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Saturday, August 14

Shooter comes back from dead with clearer view

MARKOPAULO, Greece -- The first American man to compete in these Olympics began firing his shotgun at 9 a.m. By the end of Saturday, he was ranked third. Today, he might medal. Which isn't bad for a guy who was dead six weeks ago.

Someone asked Bret Erickson if he felt normal.

``Normal,'' said the 43-year-old trap shooter whose heart stopped for two minutes June 29, ``has a whole different meaning to me now.''

Nearby, the wife who was nearly a widow stood and watched with the caution she has had since the phone rang June 29.

``I never am away from him very long,'' Lisa Erickson said. ``I've been sick to my stomach since we got here. And today was the worst of all.''

It is called a bifascicular block. What we have here, for you non-cardiologists, is a failure to communicate. Something about the body's electrical system. While this hearty man who is hardly ever sick was running in a training session back in Georgia, his heart thought it was being told to stop.

So it did.

``Everything just started spinning,'' Erickson said. ``I turned off the track and headed for the grass. I don't remember anything after that. They said I just crumpled in a ball and hit the ground.''

As luck would have it, a teammate, Mark Weeks, is also an emergency medical technician. It took two frantic minutes for his CPR to work. It took a week to find out what was wrong, and that there was no heart damage. Just a short circuit.

And now here Erickson is, hitting 73 of 75 targets in the first three rounds of the Olympics. The Opening Ceremony had 10,000 athletes. No word yet on how many others marched in with a pacemaker.

``I think maybe I don't get quite as wrapped up inside as I used to,'' he said. ``I'm a little calmer out there now. Just a little. It's not the most important thing in my life anymore. Unfortunately, to get to this level, it almost has to be the most important thing in your life. But I'm already here.''

He is, in fact, the grand old man of U.S. shooting, five times a national champion, three times an Olympian. None of which translates to his face on a Wheaties box, since the woods are not full of American aficionados who maintain a list of famous trap shooters.

``I've been doing this for 20 years and at my peak, I was as good as Michael Jordan was in basketball,'' he said. ``Yet no one knows me. Most of the country doesn't even know the sport is in the Olympics. If this is what it takes to get a little notoriety, maybe it was worth it.''

Whatever, his big break was having Weeks handy to reboot him. Two weeks before, Weeks had revived a heart attack victim in an airport. He's not an Olympian, but he is St. Jude.

As for Erickson, his wife has noticed a change. ``I think his priorities have shifted,'' she said.

It was a frantic past month. Erickson trained daily to regain his edge. But each morning, he made sure to take his young son fishing.

``There's a lot of things I've been wanting to do with my son and daughter that I had been putting off,'' he said. ``I hope I'm a better person. I don't know necessarily that I am.''

But in some ways, he's the same. Still the cigar after competing. Still the love of shooting, which has been there since he was 10.

And now he nearly has his hands on what would be a remarkable medal. Sunday will tell. There will be at least one guy whose heart won't race. The man in third, who understands that life is good.

His competition? ``It's the Olympics. The young guys will feel the pressure,'' Erickson said.

``And even the older guys, who haven't died.''

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