Everyone suspected that Canada would win the gold medal in the men’s 500-metre short track race on Wednesday night. They just didn’t think Steven Dubois would be the Canadian to do it. Not even Steven Dubois.
As is the curse of Olympic champions, everyone wanted to interview Dubois, a shy, quiet guy. At one stop, he tried to explain how weird this all was.
“I can’t say [winning gold has] never been on my mind, but I guess I never really wanted to give myself a chance to do it,” Dubois said. “There’s nothing to describe …”
At which point one of the media handlers came in to break things up. The Italian relay team had arrived. They would go ahead of Dubois.
For the first time, Dubois really smiled. Full teeth. Even after winning a gold medal at the Olympics, the pecking order still exists.
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Until 9:33 p.m. local time, everyone understood the hierarchy in the Canadian men’s short track team as well. William Dandjinou, the young, fresh-faced aspirant, first; Dubois, the dependable veteran, second. Dubois has multiple Olympic medals, and is a more proven performer at this level, but Dandjinou and his potential were more fashionable.
They both made the 500 m final, along with three Dutch skaters, including two brothers. It would be an individual race, but one with team tactics. Dubois had a plan. He would go out first, but slow. That way, there would be no gaps behind him that the Dutch skaters could accelerate into. Very risky, Dubois said.
Dandjinou also had a plan. He would start from behind, and attack the Dutch before they could do what everyone else has done in Milan, and attack him. By his reckoning, this would either help him, or help Dubois, but it couldn’t help both.
The two men told each other their plans beforehand. Dandjinou’s direct action didn’t work out, but it unbalanced a pair of Dutch skaters. Did it play a role in Dubois winning his championship?
“Yeah, well …” Dandjinou said, thinking about it. “Yeah.”
Dandjinou is one of those lovely people you feel compelled to pull through interviews, rather than just ask questions of. He came to Italy with the expectation of winning three individual medals. He will leave with none.
However, he did win a silver in the mixed relay, and there’s the chance for another of some colour on Friday in the 5,000 m relay. It’s not exactly a disappointment, right?
“No, it is a disappointing Olympics,” Dandjinou said, laughing. “Let’s be honest.”
Laid against Dandjinou’s cheery disappointment was Dubois’s stunned acceptance that he was an Olympic champion.
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As he talked, he couldn’t stop looking down at his medal, angling it upward so that he could see it better. People only do this with golds, never silvers or bronzes. Winning any colour medal is great, but gold works differently on people. They get a faraway look, and are sometimes slightly hysterical with joy.
Dubois went the other way – wide-eyed and quiet.
“It’s a bit of relief, and satisfaction, and pride,” he said. Then he went back to looking at it, his precious.
As much as one is delighted for Dubois, one could not help but feel for Dandjinou. After losing a chaotic 1,500 m, he came out and told everyone holding a microphone that “one day, I will be Olympic champion.”
He didn’t name the day, but the implication was that it would be Wednesday. He blew away the competition in all of his heats leading up to the final. It was going to be so perfect – a Canadian Joe Namath. Then the other guy won.
Dandjinou was, as he has been throughout, exceedingly gracious: “There is still a part of me that feels I won gold today, with Steven.”
But what a bummer.
A teammate who can understand what this is like is Courtney Sarault, who is having a fantastic Olympics. Before the 500 m final, she added another bronze to her stack, through the women’s 3,000 m relay. She’s won so many medals here (four) that she isn’t exactly sure where they all are. In a box in her room in the village somewhere.
Sarault’s actual Olympic breakout has arrived four years after her planned Olympic breakout. In Beijing, she had a Dandjinouian tournament. Sarault blamed herself for a fourth-place finish in the relay there. She had to be convinced to continue competing in China. Still, nothing went right.
“If anyone knows about a first Olympics experience that doesn’t go as planned, it’s me, your girl,” said Sarault. “I’m telling him to just keep his head up. The Olympics doesn’t define his worth, or what he’s capable of.”
It’s a lovely sentiment, but you’d have to be a little superhuman to do the work that Dandjinou and Sarault do and not believe the Olympics defines your worth.
For his part, Dandjinou appeared sanguine. Not happy, but not devastated. He’d been hot after the 1,500, but he’d lost all of his simmer on Wednesday.
Why are you so upbeat?
“That’s a good question,” Dandjinou said. “I don’t know. That’s just the way I am.”
Like Sarault after Beijing, one suspects there will be low moments ahead, after he’s left Italy and the Olympic hangover hits. He acknowledged that four years sounds like a long time. But he was clear that he intends to fulfill his promise.
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