For the past few days, I’ve thought about what Winter Olympics article to post on Storeboard.
Last week, I wrote a profile of a former U.S. Olympics hockey player for a client. I thought about posting my feature on A.J. Mleczko, who was on the women’s hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics and was a women’s hockey commentator in the 2014 Olympics, on Storeboard. However, I concluded that I could not justify posting the article because it wasn’t interesting enough for Storeboard.com’s readers.
I also thought about writing an article that followed up on my Feb. 1 article that previewed the Winter Olympics. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough to write about.
I will now summarize how the nations fared in the medal count in comparison to the expectations that I summarized on Feb. 1. Norway (projected to win the most medals), the USA (projected second with 35 medals), Canada (projected third), Germany, and Austria all performed much worse than expected, while Russia and the Netherlands performed much better. Host Russia was projected to finish fourth with six gold and 26 total medals, but finished with 13 gold and 33 total. The Netherlands was projected to win 14 medals, but won 24 -- all in speed skating.
You can see that wasn’t much of an article. I also thought about posting an article I wrote for a client who runs an NHL fantasy league, but I would have had to twist myself into a pretzel to justify posting it for Storeboard’s readers.
I thought I had wasted two hours of my life thinking about what Olympics article to post on Storeboard when an Olympics article landed on my lap in the most unlikely of places -- the 'Meet the Press' television show. You can watch it here. I listened with sadness as 1980 Olympian Mark Wells explained why he had to sell the gold medal he won while playing for the “Miracle on Ice” team.
Wells, 56, was the last player selected for the U.S. Olympic team. During the 1980 Olympics, he had two goals and one assist in seven games, but his primary accomplishment was defending the Soviet Union’s forwards during the last 10 minutes of the miracle game as the U.S. held on for a 4-3 victory. Two days later, the U.S. beat Finland for the gold medal.
Wells aspired to play in the National Hockey League, but he toiled in the minor leagues and never played an NHL game. Returning to his native Michigan (12 of the U.S. team’s 20 players were from Minnesota; the others were from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts), he became a restaurant manager. Unfortunately, he had to stop working in the 1990 because a degenerative disease diagnosed in 1989 harmed his spinal cord so much that he couldn’t walk and was bedridden for several years.
In 1995, Wells had to sell his gold medal for $40,000 to pay for medical expenses. In 2010, it was resold by an auction house for $310,700. I found out what Wells wrote in his 1995 note to prospective buyers by reading an article written by a friend -- Reid Cherner of USA Today.
"The gold medal symbolizes my personal accomplishments and our team's accomplishments being reached,” the note said. “As one of only 20 players to receive this gold medal, it has held a special place in my heart since February of 1980. When I decided recently to offer it out . . . I also decided until the day I give it up, it will be worn. Therefore, I have slept with this medal for the past two weeks now in my home . . . I hope you will cherish this medal as I have."
Wells being forced to sell his gold medal is example No. 10 million of why the American health-care system is a moral disgrace, but that’s the end of my rant. I am now going to try to be positive.
SECOND MIRACLE
Doctors told Wells that he would never walk again. He was so miserable that he often contemplated suicide during the several years that he couldn’t walk.
Wells persevered. In fact, he experienced a second miracle in his life -- a miracle that was much more important than the miracle hockey win against the Soviet Union.
After about 12 surgeries, Wells began walking again. Today, he can also skate. On 'Meet the Press,' he was photographed skating at a hockey rink, stick in hand, looking healthy as he fired shots at an empty net.
Wells, who had to live with his mother for several years while he was unable to walk and work, is now working again. He’s now a “moving public speaker” who talks about bouncing back from a sometimes fatal illness, is a representative for a sports trading card company, and is working on a movie about himself called “Last Man In,” according to the Toronto Star. He is also now the father of two sons. The oldest is four.
While researching Wells, I found out other good news that Meet the Press didn’t mention. In 1980 the City Council of his hometown, St. Clair Shores, Mich., voted to rename the local hockey rink -- St. Clair Shores Civic Arena -- after him. Wells never learned why the rink was never renamed.
On Feb. 14, though, Mayor Kip Walby, a teenager in 1980, told Wells that the city’s new leadership was committed to righting the wrong of the old leadership not fulfilling its pledge. Wells “broke down” when he learned the rink would soon be the Mark Wells Civic Arena, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“We all had a tear in our eye,” Walby said about the people who were there when he told Wells the good news. “He is one of our own.”
|