CARRABASSETT VALLEY – People straggling Thursday afternoon into the Sugarloaf/USA bar Seth Wescott owns with three other local guys talked of almost nothing but him. That’s understandable since Wescott is the hometown boy who on Thursday became the first Mainer to win Olympic gold at the Winter Games.
By the time the first television broadcast (about the celebrations at his bar) came on at around 6 p.m., the restaurant was full of revelers who cheered every time Wescott’s name was mentioned.
“It just gives me the chills,” said Rack bartender Krissi Dyer, as she served up $2 Seth-a-ritas (golden margaritas).
“It’s quite weird because he doesn’t seem famous to me,” she said, echoing others who couldn’t seem to stop talking about the 29-year-old Farmington-raised Olympian’s kindness and humility. She remembers he’s a world-class athlete when she snowboards with him, though. “Mostly, when I go out with him, I realize how much work I have to do – he’s just so fast,” she chuckled.
People had started gathering at the Rack at 5:30 a.m. Thursday to watch a live broadcast of Wescott in the qualifying heats, said Dan Mathieu, a co-owner of the bar and restaurant with Wescott, Jeff Strunk and Chase McKendry. The finals didn’t air on NBC television until Thursday night, he said, but Wescott’s friends found out about his win on the Internet.
Mathieu said Wescott called the bar around 11:30 a.m. from a cell phone in the car as he was going from Bardonecchia, where the snowboardcross races were held, to Turin for the Olympic medal ceremony.
“He was on Cloud 9,” said Mathieu. “I asked him, How does it feel to be unquestionably the best in the world?’ and he said, I really don’t know because it really hasn’t sunk in.'”
“It just shows you he’s a hometown boy,” Mathieu added. “It’s more important to him to have his local town behind him, than anything, I think. He’s just incredible.”
Wescott attended Mt. Blue High School in Farmington for his first three years in high school, then graduated from Carrabassett Valley Academy, an elite ski-school that has groomed some of the best skiers in the country, people like Bode Miller, Kirsten Clark and Emily Cook. Strunk, now a friend of Wescott’s, says when he was a coach at CVA he knew Wescott as “the little punk on the snowboard.”
Jonathan Warren recalls Wescott before he ever rode a snowboard. The two met in fifth grade in Farmington and, “just like most boys we had a little fight, and next day we were best friends.” Warren said that when his friend began snowboarding “it became very clear he had something no one else had – freakish abilities. Seth was blessed with some really quick-twitch muscles and a very fine touch.”
Wescott’s cross-training partner, Chad Coleman, who also grew up with the Olympian, said, “Seth’s dynamic. He’s gifted the way a great musician is gifted. As an ath, he’s always excelled, he’s always been 10 steps above everybody.”
“He sealed the deal, man, he sealed the deal!” he said to Wescott’s girlfriend, Ellen Grimnes. She said she “can’t even put words” to her excitement at his win. “It’s just super exciting, it’s something he’s worked so hard for, for so long. It’s something he’s wanted for forever.”
“I’ve had the shakes all day, I’m just so happy for him,” she said.
CVA Headmaster John Ritzo watched Wescott win the gold in Bardonecchia on Thursday. In an interview shortly afterwards, he said, “He had a great day. This morning it was rainy – terrible – but in the qualifying heats he was unbelievable.”
“He goes out, he’s in the lead, and then this guy passed him, and I was thinking, Oh no,’ and then the next think I knew it was like (Wescott) ate him!”
Ritzo was able to talk to Wescott immediately after the race. “He was so pumped, thumbs up, just laughing there was nothing to say, it was just a matter of really savoring the moment,” he said. “Think of it, now he’s an Olympic gold medalist!”
He said Wescott is technically a fantastic snowboarder, but he added that, as CVA’s first Olympic gold-medalist, Wescott did more than simply come in first.
“When you describe a champion, it’s more than the guy who finished first, it’s how they conduct themselves, and to me Seth epitomizes being a true champion,” he said.
Wescott’s kindness came up in conversation repeatedly Thursday. It’s what his friends, colleagues and fan says sets him apart, perhaps even more than his athleticism. Strunk described his friend as “humble guy, zero ego.” Dyer described him as a passionate political debater, Mathieu as a hard worker who put in 20-hour days rehabbing the Rack this October between trips to “be on the Today show.”
For Scott Hogg, whose son Scott Hogg Jr. is a freshman at CVA and like others at the school idolizes’ the gold-medalist, Wescott’s win “reaches so many different people in so many different ways.” Even people who have never met Wescott “are going to go (to the Rack) tonight to see this kid win a gold medal. And they’re going to cry tonight, too, like everyone is. It’s just great, it feels really good. He has made sure we could have just a little of the Olympic spirit.”
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