Back in action at the Utah Olympic Park, home of the 2002 Salt Lake Games Sliding sports events.  After a week of training and sliding with all the rookie brakeman, Team Fenlator entered the official training week for the America’s Cup with confidence and a plan.  I teamed up with Kristi Koplin and JennaBree Tollestrup – Brown for Races #1 and #2 respectively.  This race was the first international race of the season across all bobsled/skeleton circuits.  Participating in these women’s races were five 2010 Olympic pilots, teams from Netherlands, Great Britain, Canada, Belgium, Russia and of course USA.  It was a pretty hectic two weeks of preparation for the races with lots of team changes, schedule changes, and uncertainty if there would be a full field of athletes from different nations in attendance to race.  Fortunately the FIBT (International Governing Body) was able to secure a full field of women’s teams.

For the first day of competition, I teamed with Kristi Koplin.  We did not have the push times we were hoping for which put us behind at the start, but I was able to navigate us down 15 curves of ice with 2 solid consistent runs sliding to sixth place, behind three 2010 Olympians and rookie pilot teammates Elana Meyers and Jamie Greubel.  In race day one for the Park City America’s Cup races, USA Women took third through sixth places.  After a long day adrenaline packed day it was now time to prepare for Race Day #2.  The ice and weather conditions in Park City, UT this early in the season have been pretty awesome.  All this is due to the hard work of the track crew and operations team.  This helps when there are back to back races and you have to sand/polish runners in between.  My runners weren’t scratched up to bad so polishing was a breeze compared to after the first Lake Placid Team Trials Race in October.

On the second day of competition, I teamed up with JennaBree Tollestrup-Brown.  Similar to the previous day, JennaBree and I did not push “Silver Bullet” to our anticipated times.  In training we pushed faster than on race day which considering it was snowy, windy and cold during training, we expected better results.  Nonetheless we put our best efforts out there and I had two of my most consistent runs that I was able to put together on race day and finish one place higher to 5th.  I also had my fastest downtimes on this track since learning how to drive it.  Overall despite the disappointing starts and being behind up top, I proved to myself that I am able to make the best of the situation and drive picking up time/speed along the way.  On both race days I had a max speed of approx 80.6 mph…. when you’re in a speed suit with temperatures around freezing often far below, you can feel the speed and burrrrrrrrrrrrr!  USA Women took first, fourth, fifth and eighth places on day 2. 

Soon after the race while the men finished the second run of their competition we loaded our bobsleds and equipment in our crates to send them off to the next destination of Calgary, Canada for America’s Cup Race #3.  Fellow teammate Elana Meyers, two rookie brakeman and myself will be road tripping from Park City, UT to Calgary Canada, an approximate 13-15 hour drive.

CLICK HERE – full race results and article! 

 


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