Bobsled Lesson

Even when you are part of a team you aren’t always part of the team.

My lesson learned starts when I was eighteen. An uncle of mine that was involved with the sports programs at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City Utah gave my father a ticket for a summer bobsled ride. My father was too busy with his company at the time so he passed the ticket on to me for the opportunity to take a bobsled ride at the Utah Olympic Park.

At that point, I had only seen the sport of Bobsled once or twice during the Olympics but I had no real idea what it was.

Before I was allowed to get in the bobsled I needed to watch an instructional video for safety and what you can expect the experience to be like. Along with the video, a signed waiver is needed saying

I entered the bobsled, sat down, and the track crew buckled me in. I chose the fourth seat because I was told that in that position I would feel the most G-Force through the fastest curves. Before I knew it the white ice packed track had whizzed by in less than a minute.

Once I had my feet on solid ground and the butterflies in my stomach calmed down a bit, I was asked if I wanted to learn the sport of Skeleton sliding. Through my giant adrenaline rush smile, I squealed out a yes.

I started out in the Skeleton sliding school learning the track from the curve six to fifteen eventually working my way up the track till I was running and landing on my sled from the starting line.

I continued to progress in the sliding school until I made my way on to the United States Junior National Team and Unites States National Team Where I began to learn what it means to be on a team without always being a part of the team.

The other girls that were on my team were very competitive and did not like the fact that a new slider to the sport was doing as well if not better than they were. I remember one competition where when I got to the finish line the EMT’s that I was friends with told me that as I was on my run my teammates were chanting crash, crash,