Friday, February 8, 2002
Clegg arrives at Games empty-handed
By BRUCE GARRIOCH -- Ottawa Sun
SALT LAKE CITY -- Robin Clegg had enough headaches just getting to the Olympics, there's no reason why he couldn't deal with one more.
The 21-year-old Ottawa biathlete, who had to win an appeal to compete here, was forced to train the first day on borrowed skis because his equipment never made it on the Canadian Olympic team's charter flight from Calgary.
While Clegg wasn't alone with missing bags -- some of the curlers didn't have their brooms -- his trouble was made difficult by the fact he's the only member of the Canadian team here for biathlon, which didn't leave him with a lot of options.
"He borrowed skis and he borrowed winter clothes to do his training. He didn't really have many options. Nobody's quite sure what happened, but there's not much you can do about it," Rick Nickelchok, team leader of biathlon, said yesterday.
Fortunately for Clegg, his equipment, along with everybody else's belongings, arrived yesterday. Most of the Canadian athletes arrived in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and were forced to go through a long accreditation process.
Because of what he's been through in the last couple of weeks, Clegg has decided to take a break from dealing with the media until after his first competition Monday. He only won an appeal to get here after meeting the required standards 11 days after the COA's deadline to qualify.
"He needs to focus on getting ready to compete right now," said Nickelchok.
2002 Games Biathlon Coverage
