Home is where the hopeful are/ Borders are blurred for some Olympians

SALT LAKE CITY - They trained for a snow sport by pushing a bobsled outfitted with in-line skates on the unslick streets of the Bay Area, where there are plenty of flakes, just not the kind that fall from the sky.

The journey began with them avoiding parked cars and dodging moving ones, all in the name of a tiny country, all in pursuit of Olympic glory. They overcame numerous competitive hurdles, swerved past political roadblocks and beat unbeatable odds.

And you know where this inspirational story ends?

In 33rd place.

Not bad, actually, for two guys from San Jose representing Armenia, especially since one of them isn't Armenian and has never been there.

"The way everything came down was not normal procedure," Dan Janjigian said.

Forget the medal table that has been running in this and every newspaper each day. The Olympics aren't just about crossing the finish line; they're also about reaching the starting line. And the before stories can be more intriguing than the after ones.

So let's honor the gold-medal beginners like Errol Aguilera and Andrew McNeilly, who were born in Canada, yet somehow gained citizenship to compete in bobsled for Trinidad & Tobago. The Coppertoned nation sits in the Caribbean Sea and, during these Games, might as well be called Trinidad & Toboggan.

Let's also include New Zealand's Liz Couch, a skeleton competitor who began her Olympic dream in the most traditional fashion - answering a want ad. The classified asked for "fit young women with attitude."

It's also worth mentioning the Virgin Islands team, the entire Salt Lake contingent of eight athletes, seven of whom were born someplace other than the Virgin Islands. But they all at least have been there, if only on vacation.

Sorry, that's just a joke. We're sure Virgin Islands officials met the necessary criteria for these athletes to compete as Virgin Islanders. Of course, the necessary criteria can be as stringent as a mattress tag.

Now take the case of Gea Johnson. A former track athlete and bodybuilder, she competed Tuesday in bobsled despite taking up the sport only four months ago.

Some athletes give their lives to one thing in order to live their dream. Others give, oh, a semester or two. With such starts, who really cares about the finish?

So big deal that Patrick Singleton was 37th last week in luge. He still saluted his family's grand sporting tradition. Now, if his relatives could figure out what flag to salute. We're talking about a family tree twisted worse than tornado wreckage.

Singleton was born in Bermuda and represented his homeland here. His uncle, John McDowell, once represented Ireland in the bobsled. His cousin, Jacques Branch, once represented Canada in the javelin. His great uncle, C.G. MacCartney, was a former captain of the Australian cricket team.

This tangled mess is something Singleton can attempt to sort out after the Games, when he returns home - to Japan.

A few years back, he moved to Tokyo.

Copyright 2002
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