Glenroy Gilbert is the rock of Canada's sprint relay team
By ROB BRODIE -- Ottawa Sun
His is not the face staring out of the starting blocks, the one twisted with anxiety as he nervously awaits the gun signalling the start of the race.
Nor will he be the one crossing the finish line, with arms raised in triumph or with crushing disappointment etched across his visage.
Glenroy Gilbert is content to be the middle man. It is home to him, that lonely run down the backstretch.
It is where he knows he can shine better than anyone else in the world.
"I love it," the Ottawa sprinter says of running the second leg of the 4x100-metre relay. "That's my stuff there. You're coming off the line on the fly ... I can run off the fly anytime."
Gilbert is grinning as he says this on a quiet Monday at a quiet track in the shadows of Gatineau Park, where he trains in virtual solitude.
Days later, he will fly off to Australia for what will surely be the final Olympic Games of his life.
He has seen it all since his first one in Seoul in 1988. The Olympic shame of Ben Johnson that year ("I think I cried," Gilbert said. "We all did ... we were only 18.").
GOLDEN MOMENT
Olympic glory, finally, in Atlanta four years ago. And a long road in between.
"I never thought I'd be going to four (Olympics) ... that's a long time," said Gilbert, 32, who also was part of the Canadian bobsled team at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics. "I thought one is good -- that would be experience. I wanted to go to the next one and I wanted to get a medal.
"It didn't work out in 1992 (in Barcelona), but in '96 we did it. I wanted to get on the podium. That was always my ultimate dream, to get an Olympic medal."
In Atlanta, that medal was gold.
In Atlanta, he was the difference maker.
When Gilbert blazed through the second leg of the relay in 9.02 seconds -- faster than anybody has run that stretch of track before or since -- the homestanding Americans were all but beaten. His more heralded teammates, Bruny Surin and Donovan Bailey, hammered that point home over the final 200 metres before a stunned U.S. crowd.
"When I got the baton ... I remember I just grabbed it out of Robert (Esmie's) hands," Gilbert says now. "I was so hyped. I was thinking 'this is it, I'm running in the final (at the Olympics).'
"As soon as Bruny got the baton from me, we were so far in front, I knew it was over."
Canadians cheered that victory as much as any during those Games. And now they are hopeful more of the same awaits its sprinting heroes in Sydney on Sept. 30, the final day of the track and field competition at the cavernous 110,000-seat Olympic Stadium.
The task, however, is a formidable one. The Americans have arrived in Australia loaded for bear, determined to win back a title they have always believed is rightfully theirs.
Their anchor man, Maurice Greene, is the man of the moment in the 100 metres.
Canadians, meanwhile, hear of disarray in the red and white ranks. At last year's world championships in Seville, there was great debate over whether Surin or Bailey, still recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon, should run the anchor leg. A debate that still rages on in some quarters to this day.
Gilbert, for his part, doesn't want to stray into the fray. He doesn't worry about who will hand him the baton -- he favours Brad McCuaig of Calgary, a brash upstart -- or who he will hand it to. But he knows Canada's recent history in the event, helped author it himself.
He knows that winning formula.
"People underestimate the fact that it's a recipe -- that's what got us gold in 1996," said Gilbert. "Me to Bruny to Donovan has always been a connection that can't miss. Two world championships (in 1995 and 1997) and an Olympic gold medal ... I think that speaks for itself. To even argue that case is pointless, in my opinion.
"But the coaches will make the right decision. We learned our lesson last year (the team was disqualified in the final in Seville because of a botched exchange)."
STRONG TRACK RECORD
Even Gilbert himself isn't sure he is in, though his long, distinguished track record would suggest he deserves the second leg one more time, despite the ambitions of young rising talents Pierre Browne and Nicolas Macrozonaris.
"I'm just assuming I'm (on the team)," he said. "Nobody has said to me 'Glenroy, you're in, don't worry about it.'
"I'd be surprised if I wasn't. I'd be pretty disappointed if I wasn't ... I'd need a real explanation why. I've showed these guys all year that I'm fit to run."
Getting to this point has been an odyssey in itself. Gilbert had to cash in $10,000 worth of RRSPs so he could train this season in optimum conditions in Texas alongside Bailey and Surin. That's because all the sponsors who so enthusiastically came on board after the triumph in Atlanta deserted him two years ago.
Gilbert would like to run one more season -- the Francophone Games are in Ottawa next summer, and the world championships are also on home soil in Edmonton. But without any financial support, Sydney will be his swan song.
"If (financial help) doesn't happen, I'm going to hang up my spikes and go get a job," said Gilbert, who'd like to find work with the Ottawa fire department someday. "It's not really about fighting fires, it's about being in the public service, to go out there and help people.
"You're making a difference."
But Gilbert sees Edmonton as the perfect place to end his long run. He admits he almost packed it in on a high note after Atlanta, but he knew he had more left in him.
He knew he wouldn't be going out the right way at the right time.
"Track has changed so much ... from 1988 until now, it's completely different," said Gilbert, a track man since Pinecrest Public School principal Glenn Munro noticed a swift 12-year-old kid chasing a soccer ball years ago and paid $60 to get him into the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club.
"I thought I'd be doing something else by now. I planned on retiring after Atlanta, but my teammates talked me into staying in. I'd have been retiring for the wrong reason, financially not being able to make it happen.
NO REGRETS
"When you go out of your sport, you need to go out on your own terms. Otherwise, you end up back the next year or two years later. I don't want to be one of those guys. When I retire, I don't want to have any regrets, what I would have or should have done. I want to leave with absolutely no regrets.
"I feel like I've done everything I've ever set out to do in this sport. Edmonton would be the perfect time (to leave). To be able to walk off the track and say it's been a blast, it's been awesome."
But first, there is one more Olympic race to run. One more dash down that lonely backstretch of the track, where the spotlight rarely shines.
The world will be watching that dash Down Under and Glenroy Gilbert will smile that infectious smile of his, loving every minute of it.
One more time, he'll be doing his best to make a difference.
THE GILBERT FILE
- Name: Glenroy Gilbert
- Sport: Track and field
- Age: 32
- Height: 5-foot-10
- Weight: 183 lbs.
- Birthplace: Port of Spain, Trinidad
- Home town: Ottawa. Moved to the capital when he was five years old
- Coach: Andy McInnis
- Club: Ottawa Lions
- Honours: As member of Canada's 4x100-metre relay team, earned gold medals at 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and 1995 and 1997 world championships; 100-metre gold medallist at 1995 Pan American Games
- Hobbies: Enjoys reading, watching movies
- Mom's the word: Gilbert has been greatly inspired by his mother, Valma, a nurse who raised six children as a single parent.
