Olympic Bobsleigh

Lolo Jones has become a fixture of the the U.S. Olympic scene over the past couple of Olympic Games, although Sochi hasn't been terribly kind to her. Jones was expected the be the underdog coming in largely because she is new to the sport of bobsledding and it is her first Winter Olympics. 

Jones and her partner, Jazmine Fenlator, currently sit in 11th place. The American pair may be at a disadvantage heading into Wednesday's final heats but will have a chance to redeem themselves.

For Jones, it's more about helping Fenlator stay calm and focused than fixing her own mistakes. "I want to help Jaz execute. I hope she shows the world what a beautiful driver she is," Jones said to USA Today's Chris Strauss. Fenlator added, "I tend to get ahead of myself in the sled and in my first run I made a quite a bit of mistakes crucially."

While the pair is unlikely to medal given the initial times of their competition, anything could happen, as Fenlator said (via Chris Strauss):

I think they definitely put themselves in a great position but anything can happen. As you saw (Monday) in the men's races, some people fell down and some people climbed greatly, almost making a medal. I'm going to make prayers for my teammates and keep them calm and also keep fighting myself.

Jones is the less experienced of the two, and she is still learning the ins and outs of being a brakeman. A solid job was done yesterday, but she will need to step up if the USA-3 sled is to finish in a respectable position. 

One could argue that the weather may have hindered their run, although the two competitors didn't place much of the blame on the track's conditions. With the weather having improved Wednesday, Jones should be able to get a much better push, giving the pair much more velocity down the track.

Jones and Fenlator will need two spectacular runs in the final heats to finish close to the top, and that all starts with Jones and the sled's initial push off.

They didn't come into the Games expecting to win the gold, especially this early on in their careers as Olympic bobsledders. The focus now is on finishing respectably with the best runs that they could possibly put together. 

For these Jones and Fenlator, it's pretty simple; stay calm, and do your job well. Granted, that's easier said than done, but they will likely be much better more prepared now that they have a couple official runs under their belt. 

Just when it appeared Team USA had slightly pulled away from the field at the 2014 Winter Olympics, the Netherlands once again swept a podium in men's speedskating.

No country has dominated a single sport quite like the Dutch in the speedskating competition. The Netherlands has 20 Olympic medals, all of which came on the ice in either long-track or short-track speedskating, as Dan Wolken of USA Today points out:

After Day 11, the U.S. and Dutch are tied at 20 medals apiece, but the Netherlands leads by virtue of having more silver medals, while Team USA has taken more bronze medals.

Norway, which has won more medals in the Winter Olympics than any other country in the history of the Games, still sits just behind Russia for third. But with several days of competition left, there is still time for either country to stage a comeback and take the lead.

Here's a look at the most recent medal tally:

The Olympic events for Wednesday are already underway, but here are a few of the most intriguing events to watch.

*Note: All Olympic action can be streamed live at NBC Live Extra. 

Events to Watch

On Day 11, the U.S. dominated a sport it was supposed to excel in. On Day 12, it will likely be a wash, rinse and repeat scenario.

The men's freestyle skiing halfpipe competition ended with a predictable outcome as David Wise cruised to victory with a huge run in the final. NBC Sports reported the result following the final:

Wise's run to the top of the podium sets up another potential podium visit from a fellow American—but this time, it will come in alpine skiing.

Ted Ligety hasn't exactly been a huge star for the Americans at this Winter Olympics, but he has yet another chance to win a gold in his best event, the giant slalom.

The 29-year-old skier has placed inside the top 10 in just one event thus far in Sochi, but he has confidence coming into the giant slalom, according to David Leon Moore of USA Today:

Every event is totally different. It's not like those (results) matter that much. I'm just going to push hard on my race on Wednesday. I know where my skiing can be.

This season, I've had a lot of ups and downs in other races and results but still been able to put together really fast runs in giant slalom.

Ligety has been sensational in the past in the giant slalom and has a good shot at turning around his fortunes in his favorite event. But with a stacked field—including fellow countryman Bode Miller, who already has a medal in Sochi—Ligety will need to work much harder in the event to pull out the elusive gold in giant slalom.

Outside of Ligety and Miller doing battle on the slopes, the bobsled track will be on fire when the final heats of the women's two-man bobsleigh begin.

Lolo Jones was the major story coming into the event after she made the switch from the Summer Olympics to the Winter Games. But a poor showing by her and teammate Jazmine Fenlator has them in 11th after two heats.

Joe Battaglia of NBC Olympics provided a bit of commentary on the team's second run:

Despite the poor runs by Jones and Fenlator, two other American teams came to compete. The No. 1 sled of Lauryn Williams along with top U.S. driver Elana Meyers sits in first after two heats, while the No. 2 team of Aja Evans and Jamie Greubel is third.

Both teams could finish with a medal, but Meyers came into the Olympics with one goal in mind: to claim a gold in the event.

Leading up to her first run, Meyers was interviewed by NBCOlympics.com about her thoughts on potentially winning her second medal in Sochi. Her response was spot on after the first round of runs in the event:

I definitely want to go in and try my best to win a gold medal but I can't only focus on winning gold. The goal is to go in and have the best four runs of my life. If I could put four runs together I'm going to be very hard to beat, but more importantly if I put four runs together, I'm going to walk off the ice proud and with my head held high, whatever the outcome is.

Not only would the win be a special one for her and the U.S., but it would also come over a longtime rival in Canada's Kaillie Humphries.

After claiming the gold in Vancouver, Humphries came into Sochi as the favorite. But despite her past success, Meyers and Williams have been faster than the Canadians in both runs and hold a narrow lead heading into Day 12.

Meyers and Humphries are only separated by fractions of a second, and Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today provides a little background on the rivalry:

It's long been anticipated that Meyers and Humphries would battle it out for gold. Humphries won the World Cup points title, winning three of eight races, and Meyers was second in the standings, winning two races and placing second in five others.

It is also the perfect way Meyers and Humphries should finish the season. Humphries, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics gold medalist in this event, and Meyers, who won bronze as a brakeman four years ago, worked out in Calgary together this summer — bobsled's version of LeBron James and Kevin Durant working out.

If this rivalry is anything like James and Durant, it might just be Meyers' time considering the recent success Durant and the Thunder have had over James and the Heat.

With the third and fourth heats coming up in bobsleigh, the giant slalom taking place for the men and a plethora of other events—including Team USA vs. the Czech Republic in men's hockey and the start of the ladies short program—Day 12 will be one to remember in the Winter Olympics.

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If Heather Moyse and Kaillie Humphries are going to be dethroned from their two-woman bobsled throne, Tuesday's opening runs made it clear it's going to take an awfully strong performance.

Moyse and Humphries finished their two runs with a combined time of 1:55.12, putting them in second place halfway through the competition. They are just 0.23 seconds behind Americans Lauryn Williams and Elana Meyers, a seemingly nonexistent separation on the surface that is consistent with bobsledding's history of razor-thin margins.

The entire field of qualifiers from top to bottom is separated by only 5.22 seconds. Only three pairs are more than three seconds behind Williams and Meyers. Zooming down the ice at insane speeds, where the slightest early break on a turn or slow reaction can be the difference between gold and going home empty-handed, it feels right. 

But, in the land of the elite, it's looking increasingly like a two-sled race for gold. Americans Jamie Greubel and Aja Evans are within a second of their teammates, but it'll be a long sled (sorry) to make it up the leaderboard. Greubel and Evans are the only second-sled competitors in the top seven after the first two heats.

For those unfamiliar, countries understandably match their best sledders with their fastest sled. That means not only are Greubel and Evans fighting a (very thin) talent discrepancy, but also their equipment is not quite as pristine. 

That leaves quite the North American battle atop the standings, as just about everyone expected. The Associated Press was one of many publications to predict Moyse and Humphries and Williams and Meyers would battle to the end to separate gold from silver. And following their opening-round jaunts, all the competitors are falling right in line with expectation.

It's been an interesting time in Sochi for the Canadians. Moyse, 35, became a bit of a viral star on Sunday, when she became the latest to throw a barb in the direction of Russia's preparation for these Games. While it was done with a light heart and tongue firmly planted in her cheek, odds are bathing in a garbage can isn't what Moyse had in mind for her Olympic trip:

Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, Moyse and Humphries like to keep their runs loose. They don't look at times. No, really. They don't.  

“We don’t really look at times so I don’t even know how big the gap is. And we don’t want to know,” Humphries told The Canadian Press (via The Star). "We just try to have fun. Knowing where other people are just complicates that."

The strategy is certainly paying off thus far. Moyse and Humphries are perhaps the most decorated bobsledding duo currently in action, with numerous World Cup medals and World Championship medals to their name. They came in as a favorite for the Sochi Games thanks to their 2010 gold in Vancouver. The two-woman event is a relative infant on the Olympic side—it was introduced in 2002—but Moyse and Humphries still have the chance to be the to become the first repeat champions.

Moyse, also an accomplished rugby player, has also been pushing herself back from hip surgery. She told Gregory Strong of The Canadian Press last month that the injury made Sochi about more than just making history. 

“Coming back and recovering from hip surgery, that has made it an even bigger challenge and one that has motivated me beyond all measure,” Moyse said in a recent interview. “Sochi for me is a massive overcoming of an obstacle kind of thing for me.”

Williams and Meyers are on their own jaunt with history. While almost the entirety of the U.S. bobsled team's coverage has been devoted to Lolo Jones, a high-profile Olympic hurdler who only recently picked up the sport and whose selection was the cause of controversy, Williams has her own similar story.

Only better.

Williams, 31, is (like Jones) a former Olympic track-and-field athlete. She won silver in the 100-meter sprint in the 2004 Athens Games and gold in the 100-meter relay in the 2012 London Games, helping set a world record in the process. Williams (like Jones) is only in the infancy of her bobsledding career.

Following in the footsteps of Jones, Williams picked up the sport just six months ago. Now, she's on the precipice of becoming the first woman and second person in history to win an Olympic gold in both the Summer and Winter Games. 

“I had no expectations coming into this,” Williams said, via Craig Davis of the Sun-Sentinel. “I’m looking forward to [Wednesday], and if I’m a part of history, that’s really cool, but the main thing is to help Elana get to the bottom as fast as possible.”

So there you have it. Two teams. Two compelling backstories. Two heats to go. It's been a long road for both. From injury. From wildly different backgrounds. From sports performed in entirely different climates. 

Now let's see what they've got.

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With her cascading brown locks, bright shining eyes and a body built for the skintight suits of American amateur sport, Lolo Jones is every bit the femme fatale. That alone is nothing special. A quick glance at your television during this or any Olympiad shows you the same is true of a lot of young women in the prime of their athletic lives.

It doesn't explain her omnipresent shadow lurking over a third Olympic Games. In fact, you probably shouldn't even know the name Lolo Jones. How many fourth- and seventh-place finishers can you recall from Games gone by?

And yet, almost certainly, you know exactly who Jones is. She's arguably the most famous female athlete on the entire American team.  She's practically an NBC staple at this point, the network's go-to girl when the Peacock needs a jolt of good old American star power.

Not because she's good. She's failed, sometimes spectacularly, in each high-profile opportunity and was the final woman chosen for the American bobsled team. The cameras aren't in her face because Jones is a transcendent athlete. This is America in 2014. Unfortunately, we aren't ready for women in sports to make it big purely on merit, apparently. 

No, the cameras are there because Lolo Jones is a virgin. An attractive, 31-year-old virgin. And so, six years after she burst into our collective consciousness at the 2008 Summer Games, there she remains—her 15 minutes of fame extended.

That wasn't fair to Dawn Harper. Don't remember Harper? She was the Olympian who won the 2008 100-meter hurdles race Jones bombed out of, the American who earned gold. She beat Jones twice in the Olympics and yet the cameras raced to Jones both times.

"I worked really hard to represent my country in the best way possible," Harper told NBC's Michelle Beadle. "...Because their favorite didn't win, all of a sudden, it's just like, 'We're going to push your story aside and still going to push this one.' That hurt. It did. It hurt my feelings.”

But Dawn Harper wasn't a television presence, and the media didn't make a public spectacle of her sex life. Harper is forgotten. Jones remains.

It wasn't fair to Kellie Wells either. She and Harper both finished ahead of Jones in London back in 2012. Two Americans stood on the medal stand representing our country. Only Jones, the loser, represented us in the media, a fact Jere Longman decried in The New York Times:

Jones has received far greater publicity than any other American track and field athlete competing in the London Games. This was based not on achievement but on her exotic beauty and on a sad and cynical marketing campaign. Essentially, Jones has decided she will be whatever anyone wants her to be — vixen, virgin, victim — to draw attention to herself and the many products she endorses.

Lolo Jones looks pretty good in Team USA's skintight bobsled suit. She looked spectacular in her runner's outfit in the Summer Olympics too. Those two facts—combined with her 388,000-plus Twitter followers—mean, once again, she's a storyline, this time in a sport she fully admits she would have nothing to do with had she managed to succeed in her chosen profession.

"If I won a freakin' medal—if I won any medal—I would not be a bobsledder," she told HBO's Real Sports. "Absolutely not. Are you kidding me? No. No!"

Despite that disdain for her own game, Jones is getting the bulk of the attention in Sochi, even though she's the low woman on the athletic totem pole. Deadspin's Barry Petchesky argues that's a good thing. Anything that brings eyeballs, attention and charitable donations to a sport short on cash can't be all bad:

I don't know enough about bobsled to say whether Jones was the right choice, but she was surely the most famous. Telegenic, marketable, controversial, and, yes, a ratings draw. Speaking as a casual fan—and Olympic season is when casual fans are indulged, and outright catered to—I do care more about the bobsled team because Lolo Jones is on it.

But who's really profiting from the increased media coverage? Veteran brakeman Curt Tomasevicz isn't so sure it's the bobsled team.

"We're returning gold medalists and not getting much PR because all the bobsled attention is on Lolo," he told USA Today. "It brings a lot of attention to the sport which can be a good thing, but I'm not just sure who is benefiting from that attention."

It's an opinion shared by Sports on Earth's Selena Roberts, who suggested Jones made the team over Katie Eberling because NBC needed a star to replace injured beauty Lindsey Vonn. It was a hot take to be certain, but one validated early and often by NBC's continuing, and fawning, Jones coverage. Roberts wrote that NBC's Today Show:

...engaged in the power of this sex-appeal differential, introducing the bobsled segment by saying, "We're going to talk to Lolo and her teammates in a minute."

That remark was morning-show hooey. It was all Lolo. 

And so here we are. In a sport where the pilots, and not the brakemen like Jones, are traditionally the stars, it's become the Lolo show.

Jones doesn't think she makes enough money pursuing her Olympic dream, angering teammates without her lucrative sponsor deals.

Jones has to eat meal after meal to bulk up for the Games.

Jones is still a virgin.

Finally, mercifully, it will all be over soon. While Team USA is in prime medal contention after the first two heats on Tuesday—Elana Meyers and Lauryn Williams sit in first place and Jamie Greubel and Aja Evans in third—Jones and driver Jazmine Fenlator are a distant 11th.

On Wednesday, Jones will almost certainly fail to medal in her third Olympic opportunity. Then we can finally let her fade into obscurity with other Olympic also-rans.

Bobsled is one of the most dangerous sports at the 2014 Winter Olympics for the athletes involved due to the high speeds and risk necessary to succeed. On Thursday, it became clear that even those who aren't competing can be put in harm's way. 

According to Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today, a track worker at Sanki Sliding Center in Rzhanaya Polyana, Russia, was struck by a forerunner sled prior to two-man bobsled training.

Update from Friday, Feb. 14

An update was provided on the victim's condition by Sochi organising committee spokeswoman Alexandra Kosterina, reported by the Associated Press via Fox News:

"The operation went smoothly," Kosterina said on Friday. "He's conscious. He's stable. He's good right now."

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Tom Withers of the Associated Press provided a statement from IOC President Thomas Bach discussing the incident during a visit to the AP office in Sochi: 

We still do not know why he was in this zone and exactly what happened. The information we have so far is that he has a broken leg and maybe a concussion. We are following up on this matter.

The forerunners are used to assess track conditions prior to competition, but there was apparently a miscommunication that led to the accident.

As seen in this photo courtesy of the Chicago Tribune's Stacy St. Clair, officials tended to the injured worker on the track:

An ambulance then took the worker away, per Doug Mills of The New York Times:

The worker's status is not yet known. In fact, very little information regarding the incident has been released to the public, according to Matt Gutman of ABC News:

Following the accident, training for two-man bobsled was delayed, per Zillgitt. Necessary repairs included issues with a light fixture on the roof, as seen in this photo courtesy of CBC's Mark Connolly:

This isn't the first time we've seen such an incident. American skeleton athlete Noelle Pikus-Pace was struck by a bobsled in Canada in 2005, which ultimately led to her missing the 2006 Winter Games, per the Associated Press.

As is the case with many of the Olympic facilities, the Sanki Sliding Center outside Sochi is different from what sliders usually encounter over the course of their normal seasons. German bobsled coach Christoph Langen discussed the features that make the Olympic track so unique, according to DW.de:

The new thing is that there are three uphill stretches. These existed in Nagano (in 1998) too, but not to this extent. There are inclines of as much as 16 percent, before you go straight downhill again. The changes in speed are great. You wind up slowing down to 130 kilometers per hour (81 mph) from 140, and 150 meters (492 feet) later, you are back up to 145 kph. It's like a little roller coaster.

It remains unclear if the intricacies of this specific track related to the accident that occurred on Thursday, but it is a near certainty that greater safety measures will be taken moving forward in order to ensure that nothing similar happens again.

While there were major concerns regarding the Sochi Games prior to their commencement, things have largely gone off without a hitch. The bobsled accident is the first significant hurdle that organizers will have to clear, and it will surely test the mettle of those in charge.

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For the American bobsleigh team, it was selection Sunday, and we now know the names and faces of those who will represent the United States in Sochi.

For the women, Jamie Greubel, by virtue of her strong showing in the last year of international competition, will lead the first of three, two-woman sleds at the Winter Games. She will be joined by Elana Meyers and Jazmine Fenlator as pilots.

Greubel and Meyers capped off a successful 2014 Bobsleigh World Cup this past weekend in Igls, Austria, by securing the gold and silver medals. For Greubel, it was her first victory in Europe, and she'll be looking to bring home a more significant piece of hardware at the Winter Games. 

The women's pushers, however, are likely to become the dominant story. Lolo Jones and Lauryn Williams, who have both qualified for the Summer Olympics in track in the past, were both selected for the American team. They will be joined by Aja Davis.

Jones, a 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympian who famously fell on the hurdles when she seemed destined for gold in track, will look to find her Olympic happy ending. She's an interesting story, having appeared in ESPN The Magazine's "Body" issue, and she made headlines for telling the world she'll remain a virgin until married.

Teaming with Fenlator, Jones began today in 11th place in the World Cup, but they rallied for a strong second heat to move up into seventh, and apparently secure their selection for the team.

On the men's side, Steven Holcomb, Nick Cunningham and Cory Butner will pilot the two four-man sleds, and they'll be joined by Cory Butner as a pilot for the three two-man sleds. 

The remainder of the U.S. mens four-man team is comprised of Curt Tomasevicz, Steve Langton and Chris Fog—who will join Holcomb on USA-1—and Justin Olsen, Johnny Quinn and Dallas Robinson, who will join Cunningham on USA-2.

Updates from Monday, Jan. 20

The Associated Press (via ESPN) talked to bobsled pilot Winston Watts about the funding needed to send his team to the Sochi games:

Much of that concern went away Monday, when Jamaican Olympic officials said they and the Sochi Organizing Committee would cover all travel costs for the team. Watts said he is still doing additional fundraising for equipment, such as different kinds of runners for the sled. Teams typically have several different sets of runners to choose from, depending on ice conditions.

"The money's not all covered yet," Watts said. "We're still hoping for help. But I am very excited that we're officially qualified."

Alex Hern of The Guardian is also reporting that supporters of the team have raised $25,000 in the online currency Dogecoin to help get the group to the games.

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You know, somebody could make a movie about this someday.

Jamaica's two-man bobsled team of Winston Watts and Marvin Dixon qualified for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. It's the first time a Jamaican bobsled team has qualified for the Winter Olympics since 2002.

The Jamaican Olympic Committee tweeted the celebratory news on Saturday:

An entire generation is familiar with the Jamaican bobsled team after Cool Runnings. The Disney movie told the somewhat fictionalized story of how the Caribbean country defied the odds to qualify in the four-man bobsled for the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.

Watts has even taken to calling himself and Dixon, "Cool Runnings, the Second Generation,” per The Telegraph's Ian Chadband.

Qualifying for the 2014 Olympics was the easy part for Dixon and Watts. Heading into St. Moritz, they only needed to avoid disaster in order to earn their spot in Russia.

The hard part will be actually getting there.

Watts told Chadband the financial hardship the team is under at the moment:

In truth, we still don’t really know at the moment if we’d even have enough funds or sponsorship to fly to Sochi itself for the Games itself. It all depends. Our families need to be taken care of first. If there’s no funding, who knows?

But, I’m one of life’s optimists. I put my heart on the line for this. Any British companies out there interested in sponsorin’ us? Hopefully, the Jamaican Olympic Association will step in and support us now we’ve qualified.

As Evan Hilbert of CBSSports.com noted, the original plan was for Jamaica to have a regular four-man team, but that idea was scrapped after the funding problems:

Watts, who came out of retirement to give the Olympics another shot (he competed previously in '94, '98, and '02), was forced to cut his four-man team in half due to budgetary restrictions.

He has, for the past two years, financed his teammates to fly from Jamaica to the United States to train. Still, without significant support, he and Dixon will not be able to compete.

ESPN's Darren Rovell adds more detail to the team's financial issues:

Not making this up: Jamaican Bobsled team taking PayPal donations to be able to pay to go to Sochi

— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) January 19, 2014

Jamaican Bobsled team looking to raise $80K in the next couple weeks in order to pay for a trip to Sochi

— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) January 19, 2014

Now that the Jamaicans have officially qualified, financial benefactors may come out of the woodwork. Watts' story is gaining a lot of traction, thus bringing much more attention to his plight. Perhaps the Jamaican Olympic Association will pony up some dough, too.

Maybe Watts and Dixon could consider Kickstarter. It helped fund the Veronica Mars movie; why can't it help the Jamaican bobsled team? Worst-case scenario, the bobsledders create a nice ditty to perform on the streets. A kissing booth seemed to work well, too.

This is the kind of story that tugs at the heartstrings, and should the Jamaicans make it to Russia, they'll be one of, if not the most compelling team at the Olympics. Even putting aside the idea of the Cool Runnings redux, this is a 46-year-old athlete—Watts—trying to make that one last run at Olympic glory.

Between now and Sochi, somebody has to step up make Watts' dream a reality.