Tales from the Stark Side: New Meaning to Bob-ble Head

Okay, so there was a Chris Bosh bobblehead doll giveaway last night at the Raptors game. But anyone who’s had a chance go down a bobsleigh run – and your correspondent got that chance after the 1986 world championships in Konigssee, Germany – knows what it’s like to be a real live bobblehead, or maybe that should be bobblesledhead.

Maybe it was because no one told me you’re supposed to bury your head back into your neck – bracing yourself sort of like a turtle – to prepare for the g-forces. Or maybe they told me and I didn’t hear them (a theory my wife and daughter would buy for sure).

Anyway, my head rattled off the inside of the sled all the way down the track (which might explain my great interest in the issue of concussions). The picture that came to mind was one of those bobblehead dolls in the back of somebody’s car window as they barrel down a bumpy country backroad. Luckily, they only started the sled from a third of the way down the Konigssee track.

We’d spent a lot of time that year covering the Canadian bobsleigh team – this was during the Chris Lori/Greg Haydenluck era for those who might remember (Okay, it’s a precious few). The coach at the time, a friendly enough guy named Werner Delle Karth who used to race for the Austrians, thought it would be good for us to get a first-hand perspective.

Bobsledders can be some of the most ornery, testosterone-filled athletes you’ll ever come across, but back then there was still a freshness, almost an innocence to the Canadian guys as they tried to climb their way up the ladder.

Best party we ever went to in four years spent covering Canadian Olympic athletes overseas in the mid ‘80s was a bobsleigh bash in Cervinia, Italy, kind of the Kitzbuehel of the sport. The course there is the most treacherous in bobsled. It almost killed Lori, who will be the expert commentator for CTV during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

So it’s a place the sledders are really ready to let loose after surviving on the track. This party featured skits from all the different teams – the British guys did this hilarious routine to music where they came out naked with their private bits were only covered by balloons that they kept moving to the beat of the tune. (Guess you had to be there, but the dudes were really in sync.)

The highlight was one of the Russian athletes, strumming on his guitar and singing Latvian folk songs. This was the Cold War era so there tended not to be a lot of fraternization with the East Bloc countries. Plus, the Latvian athletes at that time were still forced to compete for Russia so it was a special thing for this proud Latvian to be able to express himself in front of his peers. That expression was helped by the fact he was totally bombed.

The next day, the bobsledders had training for the four-man event and news came back that our Latvian friend threw up in his sled. Knowing the head rattling that can take place at those speeds, one can only imagine that hangover.

Wanna see what it feels like inside a sled? Check this out:

How it can all go wrong:

Couple more bobsled vids to check out (Click on title)

How it can all go terribly wrong

My kind of bobsleigh

Cool Runnings Revisited

Tales From The Stark Side: Kitzbuehel Lives Up To Hype

My blog guru here at the Star, Spencer, has suggested I write here and there about my experiences over the years. So please consider this the first installment of Tales From The Stark Side …

Spent four years spent covering Canada’s Olympic athletes overseas in the ‘80s and there was never really another event that matched the Hahnenkamm Downhill in Kitzbuehel, Austria. That was on and off the Streif course.

There are the awful crashes through the years that have helped build Kitzbuehel’s reputation. This year, it was Swiss skier Daniel Albrecht, who is in a medically induced coma after suffering head and lung injuries from a crash in training for tomorrow's race. (See it live on cbc.ca/sports at 5:15 a.m.)

My wife, also a journalist, and I travelled on the World Cup circuit together. We were there when Todd Brooker had his horrific head-over-heels crash that ended his career in 1987. She was standing at the bottom of the hill next to Brooker’s wife, Lisa, who was convinced she’d just become a widow.

But Brooker, now an analyst for CBC (and a very fine one at that), survived that crash – and with his sense of humor intact.

When he saw Lisa, he said through bloodied and swollen lips:

“Is my nose as big as your father’s?”

Just as infamous as the race is the party that follows at the Londoner Pub, where skiers take over behind the bar and let loose as only those who’ve confronted some of their greatest fears and survived can. The owners provide a huge cache of free champagne – a tradition started when the Crazy Canucks began winning the Hahnenkamm – and most of it is sprayed all over the place. Ditto for the beer, actually.

One year an American skier blew out his knee jumping off the bar.

Indeed, a dangerous place on and off the course. I've been warned off telling my own personal experience of that with the Londoner.