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Olympic Gold Medalist Home and Given Key to City

By Jennifer Stanonis
July 9, 2010 Updated Mar 10, 2010 at 11:37 PM EST

Olympian and Buffalo native Steve Mesler was honored by the City of Buffalo during Wednesday afternoon, for his gold medal achievement and for bringing it back to his hometown. "I'm so happy and proud to bring this home," Mesler said while holding the Olympic Gold Medal.

Mesler was awarded the key to the city by Mayor Byron Brown and March 10th was proclaimed Steve Mesler Day in the city. Mesler helped America earn its first gold medal in the four-man bobsled in 62 years when they competed last month in Vancouver. The Buffalo native went to Waterfront School and is a City Honors High School graduate. "It's been fun to mention Buffalo everywhere I go and it's fun knowing that what I've accomplished in my athletic career comes from the work ethic that I learned from the city when I was young," Mesler said.

The gold medalist says now that he has won he's not looking toward a next goal at the moment. "My entire life I've been looking forward, forward and searching for a goal and I finally got it and I don't want to ruin it by looking straight ahead and looking forward again. And I kind of just want to live with what I have right now and just enjoy it," Mesler said.

The gold medal achievement and bringing it back home to Buffalo is something Steve's parents say he's always dreamed about doing. "He worked hard and endured, and he won!" Steve's mother Lois Mesler said. "Everything he learned was instilled in him in Buffalo either at home or at school and we were very fortunate to be able to help him out and let him rise to his level."

"To see that years and years of work finally came to fruition I'm just so happy for him," Steve's father Ben Mesler said.

Another dream for Mesler while growing up was to drop the ceremonial puck at a Sabres game, which he did Wednesday night. "I'm just happy that I get to go to the games, let alone get to do something before the game starts," Mesler said.

Mesler says he will stop by his former high school on Friday for a visit, then in about a month he'll make trips to several schools in the area.

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