Victor Davis
Mar. 9th, 2007 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desoto_hia873I 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.
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.
More about Mark Lutz
Date: 2007-03-10 04:44 am (UTC)Re: More about Mark Lutz
Date: 2007-03-10 06:31 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2007-03-10 09:44 pm (UTC)