c. 2006 Religion News Service
TURIN, Italy _ Even before the Olympics started Friday (Feb. 10), the Brock Kreitzburg show was well under way.
Kreitzburg, a former retirement-home chaplain in Akron, Ohio, turned bobsled pusher, arrived Tuesday. By Wednesday, he had held court at the Shroud of Turin and lined up three appearances on national television.
This from a guy who a month ago was pushing and riding in obscurity on the United States’ second-string team in a sport almost no one back home gives any notice.
Watching in bemusement at times was Kreitzburg’s driver on the four-man bobsled, Todd Hays, a 2002 silver medalist who has a shot at driving the U.S. to a historic two gold medals.
Two things conspired to thrust Kreitzburg, who turns 30 next week, headlong into the pre-Olympic hype machine. He was promoted to Hays’ USA-1 sled as a brakeman last month.
And then, as Kreitzburg’s teammates like to say, he was Brock being Brock.
The excitable Kreitzburg has glowed in several national media interview sessions. He’s fun and funny, but also modest and thoughtful.
Don’t forget handsome. He caught the eyes and ears of NBC producers, who taped him Wednesday with women’s bobsled driver Jean Prahm in an Olympic fashion show segment that aired on the “Today” show.
Kreitzburg, who sends out extensive e-mails to friends and family about his Olympic journey and writes a journal for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, has hooked up with several elementary-school classes, including one in Minnesota that is the subject of an upcoming NBC piece, producer Colin Macaulay said.
So what if Kreitzburg doesn’t compete until Feb. 24, in an event where he works for five seconds?
“He was great. We hope to have him on again,” Macaulay said.
After learning Kreitzburg has a master’s degree in divinity, NBC decided to tape Kreitzburg at the church that houses the Shroud of Turin, which many believe to be Jesus’ burial cloth bearing his image.
“It’s pretty special to share this with my teammates,” Kreitzburg said. “As a Christian, being a Westerner, you don’t really see the roots of your faith.
“Some people say this (the shroud) is real, and some people say it’s not. But this just kind of makes it more real and it strengthens my faith. It’s pretty awesome, actually.”
Kreitzburg, a born-again Christian who graduated from a Jesuit high school, helped turn the trip into a team outing, then explained to his fellow bobsledders the shroud’s rich history and significance.
“We tried to stump him, and we got him on a couple things,” bobsled coach Tuffy Latour said.
(Tim Warsinskey writes for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.)
KRE/PH END WARSINSKEY
