Olympian Speed-Skater Chad Hedrick’s Behaviors are Reminiscent of Skater Tonya Harding’s
Olympian Speed-Skater Chad Hedrick
Immature”or over-achieving alcoholic?
The danger in tentatively identifying early-stage alcoholism is that alcoholic behaviors can easily be confused with immaturity in relatively young people, particularly if they are children of alcoholics. Such non-alcoholic young adults often drink and may even attempt to do so with reckless abandon. They’re used to the drinking, as well as the abusive behaviors of those they grew up with. They can easily learn misbehaviors, mimicking parents and, perhaps, alcoholic friends.
Such may be the case with Olympian speed-skater and gold-medalist Chad Hedrick. However, there is no public indication that either of his parents, married 33 years, have the disease of alcoholism. Unfortunately, as is all-too-common with those in the public spotlight, the rest of us see only what the handlers allow. Abuse is often covered up and actual drinking rarely makes news. As I discerned from Lucy Barry Robe’s Co-Starring Famous Women and Alcohol, the higher the social, business, financial or political status of the addict, the more enablers have to lose if the secret leaks out. This motivates enablers to protect the addict”the source of their own power, income, wealth and prestige”not only from consequences, but also from the negative publicity of obvious misbehaviors. Oftentimes, alcoholism is confirmed only decades later as relationships and lives slip away. In the extreme, we can see in Michael Jackson the long-term effects of enabling celebrity addicts and in Elizabeth Taylor the result of no one identifying a problem, until six failed marriages contributed to a decision to enter rehab.
One of the many threads running through the lives of addicts is a propensity to act compulsively. I began suspecting that alcoholism could explain the plusses and minuses of Hedrick, a world-champion in-line (roller-blade) skater, when I learned how he shifted to ice speed-skating. Watching television at a Las Vegas casino in 2002 as former in-line champions Tiffany Parra, KC Boutiette and Jennifer Rodriguez competed on ice in the Winter Olympics, he made an instantaneous decision to switch. I recalled a similar conversion some 25 years ago, when a long-time client brought his new wife in to have their taxes prepared. After carefully watching me for an hour, she suddenly proclaimed that she wanted to become an Enrolled Agent. I told her what she needed to do, which included sitting for a rigorous two-day examination on tax law that only about 30% pass. She passed the exam within a year and went on to build a 600-client tax practice within a few years. A decade later, she was President of a local society of Enrolled Agents and often stinking drunk at meetings.
Closer to our subject in terms of style, Olympian skater Tonya Harding had a very public feud with fellow skater Nancy Kerrigan, which culminated in Harding being held responsible for her bodyguards’ attack on Kerrigan in the 1994 Winter Olympics. The recent feud between Hedrick and fellow skater Shani Davis has been compared to that of Harding and Kerrigan. There was nothing in public records at the time suggesting that Harding’s behaviors might be rooted in alcoholism, other than the behaviors themselves. Eight years later, she was arrested for DUI with a .16 per cent BAL.
As proven by countless athletes from Ty Cobb to Harding, being an extraordinary athlete doesn’t preclude alcoholism. In fact, as reiterated numerous times in these pages and in my books, alcoholism can impel one to overachieve. Alcoholism causes those afflicted to have a need to control and wield power. Overachievement is perhaps the most efficient way by which to control others, including fans, co-workers and family members.
Hedrick has been characterized as a brash, tough-talking, hard-drinking, fast-living Texan. According to one report, his coach noted, “He does come drunk at practice every now and then, but he still does his practice harder than anybody else.”On the other hand, he may not drink and drive: he’s reportedly a supporter of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) program. When he was five, his family’s car was struck by a drunk driver, with him in it. “Even at age five I can just remember how scary it was. It’s something that no family should ever have to experience,”he said. He donates his time each summer to the local area MADD chapter to help increase awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving. However, many recovering alcoholics attest to the fact that supporting MADD does not preclude one from being a practicing alcoholic.
Hedrick’s feud with fellow skater Shani Davis, who won the gold in the 1,000 meter speed skating race (Hedrick won the bronze), appears to be a result of Hedrick’s drive to win, regardless of cost. Accused of “poor sportsmanship and betrayal,”he refused to congratulate him. His only comment on Davis’ winning was, “Shani skated fast today, that’s all I have to say.”Hedrick is reported as “confident to the point of brash and appears to crave attention.”He bragged that his “heart is bigger than everybody else out there,”referring to skaters whom he had beat, and then boasted about his strategy. As Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke pointed out, “He seems to have confused his heart with his ego.”
The alcoholic’s need to continuously inflate his ego in an effort to stave off late-stage alcoholism impels power-seeking behaviors. Overachievement puts the addict in a position from which he can more easily control others. Hyper-competitiveness, the subject of January’s issue, often results. Descriptions of Hedrick are filled with references to such extreme competitive behavior, including one by his father, Paul Hedrick: “He’s always had to win at whatever he was doing. We couldn’t go bowling without having a knockdown drag out. If Chad wasn’t winning, we weren’t having fun.”(http://www.zamboni.nl/zamboni/2006/01/fire_on_the_ice.html). Addicts, emotionally “stuck”the day they trigger addiction, don’t grow out of this childlike attitude.
Compare Hedrick with last month’s top story, Olympian skier Bode Miller. Miller was reportedly out late partying during the Olympics. However, he wasn’t angry about losing, nor did he blame others for his failures as would many alcoholics. Recall from the article that he would gladly share with others a new technique or technology out of concern over having an “unfair advantage.”Also, compare Hedrick’s attitude with the remarkable story of Bjornar Hakensmoen, the Norwegian cross-country coach. Canadian cross-country skier Sara Renner was leading in the third lap of a six-lap sprint relay when her pole snapped. She lumbered on as a Finn, a Swede and a Norwegian passed her, along with the prospects for gold, silver and bronze. Hakensmoen, watching from the sidelines, held out his pole as she passed him. Although seven inches longer than her own, she ended her leg only 2.5 seconds behind the leader. Canada placed second in the relay”and Norway ended fourth, losing a medal. Hakensmoen said simply, “Winning is not everything…I was just helping a girl in big trouble. The equipment shouldn’t determine the winner.”Bode Miller would likely agree with this sentiment. One would be hard-pressed to imagine Hedrick in accord.
Grown-ups with immature behaviors are given the benefit of the doubt by assuming alcoholism. Unfortunately, the road to sobriety is often an extraordinarily long one. If I’m right, we can only hope he doesn’t run over too many non-alcoholics along the way.