Former Philadelphia Eagles' place kicker Paul McFadden stood and cheered in the stands inside the packed Richmond Olympic Oval, just south of Vancouver, during the finals of the men's 1250 meter speed skating event.
McFadden became well-known during his days in the NFL, 1984 to 1989, for kicking barefooted--even in the frigid cold. The kicker traveled to British Columbia for these winter games because he felt a certain connection to one of the athletes. It wasn't McFadden's son, or any relative for that matter, that caused the Cleveland native to show up, unannounced, to Canada's western province.
Twenty-three-old Norwegian Jorgen Johensen is the only speed skater in the world to perform his craft without skates. Yes, you read that correctly. Johensen is, like McFadden, a barefoot athlete.
"I'd like to think that I was a big part of his choice in skating style," said McFadden, eyes watering. "I see a lot of me in Jorgen. He's a special competitor."
Growing up in rural northern Europe, Johensen was not exposed much to American television.
"I'm sorry, I'm sure Mr. McFadden is a very nice man, but I have no idea who he is," said the skater politely, when asked if the 1980's NFL player was the inspiration to his no-skates method. "I've never seen an American football game, especially one from the that long ago. I wish he would stop following me."
The native of Lillehammer feels that his style gives him an advantage over his skate-wearing competitors, but also admits that it is much more dangerous and that, despite going skateless at 8 years old, he still gets nervous.
"The turns are the scariest," the skater said laughing. "Every turn is very ... ah, what is the English word ... hairy. Yes, the turns are very hairy. But I never have to sharpen skates like other skaters, which saves me money."
The unusual style, however, has paid off thus far, as the skater captured the gold medal in the 1250 meter final and hopes to repeat that "feat" in tomorrow's 1255 meter final. Coming into the final turn, in the 1250 meter race, he lost his footing, but was able to quickly regain balance when his untrimmed toenails caught the ice and prevented a complete wipeout.
"My mother told me to trim my toenails that morning because I was going to be on national tv," the skater said, smiling. "If I had listened to my mother I would not have been standing on that podium barefoot with a gold medal."
Johensen, now a resident of Oslo, would not go into great detail about the reasons behind his barefoot style, but did dispel rumors that he was born with a rare shoe-wearing disorder.
"Norwegian tabloids have often reported that I have triple hyper-overactive sweat glands in my feet, which makes wearing shoes, at any time, nearly impossible," said the frustrated Olympian, standing barefoot in a snowbank outside of the Olympic training facility. "This is untrue and I ask that reporters consider my families feelings when making such ridiculous accusations like this."
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