Friday, February 8, 2002
Sled pilot's discovery taken away
By STEVE BUFFERY -- Toronto Sun
SALT LAKE CITY -- Yannick Morin is one of the best young pilots in the world, but he has discovered that being a member of the Canadian bobsleigh team is never a smooth ride.
A year ago, the laid-back sledder recruited his friend Giulio Zardo, a former junior college football star, to the sport.
Zardo, 21, was a natural fit -- big, strong and extremely fast.
In their first season together, Morin and Zardo dazzled on the World Cup circuit, recording three-top 10 finishes in the two-man event, including a sixth-place showing in November on the Calgary course. The rookie team was being talked about as the hottest young pair in the world.
But then, about three weeks ago, the Canadian team's coaching staff decided to take Zardo off Morin's sled and match him with veteran Pierre Lueders, who won the two-man gold medal for Canada at the 1998 Nagano Olympics along with brakeman Dave MacEachern, who now is retired.
Lueders, 31, still is considered one of the best pilots in the world, but the Edmonton native had been having a few problems on the World Cup circuit this season. The coaches decided he could use an edge in the push department as Zardo, even though a rookie, already is considered one of the most explosive brakemen in the world.
In their first competition together last month in Cortina, Italy, Lueders and his new brakeman won the World Cup event and set a course record for the start.
A week later in La Plagne, France, the dynamic duo finished third. Two World Cup events, two medals.
Bobsleigh Canada won't announce the crews for the Salt Lake Olympics until next week, but Morin told The Toronto Sun yesterday that Zardo will be paired with Lueders for the two-man event, which begins a week tomorrow at Utah Olympic Park, and he will be put with John Sokolowski of Chatham, N.B., another relative newcomer to the sport.
And so, about a year after bringing Zardo into bobsleigh and helping his friend establish himself as a rookie phenom, Morin loses his brakeman for these Olympic Games to Lueders. A very tough pill to swallow, although the classy Morin is handling the situation with grace.
"I knew it was coming," the La Salle, Que., native said yesterday, following a dryland training session. "But it's pretty tough. I have to talk to myself a lot to stay calm.
"Giulio is one of the best brakemen in the world, much better than the second or third best brakemen on the (Canadian) team," added Morin, 26. "But John is very motivated to push me. I could get mad (and) say lots of stuff about it, but I decided not to."
If it's any consolation, Morin will be around for at least one more Olympics and when Lueders retires, Zardo likely will be Morin's brakeman permanently.
Morin stressed that there is no animosity between he and Lueders or anyone else on the often volatile bobsleigh team, but he did admit that while he and Sokolowski will be staying in the athletes village in Salt Lake City, Lueders and the rest of the guys will live in a condo in Park City, near the bobsleigh venue.
"I want to be in the village and experience the Games," he said.
2002 Games Bobsleigh Coverage
