[LCM Articles] Lebanese MIT Alum to represent Lebanon at Winter Games

[Marc Haddad]

quite inspitational...

marc


http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/13824493.htm


Texas man, 41, will represent Lebanon at Winter Games
BY JEFF MILLER
The Dallas Morning News


DALLAS - The culmination of a Plano, Texas, man's improbable Olympic
dream came 2 1/2 weeks ago in a text message that he sent from the
Bavarian Alps.


I'm In.


The simplicity of Pat Antaki's message to his son back home belied the
difficulty of his Olympic journey. On that day in the Alps, he claimed
the last qualifying berth in skeleton at the Winter Games in Turin, Italy.


Antaki, 41, will compete in a sport that he didn't know existed until
stumbling across it on television four years ago. He will represent a
country that he hasn't lived in since childhood, Lebanon.


He'll have the least experience of the 29 competitors. At 6-1, 245
pounds, he'll be the heaviest by far and the oldest by a few years.


And he might feel the least pressure.


"To be honest, I consider success having gotten this far," he said after
an early-morning date with a stationary bike last week. "Just beating a
couple of guys would be enough for me."


Antaki has been an electrical engineer in the Dallas area since
graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984. The
extent of his sports activity was playing with a Dallas rugby club until
about six years ago. He was looking for something different to do when
skeleton caught his eye during the Salt Lake City Olympics.


Skeleton, part of the Winter Olympics sliding family of sports that
includes bobsled and luge, returned to the Games in 2002 after a 54-year
absence. It involves one person sliding downhill on a small sled, head
first, through an icy, twisting course at speeds that reach 80 mph.


There really isn't any steering, aside from a subtle shift of weight.
And, of course, no brakes. That's why all three sliding sports finish on
inclines, to help bring competitors to a stop.


"I was intrigued by it," Antaki said, "and I researched it on the Internet."


He learned that only a few hundred athletes worldwide participate in
skeleton regularly. With only a handful of courses in North America and
Europe, it's not exactly accessible to the winter weekend warrior, like
skiing. Even the best sliders hold regular jobs. Their introductions
could sound like a game show: "Defending world champion Jeff Pain of
Canada is a landscape architect from Alberta."


Antaki, who is self-employed, decided four years ago to take part in
skeleton's version of an open house, held in Calgary shortly after the
Salt Lake Games. To do so, he had to be sanctioned by a national
athletic body. The chances of his suddenly latching on to Team USA were
nil, but he identified a backdoor route that was available to him
through his dual citizenship in the United States and Lebanon - the
Lebanese Olympic Committee. Antaki moved from Lebanon to Queens, N.Y.,
with his parents and three brothers in 1976.


The Lebanese committee gave its blessing but nothing else, not even a
true endorsement. But that was enough for Antaki to establish the
Sliding Sports Association of Lebanon - in his office - and discover
that he had a talent and appetite for skeleton.


"It was scary, the most scared I've ever been," said Antaki, who says he
has spent several hundred thousand dollars on the sport. "That first
week, I hurt everywhere. And I still do."


He dabbled at the new hobby over the next two years, when time and money
allowed, and experienced marginal success. His buddies, many from his
rugby days, diagnosed a midlife crisis and compared him to the Jamaican
bobsledders who became a novelty at the 1988 Calgary Olympics.


Antaki decided about a year ago to attempt to qualify for the Turin
Games as a representative of Lebanon. He increased his training and
began working with a strength and conditioning trainer in North Dallas,
Bob King, to refine the running motion that's critical to the skeleton
start.


"When he got here ... snowball's chance in hell," said King, who worked
with U.S. skeleton athletes before the Salt Lake Games. "The whole
package - speed, strength and conditioning - wasn't developed. But he
put blinders on and went straight ahead."


While Antaki's skills were raw, one of his rugby teammates said he
marveled at his friend's combination of size and speed on the field.


"Usually in the rugby game, you don't see that combination," said Jeff
Kolberg, who played in the Canadian Football League in the mid-1970s.
"When you get a big guy like that running straight ahead, nobody wants
to tackle him."


To qualify, Antaki needed to earn one of eight national spots available
in the level of worldwide competition below the World Cup circuit, the
one-shot Challenge Cup. Those positions were filled Jan. 22 in
Konigssee, Germany.


Twenty-nine competitors entered, taking two runs each in inverse order
of their standing. Antaki entered the starting gate of his final run in
seventh place.


He whisked his way down through the 17 turns, looked up at the clock
after crossing the finish line and quickly determined that he'd earned a
ticket to Italy.


"I'm an engineer, so I calculated," he said with a smile. "I didn't
react much at all. When I got out of the course, everybody shook my
hand. It's the one race that, for four years, everyone's been working
towards."


On his way to Italy this week, Antaki had to fly into Zurich,
Switzerland, to pick up his equipment, which he stores with a friend.
The only time Antaki is able to use it is during formal competitions,
fewer than a dozen each season.


In Turin, Antaki and the other competitors will each get six practice
runs over three days before the big day, Feb. 17.


"I've been on the (Olympic) course six or seven times, in November," he
said.


"People like me would take 40, 50 to be real good."


Antaki's son, Nicholas, eventually will join him, excusing himself from
high school classes and staying in the Olympic Village because he'll
officially be designated as his father's coach. They get free room and
board.


Lebanon is hardly synonymous with winter sports but has been represented
at every Winter Games since 1948. Antaki will be joined in Turin by two
Lebanese skiers, Georges Salame and Chirine Njeim.


Antaki plans to march in the opening parade Friday but probably not stay
through the closing ceremony Feb. 26.


"The hard part, in my opinion, is done," he said. "I'm much more
relaxed, and hopefully, I'll be relaxed. That's really important. When
you're tense, you skid. And when you skid, you go slow."