Last Three Races of the Season: Igls, Austria; St.
Moritz, Switzerland and Sochi, Russia
Hmmmm…..how
do I begin this? I would like to thank God for allowing me to stay healthy
another season and that there have been no serious injuries on World Cup.
However, one of my really great friends Megan did separate her shoulder in a
crash so please pray that she continues to heal fast.
I
initially planned for this e-mail be a relatively short update with more facts
than long stories……Yeah I failed at that, so towards the end I got a bit wordy,
but in a good way.
Now
to the meat of the matter….with two new drivers, this World Cup year has been a
learning experiencing that is preparing us for next year to be great! We have
the push athletes and the drivers to be in the medal hunt all next season, but
this season there were a few bumps in the road. Unfortunately these bumps
continued for the team in various areas during the last couple of World Cup
Races including World Championships. However as an entire team,
Team_USA_Bobsled_&_Skeleton_Superforce did an excellent job at World Champs
and in the Sochi, Russia World Cup/Test.
Igls, Austria WC
The
race in Igls, Austria began with the team event. In the team event each country
has either one or two teams depending. The teams are composed of one sled from
each discipline: i.e one men’s skeleton, one women’s skeleton, women’s bobsled
and men’s 2-man bobsled. Each discipline takes one trip down the hill, the
country with the fastest combined final time wins. For this team event we only
fielded one team when normally we have two teams that participate. Our USA 1
team was Matt Antoine (Skeleton), Elana Meyers & Lolo Jones (Women’s
Bobsled) Katie Uhlaender (women’s Skeleton) and Steven Holcomb & Nicholas
Taylor who took Bronze in the event.
In the 2-Man Competition Two of the three sleds
finished in the Top 10
USA
3 Cory Butner/Andreas Drbal finished fifth
USA
2 Nick Cunningham/Dallas Robinson finished 9th
USA
1 Steve Holcomb/Curt Tomasevicz finished 14th
Women’s Skeleton
USA
1 Noelle Pikus-Pace took Silver
USA
2 Katie Uhlaender finished 10th
Women’s’ Bobsled All the women finished in the Top
10
USA
3 Jazmine Fenlator/Aja Evans took Bronze position
USA
1 Elana Meyers/Katie Eberling finished 5th
USA
2 Jamie Greubel/Emily Azevedo finished 9th
Men’s Skeleton
USA
1 John Daly finished 16th
USA
2 Matt Antoine finished 17th
USA
3 Kyle Tress finished 19th
4-man Competition all three sleds were un-traditionally
out of the top 15
USA
1 Holcomb/Tomasevicz/Langton/Fogt finished 17th,
USA
2 Cunningham/Olsen/Drbal/Robinson finished 20, and the
USA
3 Butner/Beckom/Clark/Quinn finished 23rd
I
know as a group the men could have performed better and we have in the past,
but unfortunately on this day the results were not there. Going into the race
we all had cold weather runners on our sleds. Sadly for us, on the day of the
4-man race the temperature rose higher than it had been all week, and higher
than the forecast had predicted, spelling disaster for team USA! In the sport
of Bobsled, success comes from an equal mix of equipment, push, and drive. When
any one of those factors is severely off, the others can’t always make up for
it. The race was over and now the focus was solely on St. Moritz and the 2013
World Championships.
St. Moritz 2013
World Championships
St.
Moritz is the where the Sport of Bobsled was invented. It is home to the last
remaining natural track in the world. The track is created from the fallen snow
in the area which is piled up, compacted and shaped into a Bobsled Track. Once
the track is completed it is about 1,722 meters long and runs through the town
of Celerina and St. Moritz! Being that this is the birthplace of bobsled the
atmosphere was charged for the upcoming race events. The stands were packed,
the concession stands were chock full of people, and the band was playing full
blast for two solid weekends of racing! What? What’s that…why two weekends of
racing you ask? Why of course I will tell you…cause I’m awesome and have a
plethora of useful information! Lol
The
bobsled World Championships are best explained as our Olympic event in
non-Olympic Years. That being said, it just like the Olympics with the same
events. Men’s and Women’s Skeleton, Men’s and Women’s 2-Man Bobsled, and the
4-Man Bobsled each have four heats of racing held over two days.
The
order of racing in the first and third heats is based on the teams overall
World Cup ranking, the second heat is in reverse order (twenty to one,
twenty-first to last). A fourth heat of racing is only guaranteed for those
sleds in the top twenty; those twenty-first through the end keep their rank
after the third and do not race in the final heat.
World
Championships is usually a pretty stressful time for everyone since your team
and individual ranking, and federation funding is all based on our results.
There is also a lot of stress because the teams are not named until the last
minute. On the men’s side the 2-man teams for Worlds were set. The coaches
named the 4-Man Crews for USA-1, USA-2, and USA-3. However there ended up being
a race-off on USA-3 where I was on the winning race-off crew giving me the
green light to race. In addition to the race-off going on with the push crews
the coaching staff also decided to replace our driver, Cory Butner, with
eighteen year old junior driver Codie Basque. The decision was made since Codie
ended up out-ranking Cory after Codie accumulated more points racing on the
America’s Cup Circuit than Cory had earned in World Cup races. It was Cody
debut on World Cup and one of its greatest stages. Unfortunately as a crew we
did not get a second run and finished in 30th place, it was far from my best
finish at Worlds but it was a good experience for Codie in his young career.
Overall Team
USA_Bobsled_&_Skeleton_Team_Super_Force had a pretty good World
Championships performance!
Women’s Bobsled
Race
USA
1 Elana Meyers/Katie Eberling took Silver;
USA
2 Jaszmine Fenlator/Aja Evans finished 8th;
USA
3 Jamie Greuble/Emily Azvedo finished 15th.
Women’s Skeleton
USA
1 Noelle Pikus-Pace took Silver
USA
2 Katie Uhlaender finished 7th.
Men’s Skeleton
USA
1 John Daly finished 5th
USA
2 Matt Antoine finished 12th
Men’s 2-Man
USA
1 Steve Holcomb/Steve Langton finished 4th
USA
2 Cory Butner/Chris Fogt finished 9th
USA
3Nick Cunningham/Dallas Robinson finished 13th.
Men’s 4-Man
USA
1 Holcomb/Olsen/Tomasevicz/Langton finished in Bronze
USA
2 Cunningham/Clark/Drbal/Fogt finished 19th
USA
3 Basque/Beckom/Quinn/Taylor finished 30th
In
Men’s Bobsled outside of USA 1’s finishes the Worlds were not pretty at all, far from what I
could have ever imagined that they would be. God willing, results like that
will never happen again. I do know this: next season’ results will be a lot
better! However, I also know that the road to one’s goal is not always as
smooth as we would like, but, unfortunately, that’s the way it goes. After a
night out thoroughly licking my wounds and Praying to God for guidance and
understanding for the way things occurred it was off to Sochi, Russia for two
weeks and the final World Cup of the season.
Sochi, Russia Last
World Cup/Test Event
The
next and last stop on the World Cup Circuit was Sochi, Russia future site of
the 2014 Olympic Winter Games!! Sochi is a relatively small town with a
population just over 340k right off the Black Sea and about 260 miles away from
The Republic of Georgia. As opposed to some of the colder locations on tour the
winter in Sochi is usually relatively warmer with average temps around 50
degrees Fahrenheit in the day and 38 degrees Fahrenheit in the evenings.
Another fun fact is that they are virtually rebuilding the entire area for the
games and have already spent $51 Billion dollars in doing so! This link below
has more information on the subject.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/21/us-russia-sochi-idUSBRE91K04M20130221
While
in Sochi we stayed at the Gala Plaza Hotel which was about a ten minute drive
from the track.The hotel rooms were a good size for being overseas; they also
had pretty good food. However, I’m still not sure if things there were truly
nice and the food was really that good or if it just exceeded my expectations.
(I expected the worse when heading over there, lol.) Regardless I do know that
the food at our hotel was better than at those hotels all the other countries
were staying in! The downside was that the other hotels had a better internet
connection then we did. It was definitely a consensus among our team that
better food beats better internet every time! Speaking of food the staff at our
hotel could not believe how much food we consumed each meal! Apparently they
told our team manager that they were glad we liked the food but why do we have
to eat so much all the time!? lol
Behind
our hotel there was construction happening 24/7 on the main train station
coming into the area. The day that President Vladmir Putin came to inspect the
facilities was actually the only day the workers stopped working. The security
before his visit was extremely impressive!
The
area where we stored our bobsleds was a bit different than other places. We
usually store our sled within the garage of the hotel we stay at. However that
was not possible in Sochi so the track provided P.O.D’s (my planning people in
Winston-Salem love these! Lol). The space inside the P.O.D’s were just enough
to get a both sleds inside them. But that was not the fun part. The fun part
was unloading the sleds from the travel crates; but especially the 4-man sleds
that were stacked on top of the 2-man crates! Soooooooooo much fun! NOT! (I
told you it’s coming back!)
When
it came down to the competition the Women of
Team_USA_Bobsled_&_Skeleton_Super_Force stole the show. As for the men, we
are still figuring some things out that will be ready for the Games! Lol.
Seriously
though we will be! The coaches decided to give me the week off so I did not
race. Here are the results.
Women’s Skeleton
USA
1 Noelle Pikus-Pace took Gold!
USA
2 Katie Uhlaender took Silver!
Women’s Bobsled
USA
1 Elana Meyers/Aja Evans took Silver! and set the start record at 5.16 (They
out pushed some of the guys in 2-man!)
USA
3 Jamie Grueble/Katie Eberling finished 9th
USA
2 Jazmine Fenlator/Lolo Jones finished 13th
2-Man
USA
3 Cory Butner/Johnny Quinn finished 9th
USA
1 Steve Holcomb/Steve Langton finished 12th
USA
2 Nick Cunningham/Dallas Robinson finished 14th
4-Man
USA
1 Holcomb/Olsen/Tomasevicz/Langton finished 10
USA
2 Cunningham/Clark/Drbal/Fogt finished 12th
USA
3 Butner/Robinson/C.Langton/Quinn finished 24
Men’s Skeleton
USA
1 John Daly finished 4th
USA
2 Matt Antoine finished 11th
USA
3 Kyle Tress finished 13th
At
the completion of the races it was time to pack up and begin the journey back
to the good ole US of A! Before we actually left Russia there was the season
ending dinner and social networking function to be had! Lol The function went
off without a hitch, with cold milk, fresh cookies, and PowerAde served to
everyone! We ate, we danced, and we frolicked. A good time was had by all!
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Lol
Once
again I would like to thank each one of you for continually following me on this
journey; your support means far more than you know!! Now it’s time for the
off-season and a couple weeks of down time before I resume regular training.
By
the way since I’m back in the states I have been able to upload all my pictures
from tour so please have a look. The first six albums on my Media page are the most recent one. They began with the City Name where the race was held and end in “2012-2013". Thank you for your patient while I added my photos.
God
Bless,
Jesse
B.
Twitter:@jessbeck3
