TEAM TRIALS: DISPAIR AND TRIUMPH
He's been competing for 17 years. He's 35 years old. But old dog Mike Kohn showed he's still up to new tricks when he beat shotshot Stephan Bosch in the final team trial race on the Olympic Park track. Kohn, who has been racing on the U. S. bobsled team since 1990, will drive USA 2, second only to top guy Steve Holcomb.
One of Kohn's push athletes is Jamie Moriarty, 26, a former Cornell University football team safety. He got interested in bobsled after the Torino Olympics, "Because, after you're involved in sports all your life, you miss it when it's done.
Kohn's other pushers are a soccer player and a track athlete.
On the women's bobsled side, the champ team of Shauna Rohbock and Valerie Fleming had a bye because they are ranked second in the world. But close on their heels is the duo of Erin Pac and Elana Meyers, who won all four team trial races, the two in Lake Placid and the two at the Park City track.
Women's skeleton was battle hard fought for the three World Cup slots. The Olympic champion from 2002, Tristan Gale, is trying for a comeback, but her lack of recent results forced her into a forerunner's position rather than a competing athlete. The U. S. women's skeleton team dominates: Katie Uhlaender had a bye after winning the World title last season. Courtney Yamada finished last season ranked fourth in the world.
The third World Cup spot was supposed to go to Keslie Tomlinson. At least that's what everyone thought. But Annie O'Shea, who has only been sliding three years, had the run of her dreams and landed on the World Cup team.
Tomlinson managed to keep it all inside as she climbed out of the ice halfpipe and walked across the loading platform. But the reality that all her dreams and plans were now shattered hit as she neared the athlete's warming room. Tomlinson sat down on the metal stairs, blinking in shock, then lowered her head to her knees. As she lost her struggle not to cry, she stood up and walked away, where teammates couldn't see.
O'Shea was quietly ecstatic. "I'm so happy. I've never been more excited!" she said.
The men's skeleton leader is, again, Zach Lund. Lund is the skeleton pilot whom Canadian drug czar Dick Pound successfully got banned from the Torino Olympics for using a hair restoral preparation. This was at a time when the world's two top men in skeleton were Lund and a Canadian athlete. Pound's action eliminating Lund guaranteed that Canada would win the gold medal in skeleton, which it did.
But that was then. Lund won all four team trial races this year. He tries not to think about Torino. "When I stop and think about it, it sucks, but there's nothing I can do about it. So, I'm just going to come out and try to win every time," he says.
Lund no longer has hair on his head, but he's back in the hunt.