Winter Olympics: The drama of the Games
The bereaved skater At 06:00 on the morning of his race in Calgary, Canada, in 1988, US speed-skater Dan Jansen got a phone call. His sister Jane was in hospital with leukaemia. "Mum said she wouldn't make it through the day most likely and so - tough day. "Once I got on the ice there was nothing there, there was no stability in my legs, my skates didn't feel like they were my skates, I think I was just shaky." He made a false start and when the 500m race finally got under way his left skate slipped and he fell. Sitting on the ice in Calgary he felt confused. "I didn't know if I should feel bad for falling in the Olympics or [that] my sister died." He fell again in the 1000m. In 1994 in Lillehammer, Jansen was again the favourite to win the 500m. But on the last turn he slipped and finished eighth. He had one last shot at gold - in the 1000m, but he would have to beat his own personal best time. Once again he slipped but kept his footing. "Something in me didn't panic this time... I stayed calm." He set a new world record and won the gold medal. "With my sister and all of it - it wasn't just a race, it was much more than that." He had become tired of everybody feeling sorry for him. "This was better. Now they could actually be happy for me." A bolt from the blue After his first bobsleigh run, Robin Dixon from the British team checked the sled. "One of the bolts that held the rear axle was broken," he says, remembering the 1964 games in Innsbruck, Austria. The British mechanics couldn't find a spare, but one of the greatest Winter Olympians of all time, Italy's Eugenio Monti, stepped in. "He said: 'Don't worry, this is my last run for the day. When I've finished, send an Englishman down with a spanner and you can have mine.'" Monti kept his promise and handed over the bolt from his own sled. The following day the British team raced before the Italians. Dixon and his partner Nash didn't think they had been fast enough to win so they went off to drink coffee and schnapps. But when they heard the track was deteriorating, they rushed back to the course to see Monti finish 0.7 seconds behind them. The Italian came straight over. "He was genuinely delighted for us," says Dixon. "It was a lovely gesture and really exceptional... I am a very determined, competitive animal... and I wouldn't have done it." The International Olympic Committee gave Monti the Pierre de Coubertin medal - named after the founder of the modern Olympics and given to athletes who show the spirit of sportsmanship. It's an honour far rarer than a gold medal. For full version go to
