Between dropping the puck at the last Canucks’ home game, and announcing Canada’s flag bearer for the Olympic Games, our assistant Chef de Mission and Olympic bronze medalist, Steve Podborski took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to me about his life, greatest achievements and amazing career. Born and raised in Don Mills, ON, Podborski and his family spent their winters on the slopes and he began skiing as a toddler and competitively at the age of ten. By training 200 plus days out of a year, Podborski earned numerous awards on the World Cup skiing circuit. He competed in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time at the 1980 Lake Placid Games. He made a special mark in history by winning the bronze medal in Men’s Alpine Skiing, becoming the first North American ever to reach the podium for this Olympic sport.
Podborski was one of the four “Crazy Canucks” – Canadian daredevil downhill skiers who started with nothing and rose to the top of international rankings during the late 1970s/early 1980s to become the very best skiers in the world. They were different than skiers from other countries since they worked together as a team. Their revolutionary way of competing gave them a huge advantage because they would always help each other out by doing things like reporting conditions of a run, even if it meant the other skier may beat them for that particular race.
Steve Podborski’s greatest Olympic moment was when he walked into the opening ceremony with all the other Olympians at Lake Placid and realized what an amazing event the Olympics truly are, surrounded by the greatest athletes in the world who all had chances at winning a medal. Even though winning a medal was cool, it made him realize that’s not what it’s all about. It’s about experiencing the moment and its memories.
For Podborski, the most rewarding part of skiing was being able to become really good at it, and indeed he was very successful! He said it was great to be surrounded by people who were all as dedicated and driven to push their physical and mental limits to beat their previous times. The most challenging part of his career was all the travel it required, about 200 days a year, most of which wasn’t first class or glamorous! A skill that really helped him to excel in his expertise was the ability to focus, visualize, and work in the moment. All the skiers in a competition have the skills to succeed, however, it takes a lot of mental skill to deal with the pressure and complexity to compete at the highest level.
After 26 years of competitive skiing, Podborski became involved in sports broadcasting, doing snowboarding and freestyle skiing play by play for CBS in Nagano and for NBC in Torino. This job was not as “romantic” as it may seem and was very challenging. At the same time, he said, it was crazy fun. His advice for anyone thinking of pursuing a career in broadcasting is that they must have a passion for it. Many of the greatest announcers and producers began on the lower end of the business. The best way is to just get into any position and gradually work your way up.
Currently, Steve Podborski is employed by Telus as the co-vice-chair Director of Sports Marketing. His job is to develop and implement a nationwide Grassroots Sport Marketing Strategy. He is also vice president of the Canadian Snow Sports Association and the International Ski Federation which often takes him on journeys to parts of Europe. While juggling all of this and more, he still makes time for the things he enjoys most: mountain biking, golfing, scuba diving, skiing, snowboarding and spending time with his kids. Lately he’s started doing yoga to stay flexible and strong, though he doesn’t consider it a sport!
In 1998 Steve Podborski was in the backyard of his home in Whistler when he received a phone call from Charmaine Crooks, a five time Olympian who asked him if he would like to join her athlete’s committee to bid on the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. On hearing her ambitious idea, his first thoughts where, “Oh my gosh, how old am I going to be in 2010?!” After twelve years of hard work and commitment, the dream of 1998 is becoming a reality. With the Games now literally around the corner his role as Chef de Mission will become his full time job, as he will be based in Whistler during the two weeks and will be a leader and support for all the Canadian athletes. Like many across the country, he has high hopes for Team Canada as the host team.
While visiting a refugee camp in Uganda, as an athlete ambassador for the Right to Play organization in 2004, Podborski met some children who had probably never seen an ice cube, let alone snow, in their lives. When he told them he was an Olympian, they were amazed and awestricken. This moment proved to him what an incredible event the Olympic Games are that even some poor children in an African refugee camp knew what he was talking about.
With Steve Podborski as a leader and support for our athletes, Team Canada has a definite advantage and I’m predicting a great success!
[...] hiding. It was also cool to meet Ms. Lambert, since she’s the other Chef de Mission, with Steve Podborski. Here are some pictures writing a message of [...]