Here’s how it’s going so far. This week’s luge events ended with a delightful surprise: a silver and a bronze in the men’s two-man. But the United States got squat on the single’s side, where hopes were sky high. Although Adam Heidt ended up fourth for the men and Becky Wilczak finished fifth for the women, both best-ever U.S. marks, our top slider, Tony Bershoof rammed a wall during his second run and was out of medal contention before day two of racing even began. (“I messed up pretty royally,” he said afterward.) And while gold-medal endings are still possible in skeleton and bobsled–for both men and women–our skeleton men aren’t the big happy family they appear to be and bobsled, well, for the entire squad, the months leading up to Salt Lake have been downright disastrous.
Jean Racine was going to be one of the big stars of these Winter Olympics. She and brakeman Jen Davidson were great friends. They had great faces, a great nickname–“The Bobsled Babes”–and, until last fall, a great shot at a gold medal. Then they started losing, largely because Jen’s “push” times, logged during the all-important flat stretch at the start of the race, were no longer competitive. So Jean fired Jen in early December. The move made sense in racing terms (Jen’s replacement, Gea Johnson, has Racine’s sled back in peak form) but it made Racine look like a stabbing Brutus, placing glory above friendship. In truth, the switch was routine in the sport, but try explaining that to an Ohio soccer mom.
Here in Salt Lake, Racine has been utterly invisible, but not only because of the mess involving Davidson. Remarkably, Racine’s pre-Olympic experience got even worse in late January when her father was charged with two counts of child sexual abuse involving his neighbor’s 13-year-old daughter. Mr. Racine, who has pleaded not guilty, is out on bail but will not attend the Games. (Racine’s mother died of cancer last year.) Even if Racine can manage to cut through all the distractions and win a medal next week, her marketability–which had landed her in a Visa commercial and a “Got Milk?” ad–is greatly diminished. She will not be the breakout star her sport had hoped.
Judging by the scowl on Todd Hays’s face during a press conference last week, his Olympic experience has only been a touch more pleasant. The one-time Texas football player is a future star in the bobsled, but his chances here in Salt Lake took a big hit on Dec. 29 when his brakeman, Pavle Jovanovic, tested positive for banned substances and earned a two-year suspension. An irate Hays went nuclear at the Team USA meet-and-greet last week, criticizing the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency for its treatment of athletes.
“I know in my heart, 100 percent, that Pavle is guilty of nothing,” Hays said. “He’s not a big-time sprinter or skater. He’s a bobsled athlete who makes $750 a month. Or did. And now he’s back home watching these Olympics on his couch.”
If his demeanor at the press conference was any indication, Hays has not put this mess behind him. He’s still a gold-medal contender, but only if he spends more of his energy on driving and less of it on the IOC.
Much of the world already knows the tragic story trailing Jim Shea Jr. at these games. Shea’s grandfather, Jack, 91, was supposed to be in Salt Lake to root on Jimmy and was even a candidate to light the Olympic torch at last Friday’s Opening Ceremonies. But he was killed in a traffic accident on Jan. 28; the man in the other car was allegedly drunk.
What much of the world doesn’t know about is the tension dogging the trio of American men chasing skeleton gold. Shea, Chris Soule and Lincoln DeWitt have taken turns at the top of the sport in recent years-Shea in 1999, DeWitt in 2000 and Soule last year. But the competition hasn’t been entirely healthy.
It’s an open secret in the sport that Shea and DeWitt dislike each other. Shea is a grounded, small-time Joe from Lake Placid, N.Y., who boasts about not having read a book in years; DeWitt is an Ivy League grad with a cutting wit and scientist’s approach to his sport. Right away they butted heads, and occasionally it gets nasty. At a recent competition, DeWitt was allegedly spotted celebrating when Shea failed to perform well. Soule, meanwhile, a sometime-stuntman who has appeared as an extra on “Sex and the City” several times, is close friends with both and often finds himself torn between the two.
Will it cost the U.S. a medal? Probably not on its own. Shea’s family tragedy, understandably, engendered something of a truce. And at last week’s press conference, the three men were all smiles, relaxed and happy, eager to chat up their sport. “I think anyone up here could be on the podium,” DeWitt said. “Chris has been up there every [World Cup] race this season. And as a team we haven’t been shut out in a long time.”
The one bright spot for the U.S. teams is a home-field advantage unlike any other. With so few sliding tracks in the country, Americans train almost exclusively at the Park City run where the Olympic competition will be held. It’s a fast, technical track, and all of them have been down it hundreds of times. They know every inch of it blindfolded. Understandably, the ice has been a solace for the athletes in recent weeks–it’s the one place where they’re moving too fast for any of their distractions to keep up.
