Second on the moon, first down the slope

January 5, 2002
Source: Globe and Mail
Original story - link verified on January 5, 2002
By Allan Maki

If you're strolling through the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel today, there's a chance you may bump into James Bond or Glenn Close or Seinfeld's Elaine or even Robert Shapiro, one of O. J. Simpson's ex-lawyers. The Rocky Mountain resort is bustling with the likes of Pierce Brosnan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and other Hollywood types busy attending the Banff celebrity sports festival, a fundraising event for the environment. Action hero Jean-Claude Van Damme was also in town, until he broke an arm skiing. But the biggest name of all is a 71-year-old grey-haired gentleman who has never won an Oscar or even made a movie. He has, however, played to one of the world's largest television audiences and, if you say his name in a crowded room, people who at first do not recognize him will stop and stare. Then they want to shake his hand -- just to say they have touched history. "You know something?" moonwalker Buzz Aldrin asked. "I didn't start skiing until I was 50. I didn't want to try things I couldn't be an absolute winner at. Now I ski so well I have to wait at the bottom of the hill for my wife to get down."

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