Plano man last, but goal achieved
11:03 PM CST on Friday, February 17, 2006
CESANA, Italy – Somebody had to finish last. What mattered for Pat Antaki of Plano wasn't his dead-last position in Friday's skeleton finals but the fact that he can call himself an Olympian. And that he can board a plane back to D/FW. "I can't wait to go back home, to be honest," said Antaki, a 41-year-old integrated circuitry consultant who was racing for his home country of Lebanon. After five solid months of self-financed training and bills totaling a few hundred thousand dollars, he feels he got what he came for. "My goal was just to be here – and finish." North Texas' two hopes for a medal fell to Antaki and fellow skeleton slider Kevin Ellis, 32, an accountant for a Dallas petroleum company, both of whom finished in the bottom half. Duff Gibson and Jeff Pain of Canada won the gold and silver, while Switzerland's Gregor Staehli took the bronze. America's best hope for a medal, Eric Bernotas of Avondale, Pa., finished in sixth place. Despite slow times in early training, Ellis entered the finals convinced he had a real chance at a medal. "I was very much in the mix with the fourth-fastest run on the last training day. So I had hoped that, today, I would continue that trend and maybe get into the top three." Antaki held no such aspirations. But he entered the Games with a list of accomplishments few other Olympians could claim. A graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he holds four patents in integrated circuit design, with several others pending. And with a declared weight of 245 pounds, his rubber-suited body certainly ranked among the most unusual objects zipping down the icy track at speeds exceeding 70 mph. "It's not a crazy sport. It looks crazy, I know, but it's not, really," he said. Antaki added that he was drawn to skeleton by the speed and the technical aspects of the race, but also, "I like that you don't have to run very far." E-mail trobberson@dallasnews.com 