at home reading Reuters, official newsfeeds and home pages and just translating. Not much investigative journalism going on.
I watched the 1500m, Enrico Fabris won! He was very happy, that was good! I wonder if he, or anyone else, ever thought that he would win 2 golds and one silver. Good for him, Italy and Europe!
Shani was all smiles, he got his medal, I don’t know if it mattered what colour. He seemed just happy, even before Enrico jumped up and hugged him. I liked that, some of the women skaters seem to congratulate each other, men so far seem to be more aloof, so it was nice to see. Good for Shani as a role model and the US.
Chad was cross with himself, I guess, tv over here showed him sitting down sulking alone while others were happy. Will he either mellow for Vancouver, work harder for his goal of 5 golds in 2010, or feel that at least one gold, maybe two, this Olympics is sufficient? He strikes me as not being satisfied with second best.
Lots of athletes so far have “lost” their gold medal chances and come back to win, there are many enthralling Olympic stories.
Actually I think it better for the sport that the medals are spread out among athletes and countries, not that one person wins 5 golds… Sorry, Chad.
The Norwegians? Well, their goal of wall papering the podium (Norwegian term for gold+silver+bronze) just hasn’t happened. It seems that the Olympics is 4 years too early, too many first timers. Vancouver might be time for revenge.
And the Dutch men are just not good enough this time round either, a pity. The Dutch spectators make as big a noise as the Italians!
I love watching the Canadians and the Russian teams. Skinny Canadians in oversize speed suits, and the bulky Russians in their floral design!
Life is too short to quarrel…
(BTW, I am half Norwegian and originally half Dutch, but of a non-winter sporting nationality, hence my enjoyment of other nations winning!)
The kids are so happy you found Lilly, smart girl to find a warm car!!
Our speedskating club only has 7 kids, they look up to you guys (Andrew especially, Olympics or not!) like you would NOT believe. They thought Joey’s win was SO cool and they thought it was “UBER” cool that he donated funds to the organization. Reading about them on your site made them real people. It’s a good thing you are writing about them on here, it helps a little. They didn’t even ask whether Shani or Chad won today after school. I don’t think they care anymore. I know that’s REALLY horrible to say, but it’s true. I didn’t tell them either. I don’t care if they hear how Chad didn’t shake hands and didn’t do a victory lap. It isn’t fair to expect them to be ideal athletes and role models but they’re ON T.V. in front of a BAZILLION kids who hang out at the ice rink for pete’s sake! How fun is it to find out your hero is looking like a jerk? Joey is their biggest hero at the Olympics! He has saved the Olympics for the kids - he’s a superhero that throws up and Oh yeah, isn’t he the hero that poked himself in the eye with his safety glasses?
Shani has bailed from the 10,000 … one wonders why? Is it because he doesn’t want another confrontation with Chad.