CARRABASSETT VALLEY – “There he is! There he is! It’s him! I see him!”
Boots crunched in the snow as people shifted their weight, leaning in, trying to see. A kid was crying, behind too many people to get a good view. A cheer was rising, then falling, then rising again – “We want Seth! We want Seth!”
It was Seth Wescott Day in the state of Maine, and on Saturday more than 3,000 people were standing around the Base Lodge at Sugarloaf/USA, waiting to welcome him home.
The 29-year-old Olympic gold medalist who made history Feb. 16 by becoming the first person ever to win gold in the sport of snowboardcross hesitated before greeting the crowd. Gov. John Baldacci, who gave an official introduction, had to announce him twice before he emerged.
And when he did, clad in snowboard pants and a white pinstripe jacket, and spoke to the crowd that was by now shrieking, clapping, and screaming his name, Wescott’s voice wobbled once, then twice. “You’re all gonna make me cry,” he said.
“Going over there, doing something like that, it’s a life-changing experience,” he said. “It’s wonderful to come back to Maine and have the amazing community we have here in this state andin Carrabassett Valley.”
“And I just want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart,” he paused, waited, then finished shakily, ” – it was a pleasure and an honor to represent for all of you. So thanks for being here to welcome me home today.”
A half-hour later, hundreds of people had made their way halfway up The Landing, a wide slope beyond the Base Lodge, and were pressing up against a mesh fence demarcating the SBX course built the night before.
A group of about 10 girls started to chant “We want Seth,” and when they stopped another group took up where they left off.
Brandon Meyer, 20, and Amanda Collette, 19, had driven two hours from Orono to see Wescott. “It was well worth it,” said Meyer before heading up to the top of course, hoping for the chance to take a run with the Olympian.
Then a group of six or seven kids on skis and snowboards came catapulting over the jumps, Wescott in front. Minutes later another group of kids flew down, then another, and another. All told, about 100 people got to ride with the Olympian, said Sugarloaf representative Bill Swain.
Cooper Lycan, 11, of Falmouth said the experience was “was pretty sweet.”
“He edges really good and just does everything good,” he said.
Elizabeth Finegan of Cumberland, watched the children ski from outside the course, and said, smiling, that Wescott “makes me feel good to be an American – he’s just humble and kind and just so gracious,” she said.
“He’s such a great role-model for our kids,” said Chantal Scott of Falmouth.
In a press conference held earlier in the day, Wescott said he hopes his gold medal helps him open doors for aspiring young snowboarders in Maine and throughout the U.S. “Being in the spot I’m in, I want to be able to create something that can be a stepping stone,” for SBXers, he said.
But already, Wescott’s success has brought hope to young athletes all over the state. John Ritzo, headmaster of Carrabassett Valley Academy, where Wescott spent part of his senior year, said while it was apparent in high school that Wescott had great talent, no one would have pegged him for a medal. It was perseverance – the 10 years of hard work he put into his sport after high school – that won him gold.
That encourages the CVA kids, Ritzo said. “For them to know Seth, and seewhat a regular guy he is, they realize they can do it too, if they’re willing to make the same commitment, if they’re willing to do what it takes.”
But for most people who lined up for hours for an autograph Saturday or rode down the course with the Olympian, it wasn’t about competition, or about what they could learn. It was about fun.
“It was amazing – obviously a once-in-a-lifetime experience to meet someone like that,” said Meyer, who did get to take a run with Wescott. “He was really great with the kids up there, too,” he said.
Maybe Braec Baker, 6, put it the best. “It just felt good,” he said.
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