Photo by Robert Trubia |
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| Spc. Bill Tavares (center), U.S. Women's Bobsled head coach and Army World Class Athlete, joins in the celebration after Spc. Jill Bakken (r) and Vonetta Flowers (l) win gold in the first-ever women's 2-person bobsled race at the 2002 Winter Olympics Feb. 19. | ||
| Brian
Lepley Olympic Correspondent U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center Public Affairs PARK CITY, Utah (February 19, 2002)– The first gold medal in women’s bobsled Olympic history hangs around the neck of a soldier. Spc. Jill Bakken drove the USA 2 sled to a two-heat total of 1:37.76 (48.81 and 48.95) to win the gold by .3 over Germany 1’s 1:38.06 at Utah Olympic Park Tuesday. The Army World Class Athlete and Utah National Guard member teamed with pusher Vonetta Flowers in women’s bobsled’s Olympic debut in front of 14,956 mostly-partisan, screaming fans. “This is an amazing feeling. It was a lot of fun today,” Bakken said. “There was a lot of tough competition so we definitely had our work cut out for us because of the Germans. They’re tough teams to beat.” On their first run, Bakken and Flowers set a track push record (5.31 seconds) and a track record (48.81). After 15 teams completed the first heat, USA 2 led Germany 1 by a healthy margin of .29.
“I knew we had a good lead but it doesn’t matter,” Bakken said about her record first run. “The second run is a different run and you just have to stay focused. Any one of the other teams could have moved up and had an awesome run.” With the top time, Bakken and Flowers were the last team to race in the second heat. Germany 1, driven by Sandra Prokoff, was next to last. Prokoff and pusher Ulrike Holzner set a new push record, 5.29, enroute to a 48.96. U.S. coach and WCAP Spc. Bill Tavares knew Bakken had a .29 advantage as they readied for the last run. He also knew that his driver always puts in excellent second efforts. “Jill always slows down the least on the second run,” Tavares said. “When everybody else slows down about a half second, three-tenths, Jill slows down the least. She was doing it during training so we knew it.” With the Germans in at 1:38.06, USA 2 needed a 49.24. Bakken responded with another sub-49, 48.96, to lengthen her lead and make history. The subplot to her Olympic record runs is that she had never cracked 49 seconds before Tuesday, the biggest races of her life. ”I knew I had it in me to get a 48,” Bakken said. “Others had put them up before so I knew I could. I just had to drive well, focus on that, because I knew the start would be there.” “We always knew it was there,” Tavares said. “I thought it was unbelievable. Jill has been a little inconsistent but when she’s on, she’s on, and she was on tonight.” When both women emerged from the sled, their families and friends mobbed them. Cheers from nearly 15,000 throats crashed over them. During the press conference Flowers was overcome, crying, while Bakken, an eight-year veteran of U.S. women’s bobsled was jubilant. “I’m so blessed to be here. To win a gold medal for your country is awesome,” she said. “I wasn’t nervous, I was anxious to get out here and race. We’ve been so excited to race ever since we moved into the village.” For the first-ever women’s bobsled event in the Olympics, Bakken and Flowers piled up the records: track and Olympic push start (5.31, broken by the Germans), track and Olympic record (48.81), track and Olympic event record (1:37.76), Flowers became the first black athlete to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics, and they won the first Olympic bobsled medal by an American in 46 years. The only other soldiers ever to medal in Olympic Winter Games since 1948 were members of the U.S. men’s hockey teams that won silver in 1972, gold in 1960, and silver in 1956. The Army World Class Athlete Program of which Bakken, Tavares and seven other Winter Olympians are members is one of 200 Morale, Welfare, Recreation programs the Army provides soldiers and families worldwide under the guiding philosophy that soldiers are entitled to the same quality of life as those they defend. |
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