Karol Montilier

Presenter of the program "Topics" Peter Vail:

The man of the day Radio Liberty is the French skier of Karol Montilier. At the Sittle Lake City Olympics, she won a gold medal in a high-speed descent. This victory brought France to the female team in skiing the first Golden Olympic medal in its history. Karol Montilier is 29 years old, born in Grenoble. Her gold medal in Salt Lake City is especially noteworthy in that in nine years of performances in this type of program she won only once - a year ago. Our sports observer Oleg Vinokurov says about the man of the day of Radio Liberty:

Oleg Vinokurov:

When you were born in the city, shortly before your birth that took the Olympic Games, and you live a stone's throw from the Bobslene, sanarium and ski routes, your fate seems predetermined. Karol was five years old when Father Gerard put her on skis. 24 years passed, and the first participant in the Olympics appeared in the Montille family, but clearly not the last, for Kristel, sister Carol, will represent France in competitions in Skeleton. Fate did not pamper Karol Montilier with sports success, her Olympic debut could take place in Lilichammer in 1994, but at the last moment, Florence Masna was replaced by her from the team, which showed the best time in the last training. As a result, a trip to Norway was for a tourist Montile, and in Nagano, when the debut still took place, she took a modest 14th place. Both in a speed descent, and in a super-giant.

Many believed that Salt Lake City Carol would be somewhere in the second ten, especially since this season she performed irregularly and did not do anything remarkable. But she still won, contrary to the forecasters and fate, which had inflicted her hardest blow three and a half months ago. In the last days of October, the ski world survived a terrible tragedy - after a collision at a great speed with a German coach, during a warm -up, she died in a hospital, without coming to consciousness for several days, a cavalry regenerate. The entire French team was in mourning, but Montilee had the harder for everyone - they were the best friends from the age of five, from the first steps to ski, and during trips to competitions always lived in the same room. In order to recover at least a little, Carol required more than one week. What are the starts, what are the successes. She arrived in America in a terrible state, so that the coaches, deciding to hide from excessively curious eyes, sent her to San Diego-even if she would scatter at least a little. She returned to Salt Lake City before the start and took a miracle, however, maybe this is not such a miracle if her thought about a untimely departed friend drove her to the gold medal. And immediately after the finish, Karol, of course, spoke about the regin. “She is always in my heart, I thought about her, I think, and I will think. I dreamed of devoting this Olympics to her, and I am happy that I could do it,” the champion said.