From Deseret News archives:
Games lead to a wedding
German goalie Marc Seliger, the star of the first week of the Olympics, can't sleep, so he's alone with SLOC volunteers manning the coffee house.
Provo native Maureen Heagany is one of those volunteers. Seliger is reading "The Lord of the Rings," but he finds this Brigham Young University student far more captivating.
Seliger now begins to wake up at 5 a.m. each day — on purpose. And the strange hours aren't hurting his game. ESPN is calling him the hottest goaltender at the Salt Lake Games. He has shut out Slovakia, with its lineup of NHL scorers, and has allowed just three goals in wins over Austria and Latvia.
He's tickled when hockey legend Wayne Gretzky surprises him outside the locker room to congratulate him for the shutout.
But Heagany's opinion turns out to mean more to him than ESPN's — or Gretzky's.
"I thought he was the hottest goalie too," she said slyly. On Saturday, they became husband and wife in a wedding at Provo's Riverside Country Club. This Olympic love story developed at world-record speed.
"I went to the coffee house five times a day and stayed for hours," Seliger says. "My whole free time I spent in the coffee house."
His whole free time he spent with Heagany.
Seliger lifted underdog Germany into the medal round, where it lost all three games to dream teams from the United States, Sweden and Canada. But Seliger nearly led Germany to an upset of Canada at The Peaks Ice Arena as Heagany watched a hockey game for the first time in her life.
"I played well because I had such a fun time," Seliger says. "The Olympics was the best time I've ever had. I told myself if I had a chance to go to the next Olympics, I wouldn't go because it could only ruin perfect memories."
Seliger and Heagany went to a movie. And Seliger waited for her on his last day in Salt Lake City when she was late for work.
"That was the sweetest thing," Heagany says.
E-mails led to phone calls, which by April lasted six hours at a time.
In May, Seliger decided to return to the United States to visit. Heagany agreed to spend a week with him.
A week turned into a month.
Heagany took German courses and visited Seliger repeatedly to see him play in the German professional league. Seliger attended Heagany's graduation from BYU.
He stayed until June, when she accompanied him back to Germany, where she worked for USA Girl Scouts in Mannheim while Seliger played hockey.
They returned to Utah this month to prove that the Salt Lake Olympics are still generating memorable stories. After Seliger retires next spring from the Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams (shouldn't it be the Grizzly Adamses?), they plan to live happily ever after in Salt Lake City or Las Vegas, running a gourmet European food store.
Like all good fairy tales, this Olympic tale was nearly derailed. Heagany didn't volunteer until inspired by a late-night television commercial.
Seliger made it to Utah only after Germany scored the winning goal with 4 seconds left in an Olympic qualifying match against Italy.
"That was fate," Seliger says. "Everything just fit together. Everything just fell into place, and it's been like that for the past 2 1/2 years.
"I guess it's just meant to be."
E-mail: twalch@desnews.com
