KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (AP) — Pierre Lueders got to be part of the home team at the Vancouver Games, competing there as the undisputed star of Canadian bobsledding.
Four years later, he’s still on Olympic home ice.
In Russia.
Hoping for big Russian success at the Sochi Games, the host country opened its checkbook and hired serious coaching talent from around the world, regardless of nationalities or language barriers. One of the biggest gets was Lueders, who left his job as a Canadian coach in 2012 citing a desire to spend more time with his family, then was introduced a few days later as Russia’s new bobsled boss.
The way he left ruffled some Canadian feathers, for certain. But as far as the results go in Sochi, it’s pretty good so far: Lueders coached one-time Russian rival Alexander Zubkov to the two-man gold, and Zubkov is again the favorite in the four-man event that starts on Saturday.
“My job is to be loyal to Russia,” Lueders was quoted saying in Canadian media this week.
Given that he won two Olympic medals for Canada and is a Sports Hall of Famer in his nation, that’s stunning.
Lueders was Canadian bobsledding, plain and simple. The Canadians spent most of Lueders’ time as a driver building their entire program around him, giving him what he wanted, trying to avoid what he didn’t want. Training schedules, travel schedules, team selections, anything and everything was done with Lueders in mind, which is understandable since he was Canada’s best sliding asset.
“He was the face of it,” Canada’s two-time women’s bobsled gold medalist Kaillie Humphries said. “To some extent, he still is. He’s still Canadian history. He’s still a part of it. We are one big happy family in essence in bobsleigh and seeing him in a different coat, yeah, it’s hard. But he made a choice for what was best for him and his family.”
Lueders’ distinctive mannerisms remained unchanged after his change of address.
He still seems to be scowling much of the time. Unlike many coaches around the world, he’s been known to jump in a sled and post a time at the Sochi track every now and then in a way to challenge the sliders he’s working with — in the same way that he would when he was leading, but also competing against, Canadian colleagues.
And if he and Zubkov had any old scores from their days as opponents to settle, they’ve all obviously been cleared up by now.
“He is great,” Zubkov said. “With him, we really have had great breakthroughs in our training. We got a lot of theory done. Our coaches did a great job. Our team finally figured out what was missing and it was him.”
The Russians went the international route in several sports when finding coaches for the Sochi Games. Curling coaches were hired from Switzerland and Sweden. There’s a Slovenian on the alpine skiing staff, a Swiss Nordic skiing coach, a Latvian and a German working alongside Lueders in bobsled and skeleton, Italians coaching luge and speed skaters, and a French coach helping guide the short-track team.
“They hand-picked the right guys and I don’t blame them,” Canadian bobsledder Justin Kripps said. “They offered him a lot of money and it’s a good opportunity for him and they’ve had success and so I’m happy for him.”
Such moves aren’t uncommon. Bengt Walden, for example, is a native of Sweden, represented that country and then the United States in the Olympics, and is now a luge coach for Norway. Former U.S. athletes are working with several other sliding nations. And current U.S. skeleton coach Tuffy Latour knows what Lueders has to be feeling, since he worked with Canada at the Vancouver Games.
When the Russian opportunity came up, Latour offered Lueders his advice.
“I told him that when you get a chance to coach the home team at an Olympics, you take it,” Latour said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
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