Smorgasbord

Thanks for letting me steal another great picture Lucas!
What a whirlwind 3 weeks it has been! So much has happened! Team USA cleaned up on home ice during World Championships, and it was a blast being here to see it all and be a part of it. I started driving school this week. We've already had a dropout. And I turned 25. Whew! So much to talk about. I started this post last weekend, but this week has been so crazy I never got it finished. So I've decided to add on and finally post. Sorry to keep you all in suspense.

First we'll tackle Worlds. Crazy fun! It was so much fun forerunning because you get to slide in the World Champs atmosphere without any pressure whatsoever. We were just there to make it down the track and clear the ice. I can't remember if I've explained what forerunning means, so I'll review just in case. At each race and day of official training, at least one sled (in this case 5) is sent down the track to test the timing eyes and make sure everything is safe for sliding. If there are any problems with the ice, the track workers can fix it before competing sleds come down. This becomes VERY important when you have runners worth thousands of dollars on your sled. Even a small patch of concrete can ruin or severely damage a set of runners. Not good. Forerunners typically have their practice runners on, so it's not as big of an issue for them. They also make sure the weather conditions are safe for sliding. One day in Calgary it was so foggy, Colin (who was a forerunner) said he couldn't see from Curve 4-6. Obviously we waited a little while for the fog to clear. Glad he made it down safe! And my driver didn't have to deal with that! This week we sent 5 forerunners down to make the timing eyes located throughout the track where all working. On the first day of official training, the computer system went down that controls them. NOT GOOD! It took about 30 minutes to fix the glitch. I can't imagine how angry nations would be if the timing eyes didn't work at World Championships. Good thing we were there to save the day and forerun. Haha!

Start Line
Megan and I foreran every practice and heat of the races week 1. We spent several VERY (and I mean VERY) long days at the track. We were there most of our waking hours on race days, but it was a blast. We were the last forerunner off before the men's race last weekend. There were a bunch of grade school kids at the track chanting USA before we went off. Gave me goosebumps! Coach Dionne was helping us flip the sled down at the start line, and he couldn't stop smiling either. It definitely gets you amped up and ready to run. There are crowds of people at the start, finish and several of the curves. I've never seen so many people at the track, and most of the veterans on the team said they'd never seen so many people at a race here. We've also gotten to see the best sliders in the world compete.

Finish Dock

If you didn't hear how amazing my teammates are, let me catch you up. Team USA has definitely shown that we can compete for the medals in every event.

Women's Bobsled: USA 1 women's bobsled pilot Elana Meyers with rookie brakeman Katie Eberling took bronze in the women's bobsled. They went into beast mode and had the 4 fastest push times of the competition. The rest of the girls did amazing as well. All three pilots placed in the top 12. Mighty impressive ladies! Way to cap off a great season on home ice!

(I've decided to post the link to all the USBSF articles instead of recaping them all over again. It would take me forever to talk about all my teammates and their accomplishments. I'll just highlight anything I don't think they covered in the articles.)

2-Man Bobsled: Steve Langton and Steve Holcomb are ridiculously awesome! They won the first ever gold for USA in the 2-Man competition. All three U.S. teams entered into the competition posted top nine finishes to cap a successful two-man season for the program. Nick Cunningham has been on America's Cup all season with us. He and Cory Butner earned enough points this season to reclaim the third sled on the World Cup circuit this season. Only a few nations are allowed to have 3 sleds on the circuit, so this was a big deal. Nick was named to the World Championships team as the driver of USA-3. He did a great job on his World Cup debut, posting the 3rd fastest time of the 2nd Heat. Nice work Nick!




Team Competition: If you don't know what this is, check out the description in the last post. The team competition was held just a few hours after the end of the 2-man races on Sunday. USA again showed that we can dominate across all the events. USA 1 took the gold, and USA 2 took 4th. So impressive that we could field 2 teams and that they could both finish so well.



Since the there only about an hour in between 2-man and the team race, we had to rush sledwork. There is a rule that all work must be done at a set time before the race, usually about 45 minutes. After that, no one can touch the sled except to move it to the line. Here's a picture of us converging on Nick's sled. I've never seen a set of runners sanded that fast! Nick is actually under the sled at this point taking some weight out. The crazy things we do to race!


Women's Skeleton: Katie Uhlander won again. She's the only female skeleton athlete to have earned a gold, silver and bronze at World Championships. She's also been World Cup points champion twice. Annie O'Shea moved up to snatch 10th after a great final run. It was a very exciting race!




On a sidenote, Britt was asked to be the mascot for the day. The skeleton developmental sliders who usually are the mascots were all forerunning, so Britt jumped at the chance to run around in an eagle costume. She was great! Made to be a mascot!

Greg, Tony the Eagle, Me & Katie
Men's Skeleton: This was quite a race! Antione was sitting in 3rd overnight and ended up in 5th. This guy Ben from New Zealand came out of nowhere to claim bronze. He has this awesome sliding suit that makes him look like a character from Tron. If it glowed in the dark or lit up somehow, he's be set.

 
4-man Bobsled: Steve Holcomb has now won 3 of the last 4 World Championships is 4-man bobsled. (That includes the Olympics in 2010) After the first heat, he was down to the Germans by 0.15 seconds. The second heat he moved up to take the lead by only 0.01 seconds. The next day he dominated heats 3 and 4 winning by 0.5 seconds. That's huge in the world of bobsled. His crew of Justin Olsen, Steve Langton and Curt Tomasevicz had the fastest push times of the competition, coming within just 0.04 seconds of the start record with a 4.94 start. That's crazy fast! These 4 guys can get a roughly 500 lb sled moving on ice really quickly. It was a blast to be chanting USA at the start and cheering our boys on to victory.

4-man is my favorite event to watch. There's so much more drama than any of the other disciplines. 4 huge men have to all hit the sled at the same time. Not easy. Get the sled moving and run crazy fast. Not easy. And somehow all get in, settled and get the pushbars in all within roughly 10 seconds. All while running downhill on ice. Not easy! Well, these races did not disappoint. There were 2 sleds that didn't have all 4 men get in. Aaahhhh! Everyone is alright, but there was mayhem. (All 4 men have to be in the sled when it crosses the finish line or else they are disqualified. If they crash as still cross the line with everyone in or holding on somehow, it still counts as a finish.) The Slovakian driver was so mad he threw his helmet over the crowd at the finish. Someone beside me commented that maybe he was trying out for discus next. And there were crashes that took out 2 more teams. My Aussie friends crashed in Curve 12. They all stayed in the sled, but they stopped just inches short of the finish line. They were really disappointed not to finish. My other America's Cup friends from Korea ended up finishing 16th with so many other sleds getting disqualified. They were very happy!


So that was World Championships. What a crazy 2 weeks! The track was closed on Monday and Tuesday. All the track workers had definitely earned a break. They spend countless hours keeping the track pristine, even with all those runs everyday. Thank you guys!

Check out this website for more articles on the sliders and tons of pictures. Ken Childs does an excellent job of keeping up with the world of bobsledding. There are several pictures of Megan & I at the start, along with the other forerunners. We're in the blue sled with USA down the front in white lettering.

Tuesday we went out to the garage to clean up, pack sleds and re-arrange since the World Cup season is now over. We also had to get our sleds ready for driving school. Britt Reinbolt, Adam Blandford, Jeremy Ware, Nic Taylor and myself all started driving school on Wednesday. Back at it from Start 4! The only problem was that the driving school sleds had been relocated to make room for all the countries renting space in our garage.


Those are our sleds under that giant snowbank. You can see the runners of the first sled sticking up out of the snow. Coach Dionne had to help us dig them out. It's all part of the driving school experience! I had to take pictures because it sounds so ridiculous, we didn't think anyone would believe us. But it's true! If any of us become famous drivers someday, I'll have this picture to whip out.


 Here are the 5 beauties they let the new kids drive. They're not the best or the prettiest, but they get us down the track. This is my favorite picture of the day. Back left is Elana Meyers remembering her humble beginnings as a driver. Front left is my driver Megan Hill checking out her sled from driving school last year. Middle is Adam Blandford emulating driver Cory Butner with the shades. Riding dirty! Back right is Nic, and front right is Britt claiming their sleds. Good times. Britt ended up driving her sled up the hill to the garage while the boys pushed her. You see something new everyday in this sport.

 

The boys originally picked this sled. As you can see, it's a little snug in the back. Adam was trying out new riding positions. Hope they don't go over cause there is no way he's kicking out like that. They ended up in a different sled that is slightly wider in the back. It looks like a green whale. I'll have to take a picture of them in it for you to get the full visual. Love that Jeremy is trying to keep a straight face and can't!

Day 1 of driving school has been the most eventful by far. Britt and I are teamed up. We switch off braking and driving for one another. And as you can see, Adam and Jeremy are sliding together. That left Nic without a partner. Nick Cunningham came out to the track to watch the mayhem, and he somehow got talked into hopping in the sled. He went down in his street clothes, keys and wallet included, and no burn vest. He did the same thing for Adam in December. Check out the post Happy New Year for a recap of our first driving school experience. Well they almost crashed on Run 1 and went through Curve 19 on two bunks. Scary! They they flipped on Run 2. It was Nick Cunningham's first ever crash in a 2-man. Unbelievable! He's been to the Olympics as a brakeman and never flipped. They made it down the third run, and then Nic decided driving was not for him. I'll let you know if anything else crazy happens. We may get to move up to Start 3 next week. The only day we moved up last time, I crashed out of 10. I'd like to improve on my 0% finish rate.

Friday was my 25th birthday. Not many people can say they lived in an Olympic training center and drove a bobsled on their birthday. Pretty cool! I had my worst and best trips driving. I didn't crash, but we hit crazy hard out of Curve 18. They could even here the sonic boom at the upper finish dock. Not good! I made Britt cry, and she never cries. Not even when she broke her collar bone or smashed her face into the street when she fell off her skateboard at 22 mph. I'm so sorry! She was about ready to give up bobsled before we rallied her spirits and made her hop in the drivers seat. My second run was a billion times better. Britt was cheering all the way through 19 and 20 and across the finish. I ended up with the fastest downtime of the day. Thank you very much! I'll be here all next week. (I even said that to the track workers as I was bowing and waving. They were laughing at our cheering and my antics.) Thank you Britt for hopping back in the sled with me! You're a trooper! (Trust me, if you could see the bruise on her leg, you'd be amazed she got back in the sled with me.) Other than that, I worked out and hung out with friends here at the OTC.

I have to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone for the birthday wishes, phone calls, cards, gifts & surprises. It's an amazing feeling to know so many people care about me! I can feel the love! That's it for now. I'm excited for the next month of driving, capped off with the last America's Cup race. I'll keep you posted.