Olympic Gold Medalist Thankful to Terrace Artist

Olympic gold medalist Jon Montgomery says the design painted on his helmet by a Terrace man meant a great deal to him.

Montgomery won the men's skeleton competition at the Vancouver Winter Games last month, wearing a helmet with a first nations design crafted by Terrace's Mark Hart.

"There's another fella on my team that had a helmet painted by Mark, and I wanted a BC person to paint it," said Montgomery. He explained "it was designed by a fella by the name of Philip Gray, and he's a first nations artist, so it was his artwork -- that Mark brought to life and emblazoned on my helmet, there."

Hart says he was thrilled, saying he almost felt like he won an Olympic medal: "It was cool.. on the Friday night on his last run, we had champagne out and we had some people over and it was just like the Olympics were at our house, and when he crossed it and wouldn't put it down -- everybody else usually puts their equipment away but he carried that thing all around and it was pretty neat to see that!"

Hart has made a name for himself painting goalie masks, but recently has been branching out, and designed the Hockeyville mural on All Seasons Source for Sports in Terrace.

"I've done bikes and Harleys and other helmets and stuff, so it was nice to have that branchout, and people realize I can do other things -- murals, Olympic helmets!"

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You can hear the full interview with Jon Montgomery and with Mark Hart -- on SportsWest with Ryan Boult and Dennis Leary, Friday at 5 on CJFW-FM, and at 6 on the MIX.

   John Crawford
   Reported by Ryan Boult, Steve Pereira, Dennis Leary