Ever since the “Hometown Heroes Celebration” that welcomed the triumphant nordic combined Olympic team back to Steamboat Springs a few weeks ago, I’ve thought a lot about what it means to be a “hero” today.
We all know the dictionary definitions. A hero is someone who shows great courage, the central figure in an event or movement, an object of extreme admiration and devotion.
What got me thinking about this was something gold medalist Bill Demong said that weekend in Steamboat. I asked if he felt like a hero, even as he was being honored as one.
“I think what you do after the medal determines whether or not you really are a hero,” Demong said.
That’s a great answer, and I would have expected nothing less from Demong, a thoughtful man and a wonderful role model. Since then, both of us have had plenty of opportunity to contemplate the traits of true heroism.
Demong and nordic combined teammates Todd Lodwick and Johnny Spillane spent 10 days in the Middle East, meeting our troops on a goodwill tour, and I spent a wonderful evening with some bona fide heroes of mountaineering.
A few days after the Steamboat celebration, I attended the induction of four men into the Hall of Mountaineering Excellence at the American Mountaineering Museum in Golden. Bob Craig, Yvon Chouinard, Bob Bates and Charles Houston qualify as heroes for any mountaineer.
That night I chatted with one of my greatest heroes, Tom Hornbein, who would have been in the inaugural class of inductees if he hadn’t been on the selection committee. Hornbein was a member of the first American expedition to Mount Everest in 1963, pioneering a new route on the West Ridge. He also had a long and successful career in academic anesthesiology.
But when I asked him if I could do a little mountaineering with him this summer to write a column about him, he was reluctant for no reason other than old-fashioned modesty.
I had encountered the same thing trying to arrange an interview with Craig before his induction. Craig said he felt “a little embarrassed” by the honor because he felt others were more deserving.
Hornbein and Craig are, without question, great men. Their humility is as admirable as it is quaint in a culture that produces wide receivers who make spectacles of themselves after scoring touchdowns and basketball players who think there’s something special about performing dunks in a league in which everyone can dunk.
I don’t see many heroes in the four major professional leagues. They do exist, but I see way too many athletes who have no interest in being worthy role models. I see too many who can’t find the motivation to play hard every night. I see way too much entitlement. I think there are more heroes at your neighborhood firehouse than there are on most pro sports teams.
And I’ve noticed there is an almost perfectly inverse ratio of worthy role models in Olympic sports, relative to the four major pro sports. Yes, there are poor role models and selfish athletes with a sense of entitlement in Olympic sports, but they are the exception.
Which brings me back to Demong and the “Warriors Tour” to Bahrain, Qatar and Iraq. The trip was arranged by Steamboat resident Rob Powers, who put together a similar tour last summer with an Olympic hero from a generation ago, Frank Shorter.
Demong was humbled by the military heroes he met.
“We achieved our athletic goals; that doesn’t necessarily make us heroes,” Demong said last week. “So when people get really excited to meet us, it takes us aback. But when you get into a small group and start connecting with (military) people, you’re able to establish why you have this mutual respect and make a lot of comparisons: The time we spend away from our homes, and the time they spend away from their homes. The years of teamwork and dedication we put into respective careers.
“Ultimately they have a great deal of respect for us, because they look at the Olympics as a pinnacle of athletic achievement. We look at them as the highest level of sacrifice.”
It seems to me Demong, Hornbein and Craig have helped identify one of the essential traits of true heroes: humility. And that’s surely something in short supply on “SportsCenter” highlights.
