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Exuberant Montgomery nabs skeleton gold

Seven reasons why it was awesome, as a Canadian, to see Jon Montgomery win men's skeleton last night:

1. Yet another first! It was the fourth gold for the country, but the first at an event held at Whistler. Thanks for that, CTV. He's also the first redhead, how was that not mentioned?

2. He's like, sore-ee, eh? Rick Reilly might get a screenplay from this. Montgomery apologized to silver medalist Martin Dukurs, for yelling and doing a fist-pump after the Latvian took a bad line on his last run to essentially gift-wrap the gold for Canada. Montgomery was caught up in the moment: "I had said at the beginning of the race that if I was in that position and I did get gold coming from behind that I was going to remain stoic and respectful, because you never want to cheer when somebody else loses."

3. His first name? Inspired by a hockey fight. His father, Eldon Montgomery, was inspired to name his son for Stan Jonathan after watching the 5-foot-7 Boston Bruins winger pummel the Montreal Canadiens' Pierre Bouchard in a fight during a Stanley Cup playoff game.

4. Powerful forces on his side: His unique helmet design, with a turtle and a thunderbird, was inspired after the Canadian skeleton team visited a sport shaman in British Columbia named Sandra Molendyk.

5. He has an embarrassing tattoo story: Montgomery has the Maple Leaf tattooed above his heart, but he got it with his mother, Joan, as a high school grad gift in Russell, Manitoba. (His mother got a butterfly on her ankle.)

6. He's an auctioneer. This one you know, since during a CTV interview with his family, Montgomery was given a chance to show his gift for speaking very quickly by auctioning off a half-pitcher of beer. He ended up drinking it instead.

7. Seven-year itch. Both Montgomery and Christine Nesbitt, who won a gold medal in speedskating on Thursday, started in their respective sports in 2003.