I'm somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean by now, about three hours into the seven-and-a-half-hour flight from Oslo to New York. Three rows in front of me is Steve Young, the all-pro quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers. Across the aisle next to me is Bruce Rosselli, the all-pro Olympic wanna-be from Indiana.
Steve is a 30-year-old gifted athlete who is at the pinnacle of his sport. Bruce is a 36-year-old bobsleddriver who has been vainly chasing an Olympic dream for the past nine years.Steve is the quintessential professional athlete - a status achieved by few. Bruce is the Walter Mitty of amateur athletics - a status most of us can readily identify with.
But Bruce Rosselli is the essence of the Olympic spirit. Here is his story:
Like all young boys growing up in the Midwest, Bruce dreamed of becoming an Olympic athlete. In 1976, Bruce graduated from a small high school in Terra Haute, Ind. Bruce played second base on the school baseball team. He batted under .250. Bruce enrolled at Indiana State University, but after two years quit to take a full-time job with a pharmaceutical company, his Olympic dream on temporary hold.
One day, after watching decathlon gold medal winner Bruce Jenner compete, he decided his dream could wait no longer and he set about to make the Olympic team in decathlon.
"I thought `why not?' We both have the same first name and we're the same height and weight," he said. And so his quest began in earnest.
Because he was not an enrolled student, he could not compete for a university. NCAA rules, however, allow unattached athletes to compete at college meets. Bruce bought his own equipment - shot put, javelin, pole, shoes, etc. - and talked the ISU track coach into letting him work out with the team.
For the next three years, Bruce traveled around the country, at his own expense, competing as an unattached athlete, all the time hoping one day to qualify for the Olympics. His best finish was a 7th place in a Division II meet in Florida.
In 1985, at the age of 27, he realized his dream of becoming an Olympic athlete was not to be - at least not as a decathlete. An ordinary dreamer like you or me or the tens of thousands of other kids who "want to be like Mike" would have moved on to the rest of his life, forever thinking of what might have been. Not Bruce.
He looked around and decided that what he needed was not more speed, more strength or more youth. What he needed was a different sport. So, the pursuit of his dream moved from track and field to the obscure sport of bobsledding.
The sport was almost exclusively the domain of those persons who happened to live within a 30-mile radius of Lake Placid, New York, home of the 1980 Winter Olympics and the only bobsled track in the United States. "Why not?" was his explanation. "I grew up near the Indy 500 and I always liked to drive fast."
And so that summer, without ever having seen a bobsled except on TV, Bruce went to Lake Placid, took agility and other tests and wrangled a tryout with the U.S. team. Incredibly, he made the team as a brakeman.
A year later, Bruce qualified for the 1988 Olympic trials - this time as a driver - but missed making the Olympic team. The top three teams were selected and he placed eighth.
In 1991 he qualified for the '92 Olympic trials but again failed to make the team.
In 1993 he was once again back in Lake Placid for the Lillehammer Olympic trials. This time he was optimistic, coming into the trials as the number two-ranked driver in the four-man bob. But, it was not to be. Bruce failed for a third time to qualify for the team, finishing a heart-wrenching two hundredths of a second behind the last qualifier.
Despite his disappointment, Bruce came to the Lillehammer Games anyway - to support the team and the sport he loves.
When we talked about the new track to be built in Utah, his eyes lit up. "A second track in the U.S. will mean so much to the future of the sport. It will allow more new kids to get into the sport safely - the Placid track is not safe for beginners - and perhaps keep older drivers like myself involved longer." When I asked him if he could hold out until 2002, he just smiled wistfully and didn't answer.
I gave him my last Salt Lake bid pin and said I'd send him a personal invitation to slide down our track when it is finished in 1995. He said he'd like that.
I've used up all my space telling Bruce's story, but in a way, his story is the story of the Olympics, or at least what the Olympics are supposed to be. Besides, there's a little bit of Bruce in all of us and his story is much more important than adding more of my critique of the Games to the thousands of other evaluations.
And so, Bruce, thanks for your perseverance, your unjaded enthusiasm and your unrelenting pursuit of your dream. HA DET BRA! - HAVE A GOOD ONE!
P.S. I can't let the opportunity pass without paying a well-deserved tribute to the unsung heroes of Salt Lake's very successful bid effort in Lillehammer. Rod Hamson, Jason Gull and Stephanie Pate are the bid committee staff members who kept everything running smoothly for the 50-plus members of the bid delegation.