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Canadian teen wins gold
A star was born on the second-last day of the XVI Commonwealth Games. Maybe even a new national hero. Certainly Canada's story of the Games.
A 13-year-old Canadian kid, who walked up to collect his medal with his hands in his pockets, stunned his sport by winning the 10-metre platform gold medal yesterday.
"He's the next world champion. Right there,'' said three-metre gold medal winner Shannon Roy of Australia.
Alex Despatie of Montreal is in Grade 8. The best part of being in the Commonwealth Games, he figured until yesterday, was getting to play all those cool video games in the athletes village for free and getting to miss school for three weeks.
He's too young to be allowed to compete in the next world diving championships. But British judge Jeff Cooke said that might be a fair thing for everybody involved.
"It'll give everybody a last chance to dive without him around. If he dives like that, he's going to score anywhere.''
Understand that Canada doesn't do men's diving worth a damn. Our women are world class. But not our men. Never have been. The closest we've ever come to winning an Olympic medal in diving was in 1932 when Alf Phillips finished fourth in the three-metre.
"This is new for us,'' said Canadian national diving coach Mitch Geller.
Where did this kid come from?
"He walked into the CAMO club in Montreal when he was 51/2 and said he loved diving,'' said Geller of the little guy from Laval, Que. "His mom is a golfer and his dad is a ski coach. But he said he wanted to be a diver.''
The kid explained.
"I was just diving in my pool at home. I asked my grandma to give me scores. She gave me some 10s. Always.''
The Malaysian judge gave him a 10 here.
TEARS OF JOY
It was a heart-tugging scene when his Canadian teammates and the grown men he beat mobbed him, hugged him and hoisted him in the air, happier for the little guy than he seemed to be for himself.
Despatie was almost expressionless when he won - until that remarkable scene when everybody else's happiness for him triggered his own tears of joy.
"The whole team looks out for him,'' said Geller. "We were a little worried about him spending all this time away from home but he had a lot of fun with the video games and they wouldn't leave him alone.''
His big brother turned out to be British three-metre bronze medallist Tony Ali, who was the first to lift him up.
"Tony helped me a lot,'' said the kid.
But it wasn't just one guy, it was everybody.
"Most of them I didn't know before,'' said Despatie. "Now I know them all and they all know me. We're going to be friends for a long, long time.''
There's the question, of course, of growing. He'll be old enough (14) for Sydney and the 2000 Summer Olympics. But he's going to grow bigger than five-foot-one and 98 pounds.
"It's always a concern. You don't know what's going to be on the other side of puberty. But if the physical skills are there, they should be there as a mature diver,'' said Geller. "That's close to a medal score at the Olympics. He did all his dives and he did them amazing. It was a spine-tingler.''
Silver medallist Robert Newberry of Australia said he didn't resent the wet-behind-the-ears kid from Canada stealing his gold from him - and it wasn't even by a nose. Despatie was so far ahead by his last dive he could almost have walked off the end of the platform and still won. The final scoring was 652.110 to 605.610 for the young Canadian over the Aussie.
"It was a bit daunting,'' Newberry said. "He led from the beginning. He's very skilful. I'm not at all upset losing to somebody that young. He has a bright future ahead of him. He deserves every bit of this.''
One of Despatie's happiest teammates was Edmonton-born Eryn Bulmer, whose gold medal in the women's three-metre became a sidebar to the kid.
"He's phenomenal. I've never seen anything like him,'' said Bulmer, who trains in Calgary.
FIRST YEAR ON PLATFORM
Despatie never watched diving on TV. He just likes to do it. This was his first year up on the platform, although he admits he snuck up there before.
He climbed up there once when he was, uh, a little kid and was scared to death.
"I said, 'I'm never going to do that.' Then one day I just felt like doing it.''
And Despatie, who says he loves soccer, computers, snowboarding and Robin Cook novels, said he had no idea this could happen to him here.
"I didn't think I could because I saw all the other divers dive. I knew they were pretty good.''
The best part? "The end. The end was great.''
He said he "didn't think nothing'' when he stood on the podium and listened to the national anthem and saw the Canadian flag go up.
"I was just happy. I was proud of myself. I was happy and everything.''
What do you say about a kid who looked like he was just as happy to be presented with a stuffed Wira mascot as the gold medal?
"That's probably one of Canada's greatest moments in diving and at the Commonwealth Games,'' said chef de mission Margie Schuett.
Not probably.