The photographs of the Canadian luge team rushing to greet Tristan Walker and his doubles partner Justin Snith on the luge track in PyeongChang tells the tale better than anything that could be said.
"It's hard to described," says Walker in an interview after the dust had settled. "I can't remember being happier in my life. The pictures speaks thousands and thousands of words, more than I could ever say. It was something special and I'll never forget it."
Climbing on to the podium to claim a medal in the Olympics is a moment he has pursued for over a decade since first being named to Canada's junior national team at age 14 and came to realize it was about to evolve from a hobby to a career.
"It was pretty unexpected and it wasn't until I got my first Team Canada jacket and put the Maple Leaf on my back that I started having dreams of the Olympics. It's been well over a decade of dreaming about getting to the Olympics and more importantly getting on the Olympic podium."
Now 26, Walker has had little sleep in the days since that podium climb as a member of Canada's silver medal relay team, but what has shone through to him is it could inspire other young Canadians to join at the grassroots level, the same place he started so many years ago.
"Everything's been whirlwind the last couple of days, but one of the things that has really stuck with me is that they're already getting interest from parents asking how their kids can get involved in luge."
"If I've done one thing, inspiring young kids to get involved in the sport, or any sport for that matter, is one of the most important ones, for sure. That's really cool to hear and that's good for the entire sport. The more interest there is at the grassroots level, the more funding that can be up at the higher levels and hopefully is the spark that can light a fire that will keep burning in Canada."
At age 18, Walker became one of Canada's youngest Olympians competing at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Starting young was a key to nurture a Canadian team that could compete against the best in a European dominated sport, where members of some of the other teams had been competing longer than they had been alive.
"They wanted us to get the experience of going to the Olympics because compared to even the world championship and World Cups it's a totally different circus at the Olympics and it can be overwhelming."
Coupled with their World Cup and world championship wins. Walker and his doubles partner Justin Snith, also 26, continued to build momentum from that young Olympic performance and four years later experience further success in Sochi, where he was part of the fourth place doubles and relay teams and began nipping at the heels of the sports' elite.
"The Sochi was very difficult for us. We were ranked second in the team event going into that from the World Cup season, so to walk away from Sochi without a medal, especially being so close, was tough. But we knew we were there. We had been on the podium multiple times at World Cups and world championships, even between then and now, We knew it was possible and it was just a matter of time."
Even when they received news of the Russian team being stripped of the bronze from the Sochi Olympics, only to later have it reinstated, the team refused to let it become a distraction.
"When we got the news we were in mid-season dryland session in the gym over the Christmas break and we were very excited about it at first and then it was right back to the grindstone. It was kind of symbolic in a way that we were in the gym where we spend most of our time when we're not actually on the track because that's where a fast luge start is made. It was just right back to work and we'll deal with this after the Olympics, no matter what happens. I think that mentality is what allowed us not to be devastated by the overruling and allowed us to focus on this race."
"There was a jump to be made. Last year on that old setup we were pulling first place starts in world championships. Off the line with more speed than any other sled, we had two awesome runs in world championships and finished ninth. I think that was a bit of a wakeup call that we needed to push on the equipment end.
"Our coach Bernhard Glass put a lot of effort into building a new sled for us over the summer and it was everything it needed to be."
What has been a strength for the Canadians is their speed out of the gate.
"It has really evolved to be one of our strengths. There were only two races in the entire season we hadn't pulled first place reaction times and the other ones were second. In some of the races, we were even beating single sleds on reaction time. That is actually pretty huge."
The trick of the PyeongPang track was making it out of curve 9.
"We had six training runs and I only had a 50 per cent success rate, so it was really nice to be able to put three solid runs through there. That was cool."
With at least one veteran of the relay team retiring (Sam Edney), Walker and Snith aren't about to call it quits yet and want to help carry the torch for the Canadian team.
"Justin and I are really starting to hit our stride, I think, and it would be a shame to not to continue."
Still, with nominal support for what is year-round training, it can be a tough decision. It's a full-time job that sees them compete in nine to 10 World Cup events plus world championships each season. When they're not on the track, they're in the gym. What rests firmly in the back of the mind of all the athletes is when they make the decision to seek a job in the "real world." For many, it eliminates a full Olympic cycle.
Not so in Europe and with other top teams.
"Europeans have systems in place where their lugers are soldiers or police or border patrol. It's their way to give them a full career with a pension and benefits. It's set up on paper that they are police officers or military, but really their job is 100 per cent to compete."
"For the best in Europe, that is their career. They will be involved either through coaching or as an athlete for their entire life. They don't need to get a "real job" after competing."
Walker has no firm date set at this point, but he looks forward to bringing back the medal to Cochrane for a public event, likely at Cochrane Coffee Traders.
"The support from Cochrane has been unwavering and really cool to see along the way. It's one of the reasons we do it. We're definitely representing our country, but we're representing our hometowns as well."
Tristan Walker Part of Historic Silver Medal Performance
Tue, Apr 23, 5:00 PM
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