Victor Davis

[desoto_hia873]

I love watching the Olympics. Summer, winter--it matters not. If it's Olympic, I will watch it. I will sit in front of the television for twelve hours a day, seven days a week and watch it. Figure skating? I'm there. Diving? I'm there. Track and field? I'm so there. Greco-Roman wrestling? I don't understand it, but I'm still there.

I also have a slight tendency (OK, maybe slightly more than slight) to hero-worship the athletes I'm particularly interested in. I made spreadsheets to keep track of decathlete Michael Smith's scores over the years. I rewarded myself for passing my PhD comprehensive exam by driving through a blizzard to Barrie, Ontario, to watch figure skater Elvis Stojko train at his practice rink for a day. I went to Oakville for the "Welcome home, Donovan Bailey" parade after he won the 100-metre sprint in Atlanta. I had a crush on high jumper Greg Joy for years after seeing him in person at the Montreal Olympics (hey, I was 13 :-). My perfect man is diver Greg Louganis.

When I was an undergrad at the University of Guelph, swimmer Victor Davis came to town for an autograph-signing gig at the mall. I still have the signed pic I got from him in one of my photo albums. My residence went on a pub crawl to a place called Uncle Sam's somewhere in New York that same weekend, and you can just imagine my delight when I discovered that Victor had some friends at U of G and turned up on my bus! After fortifying myself with a few drinks at the pub, I worked up enough courage to ask him to dance with me. He declined--graciously; there was no chair-kicking--but gave me a kiss on the cheek. I twittered for the rest of the night.

Just a few years later, he was dead. He'd gotten into an altercation with someone at a bar in Montreal, and that someone hit him--apparently, deliberately--with his car. Victor suffered a skull fracture and never regained consciousness. He died a couple of days later from his head injury. His funeral was held in Guelph (his hometown), but I couldn't go because of a prior commitment in Toronto. As per his wishes, many of his organs were donated by his family to patients in need.

Why am I bringing this up? CBC will be airing Victor, a film about the life and death of Victor Davis, later this year. Who will be playing Victor? Mark Lutz, our very own Groosalug.

That's just... neat.

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

oh, me too. Well..I'm a bit older than you are. I was madly in love with Bruce Jenner for any number of years, and Mark Spitz as well. And Toller Cranston...

Kinda wish we got CBC. Enjoy the movie!

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

Toller Cranston was (and probably still is) quite the character. Have you read his autobiography Zero Tollerance?

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

nope, but it goes on my list right now!

[yourlibrarian]

I recognize few athlete's names, so although I did see the notice about Lutz's film I didn't know anything about the film subject. Thanks for sharing your story.

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

I lusted after Victor Davis for years. He was the 'bad boy' of swimming. He lost his temper once after his team got disqualified from a relay at the Commonwealth Games and kicked a chair over--and never lived it down because the Queen happened to be in attendance that day. It'll be interesting to see how the film portrays him.

More about Mark Lutz

[(Anonymous)]

Mark swam on the Gryphons swim team when I did too, back in 1987/88. An incredibly self-confident, outgoing, dynamic, energetic, funny, popular (and to some, obnoxious) guy, and an extremely good swimmer (he almost made the Canadian Olympic team). I remember him shouting obscenities in Cantonese out the bus window as we drove through Chinatown in Toronto to a swim meet; also dressing up as a vampy drag queen for the swim team Hallowe'en party. It seems he hasn't changed a bit, judging by a video interview I found on the web. The Universe is better for having created people like him, though I'm nonetheless sort of glad not to have the comparison nearby. You'd probably have loved him if you'd known about him (you were probably too busy with quantum assignments at the time), but might have been too scared to ask him for a dance. Or not; you could be quite surprising at times.

Re: More about Mark Lutz

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

Huh. I did not know that. That makes me two degrees of separation from a Jossverse actor. Cool.

Or not; you could be quite surprising at times.

That's probably the most complementary thing you've ever said about me.

Re: More about Mark Lutz

[(Anonymous)]

There's a very interesting article about him, the movie, and the help provided by the Guelph swim team in the most recent edition of the Guelph alumni magazine. It's well worth a read! All the swimmers asked to recreate the races for the movie were Gryphons, and they made sure that the re-enactments were accurate.

[hesadevil.livejournal.com]

Sorry to gate-crash your LJ but you've applied for membership of general_buffy and there is no other way of contacting you.

Cuold you read the info page carefully and if you decide you would like to take part in the challenge as a writer, you will need to join gen_storyteller first. Please note, both communities are for genfic, no pairings at all.