Scott Cruickshank
Canada's Kyle Shewfelt celebrates his gold medal
victory in the men's vault final in the 2002
Commonwealth Games in Manchester Monday. He also
struck gold in the floor exercise.
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That seven-hour time difference. A lumpy bed at the
athletes' village. A dash of homesickness.
Sleep, for Kyle Shewfelt, didn't arrive as usual when
he curled up Sunday evening.
Which left the Calgary gymnast -- on the nervous night
before his most important day at the XVII Commonwealth
Games -- absolutely begging for 40 winks. Even 20
would have sufficed.
Slumber, as it turned out, was but a brief visitor.
"I was really tired, but I just lay there," sighed
Shewfelt. "I'm like, 'Oh, man. I can't sleep.' Then I
had a shower. I didn't get to bed until, like, three.
I just didn't have a comfortable sleep, like, one
you'd have in your own bed. Then in the morning I woke
up at seven.
"I was, like, 'Man, I'm tired. But I'm ready.' I felt
good. I felt like I was going to have a good
performance."
And, red eyes and all, he was correct.
Battling through the tough crowd, the tough
competition and, if he to be is believed, the tough
judging at the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre,
Shewfelt struck gold not once but twice at the
individual apparatus finals Monday.
"Mission accomplished, yes," said Shewfelt. "I am
really proud. I did the best that I could do,
obviously. I'm happy with how I did."
Had he not prevailed goldenly in his floor and vault
routines, it would have been a genuine let-down.
That's how much he was favoured here.
"I try not to think of those things because it adds
more pressure," said Shewfelt.
"I just go in and concentrate on my performance. I
don't pay attention to the outer distractions. There
was a little pressure, but honestly? I was focused on
doing my job."
After the morning triumph in his floor routine, he
trucked back to the village and took a nap.
Real honest-to-goodness sleep?
"Uh, well, no," he laughed. "Just relaxed. Just
chilled."
Then, after fortifying himself with fruit, a croissant
and some yogurt, Shewfelt returned to the city-centre
auditorium, where he preceded to top the field in the
vault event.
He actually had a shot at a third medal, especially
when competitors started toppling off the high bar.
"I was thinking to myself these weird thoughts --
'Here's an opportunity. Here's my chance,'" said
Shewfelt. "You know, then it's karma. And I just
didn't have enough gas for it."
Shewfelt joins diver Alexandre Despatie, synchronized
swimmer Claire Carver-Dias and gymnast Kate Richardson
as Canada's double-gold medallists.
"I feel good, but I'm glad it's done," whispered the
20-year-old, a member of the Altadore Club in Calgary.
"It's been a long month of preparation. It's nice to
be done. Kind of relieving."
The youngster has spent a total of five days in his
own bed during the past five weeks.
Days off in that span? Two.
After an appearance at a California camp in late June,
there was the Canadian team's camp in Halifax, another
one at Lilleshall, England. Then it was off to
Manchester, where the aforementioned cranky kip
awaited.
All in all, a gymnastic grind, which ends when he
returns to his folks' home in southeast Calgary later
this week.
"It's going to be weird," said Shewfelt, with an
exhausted laugh. "I can't even remember how it feels
to drive my car, or walk around my own house."
But there's no rest for the peaked -- World Cup stops
in Paris and Glasgow in the fall, world championships
in Hungary in November and a World Cup finale in
Germany in December.
"Each competition gives you valuable experience," said
Shewfelt. "The Commonwealth Games are big competition,
too. They're not huge because all the European
countries, the strong gymnastics powers, aren't here."
The grand-daddy of them all, of course, is the Olympic
showdown.
A member of the Canadian squad in 2000, the wiry blond
dude is building steadily towards the next quadrennial
-- Athens 2004.
"After Sydney, there were two years to get everything
together and now it starts -- when people are
establishing reputations," said Shewfelt, who placed
12th with his floor routine at the last Olympics, his
first. "I'm very happy with what I did (Monday). This
is just the beginning of bigger and better things."
Other gymnasts winning medals Monday for Canada
included Richardson (gold, women's balance beam) of
Coquitlam, B.C.; David Kikuchi (silver, men's parallel
bars), Calgary's Kylie Stone (bronze, women's floor);
Vanessa Meloche (bronze, women's vault; bronze, uneven
bars); Alexander Jeltkov (men's high bar).
Calgary's Grant Golding placed fourth on the pommel
horse.
© Copyright 2002 Calgary Herald