Most Embarrassing Moments #1

Ok, we got some good feedback from our "Crazy Bobsledding Exercises" post so we decided to move forward with Team Holm Bobsled's most embarrassing moments stories. And since it was my idea, I guess I'll go first! Me and my big mouth....

So, this happened back in the 1997-1998 season (before we looked as good as we do now). Back then, the Park City track did their passenger ride program with regular four-man bobsleds, not the modified ones that they are using now. These sleds needed a driver and a brakeman, which was part of my job description. I should mention that I was working for the USBSF (our national governing body) at the time and they ran the passenger program so I divided my time between playing brakeman for the sleds and helping passengers load into the sleds and prepare to go.

Well one night I was just assigned the task of helping customers get the right sized helmets and then load into the sled properly. The great part about this is that I got to socialize with the clients and help get them excited for the ride. And then, once they were properly loaded into the sled, we would pull out the pushbars and give them a full push down the start ramp.

There's only one, minor catch to this whole situation: stopping. No, not the sled. I mean us, the pushers!

Have you ever tried to stop on ice while sprinting down a 50-meter ramp at full speed? And at the time I didn't even have my fancy bobsledding shoes with their 300+ spikes on each foot. No, back then all I had were my trusty (yet almost useless) sprinter track spikes with 8 spikes on each foot. Man, when you let go of that sled, you were doing everything you could to just stay on the spikes and not your heel, because once those spikes left the ice, you would would go down hard! Some of the pushers actually got to the point to where they would just fall down on purpose and slide to a stop down in Turn 1.

But not me, and definitely not this night that I'm talking about. There was a rather large group of passengers gathered at the top of the track and they were cheering us on, telling us to push faster and faster! Being ever-so-willing to oblige, we started pushing full-speed (which as you can imagine only made stopping that much more difficult).

And to make matters worse, there were a couple of cute girls in the crowd, so being teenage guys, we decided we'd try to show off. Ah, it just reminds me of that saying, "Pride cometh before the fall."

So on one of the pushes, we really ran it deep. I'm talking way past the point that I would have jumped into the sled as a driver. We just dug deep and then gave it one last shove before letting it go. We could even hear the crowd cheering us from the start area, congratulating us for our efforts.

Well, the euphoric feeling lasted about two steps. On the third one, my spikes slipped on the ice and my heel came down (remember, no spikes there) and the next thing I knew, my feet went up into the air almost higher than my head and my arms went out to my sides in an effort to catch myself. But alas, it was no good.

I came crashing down on my back so hard it knocked the breath out of me! My arms came crashing down onto the ice and I hit my watch so hard that it broke! In that wonderful spread-eagle position I continued my downward motion and slide down into the middle of Turn 1.

With a groan, I pulled myself to my feet, gathered up the pieces of my watch, and began the "Walk of Shame" back up to the start area amidst the applause of my coworkers and the crowd. I don't think I looked up once during that whole walk back up the start ramp. When I got there, my coach just smiled, slapped me on the back, and told me "I think you actually bounced on that one."

Ah, memories.... Thank goodness YouTube didn't exist back then!

Stay tuned for more postings about our most embarrassing bobsled moments where we'll further embarrass ourselves for your reading pleasure!