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Hays out to end U.S. bobsled drought Posted: Friday January 11, 2002 12:12 PMBERLIN (Reuters) -- Powerful driver Todd Hays dreams of adding his name to a long list of American Olympic heroes by giving the U.S. bobsled team their first medal at the Winter Games in 46 years. The 32-year-old ex-American football player, kickboxing champion and freestyle fighter has made a sensational start to the World Cup season and could end a frustrating drought next month at the Salt Lake City Games. The World Cup leader in the two-man and four-man events, who has emerged as a top contender by posting three victories on the North American circuit, will try to win his country the bobsled medal it has been waiting for since Arthur Tyler's quartet won bronze at the 1956 Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. "We're definitely a long shot," Hays said of his chances of upsetting the dominant Europeans, notably strong favorite Christoph Langen of Germany. "The pressure is on you when you're picked to win and you're trying not to lose so there's no pressure on us," he added. "I like our chances." Hays had captained the University of Tulsa football team to victory in the 1991 Freedom Bowl and had also won a national kickboxing title when he turned to bobsled with a little help from his brother, Lee. In 1994, Lee saw on television that the U.S. bobsled recruiting program was making a stop the following day in San Antonio, not far from their home town of Del Rio, Texas. The two went to the trials and Todd was picked thanks to his exceptional athletic qualities. As he needed money to buy a sled, Hays then traveled to Tokyo for the 1995 freestyle fighting championships, which he won, pocketing $10,000. Hays quickly made his name and went to the 1998 Games in Nagano as an alternate. "My goal was to go the Games and taking part in the opening ceremony was an incredible thing," he said. "But in 2002, my goal is not just to take part. It's to compete for a medal." In his way stands the intimidating figure of Langen -- the most successful driver in the history of the sport with three Olympic medals and seven world titles. The 39-year-old German, who won the two-man and four-man titles at the 2001 world championships in St Moritz, was surprised by Hays when the current season got under way but soon recaptured his winning ways once the World Cup returned to Europe. He had scored three straight victories when he confirmed he was ready for the Salt Lake City Games by taking both titles at the German championships in Winterberg just before Christmas. Langen and brakeman Markus Zimmermann were the only two athletes to win two bobsled medals in Nagano, where they earned four-man gold and two-man bronze. The medals made up for Langen's disappointment four years earlier, when he had failed to win team selection for the Lillehammer Olympics. At stake now for the veteran German is a fitting conclusion to a great Olympic run which also saw him win two-man bronze in 1992 in Albertville, France. Hays not only has Langen to worry about. Others to watch include Switzerland's Martin Annen, the reigning two-man World Cup champion, German Andre Lange and Canada's Pierre Lueders, who tied with Italian Guenther Huber for two-man gold in Nagano. A few months ago, the best bet to offer the U.S. team a much-awaited medal would not have been Hays but Jean Racine. The top competitor in women's bobsled for most of the last three years had often looked in a class of her own, winning the first two women's World Cup titles, and she was expected to shine on the competition's Olympic debut. But Racine struggled this season before stirring controversy in December when she fired long-time brakewoman Jennifer Davidson to replace her with former heptathlete Gea Johnson, who received a four-year ban for a doping offence in 1994. Like Hays, Racine faces German opposition with Susi Erdmann now firmly in the driving seat in the World Cup standings. A two-times Olympic medallist and triple world champion in luge, the former East German switched to bobsled in 2000 and now looks set to stress the fact that Germany's dominance of the sport is not only a male affair.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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