patrickanderson.ca

By far the most eventful day of the past few weeks was the media bonanza otherwise known as last Tuesday.  It started on the phone at 7am with a DJ from 95Crave, a local Top 40 radio station.  My morning cravings lean rather towards coffee than Nickelback, but I was game, the DJ was energized, and the interview went well.   As we finished, he wished me luck, which I would need, as I had to be downtown at the CBC studio by 8.  I made it with several minutes to spare, which was just enough time to have a drink of water, collect my thoughts, and get nervous.  As I wheeled into the Early Edition studio, Rick Cluff was introducing me as “Vancouver’s own Patrick Anderson”, which made me laugh.  Like last week when I was included on a list of Albertan athletes heading to Beijing.  I always thought I was from Fergus.

So we got going back and forth, and I was turning in a solid B-minus performance – about my interview average – when Mr. Cluff surprises me with a question about the cancelled torch relay, which I didn’t know about, and then another question about our lack of medals at the Olympics (we had zero at the time).  Now I have wits, as every slow-witted person does, but they do take some time to kick in.  Since I had no time, I had to go with my gut, which prompted me to respond that a) the torch relay is not on my radar, sorry to say and b) it’s a remarkable accomplishment to even qualify for the Olympics, so we should be proud and support the athletes.  Afterwards, I had time to reflect on the second question, which proved useful, as it wasn’t the last time that day that I would hear it.

Escaping with a gratifying C-plus (it is after all a remarkable accomplishment to even make it onto CBC radio, so I should be proud, and not replay every awkward pause and bumbling answer in my mind), it was off to Richmond for an autograph signing with a certain ubiquitous telecommunications company.  The Richmond Centre was surprisingly lively for a Tuesday afternoon.  Several shoppers stopped to say hi and wish me luck.  The trickle briefly became a torrent, when a half dozen news outfits showed up all at once to ask me about the Paralympics, and, of course, to get my take on our Olympic medal count. 

My response didn’t actually change much from the morning.  But frankly, it’s an awkward position to be in as a Paralympian, because these discussions always come back to funding, and relative to the rest of the world, our Olympians may be poor, but our Paralympians are rich.  The first fact may be incriminating.  The second statement is definitely inspiring.  In Canada, we are moving towards treating all of our athletes equally.  That may or may not be pragmatic, from a medal count point of view.  But I think the idea is noble. 

At any rate, it’s almost always embarrassing when a reporter contrasts our Paralympic medal count (72 in Athens) with our Olympic medal count (12 in Athens).  What am I supposed to say?  Olympians need to try harder?  They need more money?  I don’t know – I’m not an Olympian.  I live in a small enough bubble that I can honestly say I don’t know what it takes to win an Olympic medal.  All I know is that a generous amount of time and money goes into our wheelchair basketball program, so we better not screw up.