A local dog has missed out on a historic cross-country medal at the Winter Olympics despite a lung-bursting surge in the homestretch.
Nazgul, who according to NPR lives at a nearby hotel in Tesero, broke on to the course on Wednesday morning and sprinted for the line behind Croatia’s Tena Hadzic as she came to the end of the qualifying race for the women’s team cross-country sprint. Even if he had completed the entire race, Nazgul’s time would not have counted as he is male. And a dog.
“I was like, ‘Am I hallucinating?” Hadzic said of her encounter with Nazgul, a Czechoslovakian wolfdog. “I don’t know what I should do, because maybe he could attack me, bite me.”
Once Nazgul had taken in the cheers of the adoring crowd, he was captured by race officials. Hadzic took the incident in her stride.
“It’s not that big deal, because I’m not fighting for medals or anything big,” she said. “But if that happened in the finals, it could really cost someone the medals, or a really good result.”
Greece’s Konstantina Charalampidou suggested that Nazgul made the error of concentrating on his quest for fame instead of executing his race strategy.
“He was chasing the camera that goes up and down the finish line. He was cute but not aggressive,” she said. “I wanted to pet him, but I didn’t have the time and I couldn’t find him afterwards.”
Nazgul’s owner told NPR the two-year-old was probably looking for company rather than athletic glory.
“He was crying this morning more than normal because he was seeing us leaving – and I think he just wanted to follow us,” the owner told NPR. “He always looks for people.”
Nazgul, who is a very good boy, is yet to comment on his performance.
