He’s been introduced at sliding tracks around the world as ‘Canada Dave’ or just ‘Dave, from Canada’.

Faced with three zeds in Dave Greszczyszyn’s surname, track announcers just give up.

“It used to be mumbled a lot,” said the Brampton, Ont., skeleton racer said.

“In Park City, Utah, it was ‘Dave, from Canada’ so I didn’t even get my last name. A lot of time on tour in Europe they introduce me ‘at the track, at the top is Canada Dave.’

“I don’t mind that. Canada Dave is a pretty cool one.”

For the record, Greszczyszyn’s last name is pronounced gresh-CHIH-shin. He believes its origins are either Polish or Ukrainian.

“It’s a unique name,” he acknowledged.

The 38-year-old teacher is prepared for more butchery of his last name, or the absence of it Wednesday when he stands at the top of the Alpensia Sliding Centre track for the first of four runs at the Winter Olympics.

His nickname is a more manageable “Grizz” and he says his students in Calgary call him “Mr. G.”

A torn hamstring hampered Greszczyszyn’s efforts to be a Canadian Olympian in 2014, so he’s making his Winter Games debut in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Greszczyszyn won a World Cup bronze, the first of his career, in December in Winterberg, Germany.

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