Duff Gibson charges through life head first, managing curves along the way, so it makes sense that his greatest achievement in sport occurred after he made the switch to skeleton ? an Olympic discipline that demands this type of personality, quite literally.
The Western alum grabbed the gold medal in men’s skeleton Friday, February 17 at the 2006 Olympics in Torino after edging his Canadian teammate and fellow Calgarian Jeff Pain by 0.26 seconds.
At the age of 39, Gibson became the oldest individual gold medalist in Olympic history, summer or winter. Skeleton is the oldest competitive sledding sport and features a solo competitor driving a one-person sled, in a head first position, down an icy track, in this case 1.4-kilometres long complete with 19 curves, and eclipsing speeds of over 125 kilometres an hour.
On Monday, Gibson told Western News, “What I had done (winning Olympic gold) hit me right a way. My wife Jennifer was there and my sister from Australian and an old speed skating coach of mine, so many of family and friends. And when ever I was interviewed, and still to this day, I get choked up because it made such a huge difference that those people, all so close to me, were there to support me.”
He continued, “I couldn’t have won without having two terrific runs and I was having excellent training runs all week. Earlier in the year, I was experiencing some technical difficulties with my sled, so those strong training runs were good indicators that those had been corrected. All this put me in an excellent position that winning was a possibility.”
Gibson, a firefighter, graduated from Western in 1989 with a degree in Physical Education. While at Western, the Calgary native was a rower with the Western Mustangs and was coached by Dr. Phil Fitz-James and Don McLean.
According to Gibson, another fellow Mustang contributed to his success Friday.
“Prior to Torino, I participated in the Olympic Excellence Series ? a program designed to bring Olympic hopefuls together and give them exposure to some of the successes previously enjoyed by Canada,” explained Gibson. “Bar none, the best speaker was Marnie McBean. What she said had a great impact on me. We share a lot of the same philosophies. Later, we were able to reconnect and she gave me some helpful advice and we were able to swap some old stories from our Western days. It was a really neat time and I really respect her.”
He later competed as a speed skater and a bobsledder before settling on the skeleton in 1999, looking towards the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City where the discipline was to make its long overdue return to the international stage.
“I didn’t take a direct route to where I am today, but I learned from every sport I competed in or had exposure to,” explained Gibson. “When I was bobsledding, I hired a track coach so I could learn to run faster. My dad was an educator and coach and all those drills and exercises he taught me played a role in this, as well.”
Gibson’s father passed away, as a result of cancer, prior to Christmas.
When the Olympics were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland ? the site of the skeleton’s origin ? in 1928 and 1948, the sport was included in the program. It was not until the 2002 Games that skeleton was re-introduced, a 54-year hiatus. Gibson placed 10th in 2002, but immediately set his sights on Torino.
Gibson won gold at the 2004 world championship and settled for bronze in 2005.
Following his Olympic gold medal-winning race on Friday, Gibson immediately announced his retirement.
“It’s funny but prior to the Olympics I took some races off and it was the first time in seven years I was able to sit down and watch the Super Bowl,” quipped Gibson. “I am looking forward to spending more time at home and starting a family. I also want to get more involved with the University and maybe spend some time mentoring some student-athletes and sharing some of my experiences with them.”
