Chris Chelios grabbed his red helmet, listened to some last-minute instructions, and then hit the ice -- running.
With the NHL lockout in full swing, Chelios traded his skates Wednesday for a pair of black booties and took three teeth-chattering runs in a two-man bobsled down the track at Mount Van Hoevenberg.
"That might hurt worse than hockey. Geez!" the 42-year-old defenseman said after his first run, sweat beading off his head, and his heart pounding as he stood at the finish line. "What a rush. We had some good speed. It's the fastest thing I've ever done. You don't have any control the way you're moving, I'll tell you that. I'm nervous now."
He needn't have been too much on edge because he wasn't driving. US women's bobsled star Jean Racine and men's driver John Napier were at the controls.
"At first, I thought, `Should I hit a wall?'" Racine said, smiling after going down the course. "I figured he's a tough hockey player. He's used to taking a hit into the boards. But I thought for the first time I'd try to make it nice and smooth and fun. Maybe next run. We don't get too many hockey players out here, but he was pretty confident. If he was nervous, he really didn't show it."
If the lockout continues, Chelios, whose parents are Greek, is toying with the idea of trying out for the Greek Olympic bobsled team for the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
"If the timing's right and the season's not looking like it's going to go, then I'll have the opportunity to compete and try to qualify for the Olympics. We'll see," said Chelios, who plans to train in Calgary, Alberta, and then return here in two weeks for more. "I don't kid myself if I'm not good at it. But it's not going to be tough to make the Greek team. Basically, if our hearts are in it, we're on the team just because of the lack of participation."
Clearly, though, he wants to play hockey, even at his age, and remains distressed over the lockout. The regular season was scheduled to begin on Wednesday night.
If Chelios is serious about his bobsled aspirations, one experienced onlooker said he had what it takes.
"There are two things you look for," said John Morgan, a former US bobsledder who has covered the last six Winter Olympics as an analyst. "You look in their eyes and the back of their pants."
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later