Breeding success

The first gold medal winner of the 2014 Winter Olympics was born right here in good old Coeur d'Alene.

Snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg, 20, now of Park City, Utah, made his world debut in Kootenai Health, then Kootenai Medical Center, on July 27, 1993. The Olympic gold champion for the USA spent the first eight months of his life here, and his mom Carol Ann said the family still has some very dear friends in the area.

"The best neighbors in the world," Carol Ann said Saturday afternoon, in a phone interview from the family's home in Park City. "We made some life-long friends there."

Stunned and ecstatic about their son's victory in the men's snowboard slopestyle competition Saturday morning in Sochi, Russia, Steve and Carol Ann Kotsenburg said they hadn't slept a wink.

"We've been crazy," Steve said. "We didn't sleep all night."

The family planned to attend a private viewing party Saturday evening to see their son's winning performance on a big screen in Salt Lake City.

Carol Ann told The Press that Sage had texted her after he won, telling her he didn't feel worthy and actually felt guilty about the other athletes not winning.

"You have to understand something about him. He's very, very humble. What you see is what you get," Carol Ann said. "It's never been about the victories. He just wants everyone to be stoked about snowboarding."

The Kotsenburgs lived in North Idaho on three separate occasions and Sage's little sister Kirra was also born in Coeur d'Alene. Rathdrum resident Dave Forsythe lived next door to the family, on Avondale Golf Club in Hayden Lake, during one of their stays.

"We still keep in close contact and they stay with us when in town. I also give advice to Sage and Steve on investing," Forsythe told The Press. "We are all excited there is a Coeur d'Alene connection."

Sage's website, www.sagekotsenburg.com, will be back online for viewing once the 2014 Winter Olympics have finished.