It was “Happy Days” for the U.S. women’s skeleton team Wednesday, even if Tristan Gale doesn’t fully realize what that means.
Olympic teammate Lea Ann Parsley can’t quite understand how the 21-year-old Gale can be ignorant of the Fonz and the rest of the gang from the hit TV show that long ago passed into reruns.
“How can she not know these things?” Parsley asked in mock disgust.
But then Parsley is 33.
There may be a generation gap, but there was precious little gap between the two athletes in the inaugural women’s Olympic skeleton competition at Utah Olympic Park.
Gale won the gold medal, edging Parsley by 0.10 of a second in a total two-heat time of 1 minute 45.11 seconds. Alex Coomber of Britain won bronze in 1:45.37.
About 30 minutes earlier, Jim Shea Jr. had won the men’s event in 1:41.96. That gave the U.S. three of the six medals at stake in the first Olympic skeleton competition in 54 years and continued the country’s odd dominance of the sport.
The U.S. won three of the six medals awarded in 1928 and 1948, the only other times it was an Olympic event and when it was a men-only competition.
In their coming-out party the women staged a stirring duel, even if snowy conditions kept the leaders’ times more than two seconds off the track record. After one heat, Gale led Parsley by only 0.01. But Gale used a 0.07 edge in start times on her second run to hold on for the win.
Gale slapped the hands of spectators lining the track as she slid to a halt after producing the upset. She has competed on the World Cup circuit only during the 2001-02 season, placing 10th overall and no better than eighth in any of the five events.
The one hint Gale might slip onto the medal podium was her success on the Utah Olympic Park track, where she won the Olympic trials in December.
“I knew I could slide well here,” said Gale, who told her mother as a second-grader in New Mexico that she would go to the Olympics. “I didn’t know how I would slide against the international competition.”
Parsley, fourth on the World Cup circuit, was a serious medal contender, but a hamstring injury hampered her already average starts.
“I don’t care what color [the medal] is,” she said. “And after watching Jimmy win his gold, it just felt great to see our program have such a great day.”
Parsley, a firefighter and registered nurse from Granville, Ohio, is working on a doctorate from Ohio State in community health nursing. She was named Ohio Firefighter of the Year in 1999 for rescuing two people from a burning house, and she carried the World Trade Center flag in the Opening Ceremony.
Gale is a community college student who works at Home Depot through an Olympic jobs program. On the skeleton team, however, her role is little sister.
“I’m the youngest here by a lot,” she said. “I am definitely the little spunky kid running around, always tagging along.”
