http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/s...tml?id=2477959
VANCOUVER -- The road to the top began innocently enough for Jan Buntin.
Nearly 20 years ago, she was a single parent moving her two sons to Kelowna, B.C., from Vancouver. Since they were going to be living in the snowy British Columbia Interior, she decided they needed a winter sport.
So she signed 12-year-old Craig up for a learn-to-skate program, while his older brother, Jamie, took up snowboarding. She bought Craig hockey skates, figuring he would just naturally segue into Canada's No. 1 sport.
Her son had other ideas. He landed his first figure skating jump on hockey skates shortly after signing up for the program.
The coaches were all over her, advising her to buy him figure skates.
Being naive in such matters, she went to a department store and bought him girls' figure skates, which she had dyed by a local shoemaker. That did the job for a while, but Craig was improving by leaps and bounds.
She had to buy him his first real pair of men's figure skates. That was her first shock. The cost was $500.
As Craig quickly climbed the figure skating ranks, the costs soared. Jan estimates she shelled out $35,000 to $40,000 annually over eight years on travel, competitions, pricey outfits, coaching and sundry costs to give her now 29-year-old son a shot at the Olympic podium.
Hers is just one example of how parents are often the unsung heroes in the making of Canadian Olympians, the piece of the puzzle that often goes unrecognized.
"I remember just always writing cheques," recalled Jan, who wound up selling the family home in Kelowna to fund Craig's Olympic dream.
Now battling Parkinson's disease and working part-time at a daycare in Toronto, she's struggling to make ends meet. But she wouldn't trade the path she chose for all the riches in the world. Craig was able to live his dream. That is all she asks for.
Besides, she wasn't the only one in the family to scrimp for a shot at glory. Craig himself worked in a variety of part-time jobs in Kelowna, including busboy and a mascot for the Western Hockey League's Kelowna Rockets.
"He gave me every cent," Jan said. "He missed out on buying all the stuff that teenage kids buy."
Jamie, too, gave his mom money from his part-time jobs to help fund his brother's pricey rise in his sport. And when it came time for Craig to move to Montreal at 18 to carve out a future as an elite figure skater, his 19-year-old brother handed over his snowboarding jacket at the airport.
He didn't think Craig's jacket was warm enough for Montreal winters. Not long afterwards, Jan moved east to be nearer to Craig. Jamie is now there, too, so the family remains close.
Fortunately, Jan had some good earning years in management with Shaw Communications. She lost her job when Rogers took over for Shaw, but landed another one working for a financial news wire company in downtown Toronto.
But she has been unable to work full-time since being diagnosed with Parkinson's about three years ago. The daycare job suits her, since she has some good hours and some not-so-good hours because of her medication. And she loves working with toddlers.
She'd been hoping like crazy that her son would qualify for the 2010 Games. She planned to travel to B.C. and support him, reconnect with old friends.
But on Jan. 16, she learned it wasn't to be. Craig, who placed 11th in pairs at the Turin Olympics in 2006, finished third in the Canadian championships at London, Ont. Only the top two teams qualified for Vancouver. In the world of Olympic sports, you are forced to gamble big, only to find right at the end that you lost out.
It starts slowly and then it gently sucks you in.
The lure of sports proves too much for most parents to resist.................
