Meet the Athletes - Chris Lori
Chris Lori competed for Canada as a bobsledder in the late 1980s and throughout the 90s including 4 Olympic Games (1988, 1992, 1994, and 1998). He won nine Crystal Globes and twenty-two World Cup medals. He is widely regarded as the pilot who took Canadian bobsledding to real world class.
Chris was always an athlete. As a member of the Canadian decathlon national team he had proved himself to be strong and fast. When Canada started a new bobsled program after the 1984 Olympics, he decided to give it a go. He made the team and was a driver from day one.
Chris regards his greatest achievement as the 1990 World Cup when the team became the first non-European team to win the overall fourman title. "On that day the team was brilliant. Throughout the season we had not been the fastest starters, but that day we just blew the other teams away and even set a track record." What was particularly sweet for Chris was to go back to the same Italian track where he had had a serious accident two years previously - and almost died - and win.
Now a foreign exchange trader in Vancouver, Chris looks back on his sports career with bitter sweet memories. "I am glad I had the chance to compete for my country and am proud of what we achieved. At the same time I had a lot of disappointments and felt let down by a lot of people.
In 1992 he piloted the Canadian Four to 4th place in the Albertville Olympics. Their affregate time of 3:54.24 was just 0.11 of a second out of the medals but even that achievement is tinged with frustration. "It was a real battle for the medals. I felt that I knew the track better than any of the other drivers and that gave me an advantage, but we were hampered by some problems within the crew. Then it emerged that 2 of the teams that had beaten us had illegal components in their bobsled and should have been disqualified, but the jury chose to ignore it so the integrity of the sport would not be placed at risk."
"I retired after the 1998 Olympics. We should have won a medal. I was by far the most experienced person within the organization, but I remained subject to the decision making authority of the administration. The team was badly mismanaged and we failed to produce a medal, a shameful waste of opportunity for which so much was sacrificed! Then, when I arrived home, my wife told me she was leaving - in a moment's notice. I felt that I had sacrificed so much for my sports career and wound up losing what was most important to me."
Yet the crisis period was a time of new beginnings. "It was when I was in the deepest pit that God was there to pull me out. I had been raised to go to church but it wasn't until the end of my career that I developed a relationship with the Lord. God has now put me in a place where I can handle life, but I realize that I am nothing without Jesus. My success in business is because God put me there. I am only successful because God has enabled me. After my sports career it was like starting life over again and through that experience my faith deepened."
The testimony above came courtesy of More Than Gold. Check out the More Than Gold website for more information on some of things that More Than Gold is doing in preparation for the Olympics.
