32)   Lea Ann Parsley and the 2002 Winter Olympics

Granville Olympian Tries the Skeleton for the First Time

(Lea Ann Parsley)

[ In 1999, I went to Lake Placid ] to see the training center and find out about bobsled and skeleton.  Women’s bob sled and skeleton were not Olympic at the time and there was really no guarantee that they would be. 

Well, a couple times down on that little skeleton sled and I was like, OK -- This is what I want to try!  I need to hook up with the skeleton people.  About three weeks later it was cold enough in Park City, Utah, to get ice on the track out there.  So we ended up out there on ice and they said you’re going to love it or you’re going to hate it, and you’ll know after the first trip down.  And I crossed the finish line that first trip down, I was like, man, take me to the top. I want to do this again!  I was hooked.

Backstage Before the Opening Ceremonies

(Lea Ann Parsley)

It took about three hours to get set for the opening ceremonies.  You had to figure out what gear you’re supposed to wear.  They give you all that gear to wear, then they give you a list of what you’re supposed to wear during opening ceremonies, what you’re supposed to wear for press conferences, what you’re supposed to wear on the podium.  So the whole team got ready and we walked over to a small gymnasium just outside the stadium, kind of our holding area.

While we were there, the President and the First Lady came in and met with all the athletes, like our own little pep rally.  He talked with us for a while, did autographs and took pictures etc.  There were well over two hundred athletes and he shook hands with everybody.  It was pretty amazing.

An Incredible Experience Backstage with the Flag

(Lea Ann Parsley)

Then the eight of us that had been selected to carry the flag [ the flag which had flown over the World Trade Center on 9/11 ] were allowed to go over to the stadium to be back stage waiting for our turn to go in.  And it was pretty funny because we didn’t know what we were supposed to be doing.  We had the flag, but there was nowhere to unfurl it.  The back stage area was so tight that we couldn’t find anyplace to do it.  Here we were to be on national TV and we didn’t know what we’re doing! 

Now backstage was just chaotic -- people everywhere, carrying clipboards, moving back and forth, the show’s going on.  And here we were trying not to get in anybody’s way, but we’ve got this enormous flag to unroll.  Finally we found a little corner to start unrolling it.  And, of course, these people didn’t know who we were because we were a last minute throw-in to the ceremonies.  So we were trying to get this thing unfolded and all of a sudden people just started realizing who we were and what the flag was. 

And it was like the parting of the Red Sea.  Everybody just moved away.  And it was really freaky because we suddenly realized that everybody was watching us and it was getting very quiet and they were making room for us.  So we were being really careful because the flag had this huge rip down the middle.  We were so afraid we were going to rip it even more, so we were pulling it back, pulling it back.  And finally we get to the last few feet and this flag was huge.  I was standing next to Chris Klug, one of the guys from the snowboarding team, and we looked at each other, hoping we wouldn't drop it or rip it.  We were getting nervous.

And then we realized that people from all around back stage were walking up and they weren’t saying anything.  They would just walk up, reach out and just touch it.  They just wanted feel it and make that connection with it.  We all got quiet and just stood there holding it so people could come by and, in the process of whatever it is they were doing backstage, they would just walk up, touch it, and walk on by.  We hadn’t even walked out in front of the group yet and we’d already had this incredible experience of people showing that kind of respect for it.  And, of course, the Honor Guard guys were just beside themselves. They were so glad that they had gotten it there and that these people were showing this kind of respect.

The Opening Ceremonies

(Lea Ann Parsley)

They opened the curtain for us to walk out and we thought that something would happen like the National Anthem would start playing or that people would cheer.  But when they opened the curtain, it was complete silence.  55,000 people were in that stadium and not one person made a sound.  It scared us to death because we didn’t know what to do.  And I looked over at Chris and I’m like, “Do we go now?  What’s happening?”  Then finally the guys at the head and the Honor Guard were like, ”No, this is it.  This is what the response is going to be.”  So we all started to slowly move forward and the whole time, not a sound.  I had goose bumps. I looked over at Chris. His eyes were this big.  This is not what we thought was going to happen.  But it was so cool that I wanted to stop for a minute and just soak it in.

There was a nice light snowfall coming down and the only sound I remember hearing were helicopters above us.  There were four helicopters patrolling the air space for security reasons.  But that was it. There was no other sound in that stadium.  It truly felt for a moment like we were the only things moving in the whole stadium. 

When we got out to the center part of the ice, the President actually came down on the ice, which we didn’t know was going to happen.  And then right about the time they hit the first note of the National Anthem, we had just the right amount of breeze pick up and it just rippled that flag perfectly.  And of course at the time we clenched down on it because we thought we were going to lose grip on it, but, even though it looked really fragile, that flag was a lot stronger than it looked. 

Then when the anthem was done, we moved backstage again and everybody moved aside, made room for us, and we went through the whole process of the proper folding of the flag into the triangle.  On the last fold we all saluted, and everyone else did the same thing.  Then on the last tuck of the flag, everybody just lost it.  We were hugging and crying -- people we didn’t even know, people back stage.

I know how good it felt for the eight of us athletes, but I can only imagine how much better it felt for those Honor Guard guys, because so many of them were there for a reason.  They had lost someone in the September 11^th attacks.  One guy was a firefighter, and his brother was a firefighter who was killed.  So these guys all had a real attachment to this flag that we will never be able to understand, just simply because they were there that day and part of all that happened.

Returning to Granville as a Silver Medalist

(Lea Ann Parsley)

My sister had been warning me before I came back to Granville.  She said, “You’re not going to believe this place.  They’re going crazy back here!”  Well, I drove into town in the middle of the night and you could still see the silver metallic ribbons everywhere.  There were signs all over the place, at our house, on people’s front porches.  Every storefront window had something in it.  What an incredible feeling to come back and see that everybody back here was just so into it.  The firehouse had great big signs across the front, the schools had bulletin boards of all the newspaper articles and stuff.

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