Experiencing the Thrill of Defeat

The president, a self-described emotional Brazilian, yelled about the meaning.

“This is the Olympic spirit, right here,” Eric Maleson said.

The coach, cool and collected, discussed the practicalities.

“German safety for Brazilian athletes,” Martin Gruber said.

And as they rushed off to give a replacement helmet to their shell-shocked Brazilian bobsled team, it was up to the rest of us to combine it all, to see the blend of sportsmanship and bravery that allowed this team to make its second run down the hill, right into the most jubilant last-place standing you’ll ever see.

Nothing that has happened to the Brazilian bobsledders since their Olympic debut four years ago -- not even the movie deal or the steroid bust -- could change the essence of the sport, which was sharply presented to them all over again Friday.

They received an abrupt reminder of the inherent risk in traveling 90 mph down icy walls, and experienced an essential thrill in merely crossing the finish line upright.

And in the process, they gave us all a refresher course in what makes the Olympics great.

The Brazilian team spent the latter part of its first run bouncing off the track, its sled tipped over on its side. Driver Ricardo Raschini took the wrong angle on Curve 14 -- “I should have steered harder,” he lamented -- and the sled crashed, leaving four Brazilian heads skidding all the way down the rest of the course.

But the rules say all you have to do is cross the finish line -- straight, sideways or upside down -- for it to count as an official run. So the Brazilians were eligible to race in the second of four heats. If they wanted to. And if they could replace Marcio Silva’s cracked helmet.

First Maleson, the Brazilian Ice Federation’s president, had to regain his composure. He walked to the bobsled loading dock and started to cry, with Gruber offering a comforting pat on the shoulder.

“In my mind, I thought everything was over,” Maleson said. “That’s why I was so emotional. Later, when I found out that they all walked and nobody was hurt, then it sank in that they might have a chance here.”

Maleson had a spare helmet back in the Olympic village. But that would take a speedy drive on mountain roads through falling snow, with no guarantee that he could make it back in time.

The German team took care of it by giving the Brazilians a helmet. Now they had to muster the gumption to use it.

“We were all a little afraid,” said push-athlete Claudinei Quirino.

Quirino concerned the team the most. A member of Brazil’s silver-medal 400-meter relay team at the 2000 Summer Olympics, Quirino’s first bobsled ride was in November. He wasn’t even supposed to compete here, traveling as an alternate.

Then, right before the Games began in Turin, Armando dos Santos tested positive for the steroid nandrolone from a sample taken before the team left Brazil.

The Australian team, which had lost out to Brazil in Olympic qualifying, filed a protest and sought Brazil’s ejection from the Olympics. The International Bobsled Federation and the Court of Arbitration for Sport both rejected Australia’s case.

Dos Santos was sent home, but Brazil stayed in the Olympics, and Quirino was suddenly in the sled.

He was ready to make a second run. If everyone else wanted it, he did too.

“The best thing about bobsled is the camaraderie,” he said. “The brotherhood. If you fall, you all fall. If you win, you all win.”

And that’s why, when they made it down the mountain upright in the second run, it felt like a victory.

“When I screamed to the crew to brake the sled, it was an awesome feeling,” Raschini said.

“Best thing in the world,” Quirino said.

“I’m so proud of those guys,” Maleson said. “The crash was violent, and Marcio’s helmet cracked. Everybody was nervous and sore, but nobody got hurt. They had to get back together. I’m so proud of them. It takes a lot to go back to the top of the mountain and do it again after a major crash like that.”

They can do it again two more times today if they want to, the Brazilians sitting more than eight seconds behind the first-place German team.

Maleson literally drove Brazil’s bobsled program into the Olympics. When he wanted an outlet for his speed fixation -- and when no Formula One team offered him a driver’s seat -- the native of Rio de Janeiro bought a bobsled for $1,700, then endured a six-year political tangle to get his bobsled federation recognized so he could represent Brazil.

With Maleson driving, the Brazilian sled qualified on its last possible attempt and competed in the Salt Lake City Games, where the Brazilians finished 27th out of 29 teams.

A movie based on Maleson’s life, called “Better than Gold”, got the go-ahead last week. It’s a love story focusing on his relationship with Lisa Papandrea, whom he met while attending language school in Massachusetts. They were married in the Olympic village the day after the 2002 Games ended.

Papandrea sold off every household item she could spare to fund the team’s initial push for the Games. She became the Brazilian bobsled federation’s unofficial communications director -- even though she has never watched the Brazilians make an entire run.

“I don’t like speed,” she said.

So she watches the start, then covers her eyes or avoids the TV screens until it’s over.

In the movie, Maleson will be played by Rodrigo Santoro, a Brazilian actor who made People magazine’s 50 most beautiful list in 2004.

“No complaints there,” Maleson said.

No complaints about finishing in last place, either.

“Because we have to overcome so much to be here,” Maleson said. “Not only personal sacrifices of each athlete, but also financial sacrifices. We don’t have snow [in Brazil], we don’t have infrastructures. All the adversities. The problem with the drugs; we basically changed the team right in the Olympics. And we’re still here. We’re still surviving.

“That’s why we’re happy. I’ve got to congratulate the guys. They’re still here.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande, go to latimes.com/Adandeblog.