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Tuesday, February 24, 1998 Hindle's Olympic pane
"I would much rather have stayed anonymous," he said, "and not had it happen." The Calgarian's Olympic debut was "everything I thought it would be." And, unfortunately, a little more. Two days before Matt and twin brother Ben helped push Chris Lori's Canada 2 sled to an 11th-place finish in the four-man event, he got the fright of his life when a pane of glass was mysteriously shattered and fell from a sixth-floor window at the Olympic village. Hindle, luckily, suffered only a five-stitch cut on his left shoulder. "It could've been a lot worse, that's for sure," agreed Hindle, welcomed home at the airport by his family yesterday. "He could've been killed," shuddered Ben. "It added a little adversity, for sure, but I trained for so long I wasn't going to let something like that keep me out of the race," shrugged Matt. "I missed the training runs, and it definitely took my focus away from the race." Just 23, the Hindle brothers expect to be back for the 2002 Games. So does Calgary luger Tyler Seitz, 18th in his first Olympiad. "I really haven't been able to put it into words, because it's such a different experience," said Seitz. "I made one bad mistake in my second run, but I'm still very happy with my performance. A great, great Games." "It was awesome," agreed Ben Hindle. |