Guilt, Ennui Plague Even The Winners

They labor in relative obscurity for what seems like forever, then suddenly are thrust into the garish Olympic spotlight. For even the most successful of the U.S. athletes at the Winter Games, that spotlight often is gone so abruptly that they are left wondering what happened.

“I guess I’ll go back to school and just go on,” said Gordy Sheer, silver medalist in luge doubles. “We’ll see if there are any promotional possibilities. But I’m not counting on it. We really don’t have any product we can endorse. I can’t endorse luge suits.”

Sheer, 26, and luge partner Chris Thorpe, 27, were the toast of the U.S. delegation just last week after winning America’s first ever medal in the sport. He knows his fame won’t be long-lasting.

“It’ll be gone tomorrow,” he said with a smile. “But maybe if I tell people I was on the luge team and won a medal, they’ll at least say they heard about it.”

The U.S. medal winners gathered one last time Sunday before heading home. Karyn Bye of the gold-medal women’s hockey team calls it: “Returning to civilian life.”

“We don’t really know how to live as civilians,” she said. “It’s going to be tough. But I’m still cherishing the moment.”

There’s something of an Olympic postpartum depression that’s beginning to creep in. It seems only natural. The athletes have worked shoulder-to-shoulder with their teammates and coaches for so long that it has become a way of life.

There has to be at least a tiny bit of sadness for the medal-winners as they slowly realize that the incentive that has driven them so hard for so long is gone.

Eric Bergoust has spent the better part of his 28 years working toward an Olympic gold medal. Now that he has one for freestyle skiing, he’s appears to be suffering from a guilt complex.

“I still feel I’m not worthy,” he said quietly. “I worked so hard, I did everything I could do, but it doesn’t seem fair. I still don’t feel as though I deserve it. It’s like I won the lottery.”

Bergoust feels bad for his fellow U.S. free-stylers.

“It doesn’t seem fair that I’m the one blessed with this,” he said. “I look at all my teammates who wanted this just as much …”

There was a bit of melancholy going around.

“I would say there’s something of a letdown,” said Alana Blahoski, a member of the women’s hockey team. “This is something we’ve been completely focused on for a year and a half. Longer, even. We’ve accomplished the goal. Now we wake up and … It’s a bit of a letdown.”

The hockey players have received a tremendous amount of publicity for their historic victory. Their fame should endure for a while, especially after appearing on several national TV shows, including the Late Show with David Letterman.

“What do you do after the goal medal?” asked Jenny Schmidgall. “I came here and did what I wanted to do. It’s all over. Now what do I do?”

But Schmidgall quickly answered her own question. One of the youngest Olympians, she’s fired up about playing college hockey for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers next season.

Actually, there seemed to be a pattern that developed along age lines. The older the medal-winners, the more nostalgic they were about the experience. The younger ones had less time for reflection. They have a million things they want to do when they get home.

Which brings us to the youngest Olympian champion, 15-year-old Tara Lipinski. She hasn’t stopped beaming since winning her gold medal.

“I’m so happy,” she kept saying. “I think this was the best moment of my whole life. I’ve had so much fun.”

She talked about how she finally took off her medal 24 hours later and gave it to her mom to hold for her.

“I was so happy when I won Worlds last year,” Lipinski said. “But Worlds is every year. A lot of people win at Worlds. Not many people win at the Olympics.”

As the gold-medal winner in the highest-profile sport of the Games, Lipinski will be one of the few whose fame, and fortune, will endure. As for many of the others, they’ll have to be content with their medals.

The fame may fade, but those medals always will be there.

“That’s why I’ve been keeping mine in my pocket,” said Sheer. “I need to find someplace safe to keep it.”