CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott of Farmington arrived at his restaurant, The Rack, about 11 p.m. Thursday to a noisy crowd of about 200 friends and fans.
Eleven-year-old Max McKendry and his friend Michael Redman were the first to greet him and took turns wearing the gold medal as they escorted him into the restaurant.
Wescott signed a photo of Max and himself taken when Max was 4 years old.
On Thursday night, the two boys stood for hours with their faces pressed close to a window overlooking The Rack’s parking lot, just waiting for the athlete to arrive. McKendry, whose father Chase McKendry co-owns the bar along with Wescott, Mathieu and Jeff Strunk, said Wescott taught him to snowboard.
“He’s a really nice guy,” he said. “Most people (that are famous athletes) have a big, ginormous house, and a big car, but he bought land here to build his own house, and he drives an old pickup truck,” he said.
“And it’s so cool how he was raised at CVA and went all the way to the Olympics,” said Redman.
Dressed in a suit jacket, jeans and sneakers, Wescott smiled as he signed autographs and greeted patrons.
The Olympic star had flown into Portland late Wednesday evening, said Rack co-owner Dan Mathieu, and almost immediately friends Chad Coleman and John Warren drove him to The Rack. He stepped into the bar a little after midnight, Mathieu said, to whoops and cheers from the dozen or so “close friends” left inside. They turned all the lights out and locked the bar’s doors, he added, and spent about an hour catching up.
“It was amazing,” to see him, said Meg McKissock, of Carrabassett Valley. “When I saw him, I gave him a huge hug,” she added. “And I got to hold the medal – everyone got to wear it.”
“It’s 9,000 euros worth of gold,” said Warren. “It’s pretty impressive.”
The Olympian keeps his gold medal in his pocket, Warren said, adding that in the six days Wescott was in Europe after winning, “about 1,000 people touched that medal.”
“He’s just as excited about it as everyone else, and he let every kid who asked touch it on the way home,” from the airport, Warren said. Wescott called him on Tuesday to say he would be flying in the next evening, and Warren, who has been his friend since the fifth grade, met the Olympian at the airport with Coleman, “just like we usually do.”
“It’s always awesome to see my friend come home, but it was really awesome this time,” he said.
Tim Dunn, who has known Wescott for years and roomed with him at one point, smiled while he surveyed the crowd of about 150 people inside The Rack on Thursday night. “It just amazes me how many people Seth made happy,” last Thursday when he won the gold medal. “Seth is just a great guy – when people talk about what a great guy Seth is, all I can say is it’s true.”
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