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Worth the wait in Gold
Son fulfils his father's dream
"It meant everything. It meant more than everything. It was all my life. It was the only goal in my life.''
Boycott.
Steve Sandor didn't get to go to the Olympics with the Hungarian weightlifting team.
But yesterday his son made up for his missed moment by winning three gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, setting three Games records as he grunted and groaned to put himself and his father-coach on the fast track to Sydney 2000.
Steve Sandor moved his family to Canada in 1990 and began to coach his son Akos in his basement.
Living his dream through his son?
Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
Gold. Gold. Gold.
"Two weeks before the team was to leave in '84, the political guys told us we're not going because of the political boycott,'' said the now 42-year-old Mississauga, Ont. construction worker.
"I was too old for the next one. It was my last chance.''
'SO HAPPY'
This makes up for it, he said.
"I am so happy with the three gold medals. It makes up for me when I am coaching my son.''
The dream, of course, is Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 and beyond.
"It's too early to talk about that now. But in two years ... I think so. I hope he goes to two Olympics or more. I am coaching him to have a very long and happy career. I am not rushing him. I am not coaching him too fast.''
Akos turns 21 in December.
He remembers his beginnings in communist Hungary. He was put in a specialized sports school.
"The school system in my country was different. I was in a special class and told by my phys-ed teacher to choose a sport. Some kids took soccer, because they were good at that. Some chose gymnastics or athletics. Because my father was in it and my body was good for it, I chose weightlifting.''
The first Canadian in 23 years to win medals - two bronze and a silver - at a world junior championships, Akos now has his dad's dream.
"If everything goes well now and I have no injuries, I should be on my way. But I have a lot of work and a lot of training ahead.
"Sydney is a long way off and I have to be a lot stronger.''
Sandor has a much bigger test and challenge than the Commonwealth Games - the world championships in Finland two months from now.
But he believes what happened here will add confidence and inspiration to push him onward and upward.
"We knew it was going to be a close competition,'' he said.
"My tactics worked out by starting at a higher weight. I was able to do two good snatches. It was a big improvement in that for me. I hadn't had a good one since a year ago. I was surprised how easy it was to do it.
"I felt good in the snatch. In the clean and jerk I didn't feel good in the warm-up but I did OK.
Sandor started the day by winning the gold in the 105-kilo class with a Games record of 167.5 kilograms, breaking his personal best by 7.5.
COMBINED
He won the clean and jerk by hoisting 192.5 for another gold and claimed the third in the combined event with 360.
"Three golds are great for my medal collection. I don't have any of these. It was my first Commonwealth Games.
"I knew that I was going to be in the medals but I didn't know it was going to be three gold medals.''
It felt good just to feel good, he said.
"Last year in Thailand at the world junior we all got sick because of the water and the food. But here everything was very high quality at the athletes village.''
He's a six-foot, 231-pound University of Toronto, Mississauga campus athlete. He enjoys auto racing and attends the Toronto Indy every year. His favourite drivers are Alex Zanardi and Jacques Villeneuve. He also plays soccer.
We need to know all that stuff about him now, because he made himself somebody to watch here with his three golds yesterday.
That's what the Commonwealth Games are all about. This is where you can start to get excited about Olympic chances for the future.
Get excited about Akos Sandor. And get excited for Steve Sandor.
Together they may write a wonderful story for each other and for Canada, a story that dad could have written for Hungary 14 years ago.