Wilczak Puts Ailing Father First

Olympic luger Becky Wilczak of River Forest, Ill., could face an agonizing conflict at Salt Lake City.

Her father, Tom, has been awaiting a liver transplant since 1984 but was moved to the highest priority when his health deteriorated in October. The 55-year-old information technology specialist has an autoimmune disease that causes his body to attack his own liver, and medication hasn’t helped.

Giving him a section of a donor’s liver was ruled out because at 5 feet 10 and 270 pounds--some of that weight a result of his illness--he’d need too big a piece for a living donor to give up.

“Mentally, it’s changed me and put life into perspective,” Wilczak said of juggling training and concern for her father. “It put things into focus.”

If a liver became available for her father during the Games, she said she wouldn’t hesitate to forgo her Olympic debut.

“My gut feeling is, I’d want to be with my family,” she said. “I’d have to talk to my family and my coaches.... It’s definitely been a struggle being away from my family to train.”

Tom Wilczak, being treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, would normally attend his daughter’s competitions but became too ill this season to travel. However, he plans to be at Salt Lake City one way or another.

‘I have reservations and we rented a house and the grandkids are going to be there,” he said. “Becky going to the Olympics is a dream she’s had for many years, and anything we can do to help, we will.”