January | 2014 | Steve Tilford

Since it is only a short time until the winter Olympic games starts, I thought I’d post something about them, plus a cycling connection.

I saw this article over at the NBC Olympic website doing a list of the greatest US winter Olympic athletes of all time. The list is completely out of order. They have Eric Heiden listed as the 9th “greatest” US winter Olympian. That is so wrong.

Here’s how the guys at NBC define greatness – How do you define greatness? There is the quantitative approach, which in sports means adding up personal statistics, victories and, in the case of the Olympics, medals. That is the first criteria used to build this list. But to define success only by the accretion of Olympic hardware would omit athletes whose impacts can not be easily quantified because they compete in sports, such as figure skating, with fewer events or in which the effective career of an athlete is far shorter. Cultural impact matters too; Dorothy Hamill, for instance, won only one gold medal but inspired a generation of girls to try to follow in her footsteps. So the second criteria for this list is the imprint the athlete left on history in other, less tangible ways. Using those two criteria, these are our choice for the 19 greatest U.S. Winter Olympians.

Eric Heiden did something in 1980 that will never be repeated in all of sport. He won every event in his sport in the Olympic Games. 5 events and 5 gold medals. It was equivalent in running of winning the 100 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters, mile, and 10 K. Or in cycling, winning the sprints, kilo, pursuit, time trial and road race. I’ll state it again, it will never be repeated. It was phenomenal.

Of the 8 athletes ahead of Eric, nearly all are skaters. Mainly figure skaters. But, just adding insult, there are 3 speed skaters, that NBC has deemed greater winter athletes than Eric. I’d bet you a million dollars if you polled all Olympic speed skaters and asked them who the greatest speed skater of all time was, it would be unanimous – Eric Heiden. That says a lot.

In NBC’s greatness definition, it doesn’t say anything about what the athlete went out and accomplished after the Olympics. Eric retired from speed skating after the Olympics and immediately took up cycling. He went on to win the Professional National Road Championships and ride the Tour de France. He then went to medical school and became an orthopedic surgeon. Kind of an over achiever, huh?

There is an online poll where you can vote. I think Bonnie Blair is leading Eric in this. If you want to go vote, click here.

It is so weird that guys are already road racing throughout the world, Australia, Argentina, etc. and the cyclocross worlds are still a couple weeks away. All the while, we’ll be able to enjoy watching the Winter Olympics. Sports – 24/7.

1980 Eric Heiden on his way to Olympic history.

Dr. Eric Heiden, couple years ago, fixing my hand.

Topeka is a nice place to live. It is very convenient for riding, close to an airport and has pretty great weather, most of the time. But compared to a lot of places, it is fairly poor. At least it has a big area of neighborhood blight and crime. I’m not exactly why. I think it might go all the way back to the civil war when Kansas was a free state and Missouri was a slave state. That’s my own theory, but whatever the reason, a fair number of poor people ended up settling in Topeka, the Capitol City.

When cities have blight issues, the regulations, charges, etc., need to reflect the mindset of the people that they most affect. Penalizing or charging people for trash disposal is an issue of mine. When cities/counties start making special charges or exceptions for certain items, tires, tv’s, etc. then it is going to create a problem of people dumping them where it is free. That is just about anywhere. Topeka charges $2 for tires. I’ve personally moved 1000’s of tires. And I see them everywhere. I’m sick of it. The city needs to come up with a way to track new tire sells because an average household doesn’t have 50 tires sitting around. Many of the tires are being dumped by small tire companies and service stations.

I can’t count how many times I’ve cleaned the land up. Or how many times I’ve tried to keep the land sealed off from people that dump. I’ve had so many full 40 cubic yard dumpsters removed from this piece of property I should just buy my own.

I’m writing this now because I’m having a problem, once again, with some property I own in Central Topeka. It’s a fairly long story, but I have a 13 acre piece of land right in the center of town. It is a nice piece of property in a bad area. When I got the land, it wasn’t secure and many people used it to dump their “extra” stuff. Bill, Trudi and I spend a month moving close to 3000 tires out of a seasonal drainage stream. We just had to drag them up and stack them and some prisoners came and moved them. The prisoners got to keep the money from the metal from the steel, the rims, and the tires went to a facility to make playground cover. It worked out pretty well.

There were two semi trailer trucks on the property. I called around trying to get someone to move them, but the poor ecosystem took care of it. Last year, I went by the property and the chain/cable was gone, once again. I’ve replaced it dozens of times. I went into the property and the semi trailers were completely gone. Tires and all, which was nice. I’m sure the guys that cut them up got a fair amount of money for recycling the steel, $1000’s of dollars, which is fine by me.

Now my issue is dumping again. It is nearly impossible to keep people from getting in. They seem to have all the tools necessary to get through any thickness of chain or cable. I received a code services letter from the city about removing a desk from the property. I knew that was a bad sign. I went over there yesterday and saw few pickup truck loads of trash laying there. Empty paint cans, tv’s, clothing, and trash.

There are a lot of letters with addresses, but I”m not going there. There are so many ways people’s stuff could end up here. Someone evicted and the landlord dumps their stuff. A guy driving around cleaning houses and then illegally dumps. Lots of ways. Anyway, I’m sick of it.

I went down to a recycling place yesterday and got two long pieces of galvanized steel. My plan was to dig a 3-4 foot post hole, put one in, set in concrete, and then slide the other one over the top, secured with the beefiest lock I can find. I hit a snag with the ground being solid limestone. I’m working on “drilling” a hole now. I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to use. Maybe a core drill, hammer drill, jack hammer, something. All I know, from past experience, that once the dumping starts, it accelerates at an unbelievable rate.

Back to point. Cities need to understand the consequences of their fee schedules. When you charge poor people to get rid of trash, the trash isn’t going to make it to the landfill. It is going to be dumped in ditches, along bike paths, and on unoccupied property. Then it becomes society’s problem. I can’t imagine that the city collects enough money from their fee schedule to make up for the amount of garbage they have to clean up themselves. Not even mentioning private land owners.

I hate people that pollute. There are lots of ways to pollute, dumping garbage isn’t the worst. But it stands out in your face. I really don’t like cleaning up other people’s trash. But, I’ve done more than my fair share of it. I would be a horrible garbage man. Seeing humanity through other people’s trash gives me a bad glimpse into an ugly side of mankind.

My pile of trash. It took pickups trucks full. And they bring it as fast as I can remove it.

I pulled this pile of laundry detergent containers out to recycle. Who uses this much laundry detergent?

Some family photo albums. It is so sad really.

I didn’t get too far before hitting solid rock.

This is a road repair done a couple years ago across the street from my land. Pretty nice way to dispose of the extra rock and concrete, huh? Even the city pollutes in the poor areas.