Red, White, Blue...... and Yellow?

Everyday I wear a friendship bracelet that my younger sister, Geneva, made for me with the colors red, white, blue and yellow.  This bracelet helps to remind me each day of why I do what I do and who supports me in my journey to be the best.  I have a great life full of freedom, travel and competition, but that does not mean everyday is easy.  Each day I am working towards making my country proud and improving my strength and speed, so that I may be the able to win medals for my country.  This is represented by the red, white and blue.  I am proud to slide for Team USA and I remind myself daily what an honor that is.  

Next, the red and yellow on the bracelet are the colors of Chico High School where I was a graduate in 2001.  I have had incredible support from people in my home town of Chico, California and it is helpful to remember that support when times are tough.  I am not only proud to represent my country, but also my hometown. 

Finally, blue and yellow symbolizes the University of California, Davis.  I spent four and a half years at UC Davis working on my degree along with being a member of the track team.  I have some amazing supporters in Davis and my time on the track team was the platform that helped propel me to bobsled.  Each day this off season I will go to the weight room or the track and give 100 percent into what I am doing.  I will do this not just for myself, but for everyone included in on the red, white, blue and yellow.   

World Championships 2011 Konginsee, Germany

When in Rome...

Our season came to an end last week with a 10th place finish at World Championships in Germany. Naturally we had hoped for a better result, but I think Bree showed an incredible amount of heart and determination this season. She was racing only two weeks after surgery and continued to press on with the season refusing to have any excuses for our performance. We now have some time to regroup and refocus our training as we move towards next season, which cumulates with World Championships at our home track in Lake Placid, New York. Of course the best way to start the off season is with an Italian vacation to Venice and Rome!

I am incredibly fortunate to be doing what I am doing, which allows me to have the opportunity to travel and to do things that would not be possible without the freedom that I have. Bree and I hopped on a train after World Championships and began to eat our way through beautiful Italy. We started in Venice and then made our way to Rome. I was surprised how similar Venice looked to the Venetian streets of Disneyland! It was hard for us to grasp the fact that we were actually there and not in the Las Vegas Venetian hotel. After a few days in Venice we took a bullet train that reaches speeds of 300kmph to Rome.

In the Venice Streets

We headed straight to the Coliseum to see where the Gladiators use to fight. It was fitting to visit the Coliseum during the same week a year ago that we were doing our own type of fighting at the Olympic Games. We walked into the Coliseum and were reminded of how we felt walking into the Opening Ceremony. I am sure the Gladiators had similar emotions when they walked into the Coliseum to fight. The structure is amazing and can not even be described without being seen in person. After the Coliseum we headed to Vatican City, where we saw St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. These are two of the most unbelievable pieces of history. No matter what your beliefs are Rome is a must see that contains priceless art and history that can be appreciated by everyone.



Rome Coliseum



St. Peter's Basilica





ITA in Germany!

This morning my team and I were invited to an Elite Sports School here in Konigssee, Germany. Today was a very special day for the kids because they received shirts which symbolized being accepted into the sport school. We had the honor of presenting the children with their t-shirts. This school is incredible. We have nothing comparable to it in the states. In the Vancouver Olympics only there were 11 Olympic medalists who were alum from this school. We call this school the ‘factory’ where the Germans create their Olympic prodigy. This is why Germany is so dominate in winter sports because children start their sports at such a young age and they have a lot of time to perfect their skills. In the states many of us are far behind because we start our sports a lot later in life.

The children of the school surprised us by learning our National Anthem, which they sang with us. They will all be coming to our World Championship race this weekend to cheer us and of course the German teams on. One little girl asked very politely how she was suppose to cheer for us and what she should put on the sign she is making for us. It was nice to see that we have some German fans supporting the USA.



We're (almost) Back Baby!

Okay so maybe it was not the epic come back tale we had hoped for. You know the one where we come back in full force and win the race after a two week hiatus filled with surgery and nasty Austrian roommates? I think as athletes we always shoot for a victory and are often disappointed with anything less. Bree and I always go into any race thinking we are going to win. I have learned that if you don’t have confidence in yourself and in your teammate then you have no chance of being successful. We had thought that we could just pick up where we left off over a month ago and work ourselves back up the standings. Some may say our expectations were too high and not realistic (both our mothers would agree with this statement after we freaked them out with the chaos over the last few weeks), but we are competitors and we want more than to be average. We want to win.


It didn’t really hit us until after our first run that we are extremely lucky to be sliding this race together and it is an incredible feat for Bree to be pushing a bobsled and navigating our sled 80mph plus down an icy hill just weeks after being rushed the hospital for a less than routine procedure. As she said today to the media “we are lucky to be here.” I honestly can not imagine how scary it was for her to be heading into surgery in a foreign country with no family or friends in sight. It really showed me how strong and brave Bree is. I admire that she can still maintain a positive attitude after everything she has gone through the past few weeks and is such a competitor that she couldn’t wait to get back in the sled and do what we do best; race. I am excited to see what the future has in store for us as we work our way back and prepare for World Championships in three weeks. I am sure there were plenty of people who doubted Bree and I would be back to race Worlds, but we will be there, minus one appendix proving them wrong and ready to make Team USA proud.

Life happens...

I am currently in Igls, Austria one of my more favorite stops on our World Cup tour. Last year, this race was our last race before the Olympics and was the week after our 2010 Olympic Team was announced. Needless to say we had all let our guards down after an incredibly intense year fighting for an Olympic spot and we ALL got very ill. This may have been one of the worst bugs to spread throughout all the countries on the World Cup tour and sent many athletes to the hospital. It was a sickness that struck its victims late in the night, so every morning at breakfast we would look around and see who was missing. Fortunately this year, the sickness we called ‘death’ did not strike again, but we ran into yet another health problem here in Igls. Bree and I came to Europe after a relaxing Christmas break ready to maintain our third place overall World Cup rank, but unfortunately Bree’s appendix was not on the same page! Tuesday night Bree was brought to the hospital and immediately sent into emergency surgery to remove her appendix. Luckily, it was taken out before it had ruptured and caused any more damage. She spent a few interesting nights in an Austrian hospital before we could spring her loose and bring her back to the hotel for some relaxation. Of course, we could not convince our medical staff to clear her for the weekend race or the next weeks race either, but I am glad to report that Bree is continuing to improve each day.


I was still able to have an opportunity to race with one of our rookie drivers and my Olympic teammate, Bronze Medalist Elana Meyers. It was a lot of fun to get in the back of her sled and help push her in her second ever World Cup as a driver. Shauna Rohbock piloted her sled to gold for Team USA, so it was great to have our team bring home a victory. Our team is now headed to Winterberg, Germany, but Bree and I are on ‘vacation’ in Igls as she continues to recover. We will head to St. Moritz, Switzerland soon and prepare for the upcoming World Cup, but for now we will be here appreciating the things, like health, we often take for granted.

Racing For a Cure

Last year each person on our team was asked if we had cause or charity that was special to us. I immediately responded and expressed that breast cancer awareness and fighting for a cure for breast cancer is something close to my heart. My mother is a 25 year breast cancer survivor and was given a 50-50 chance to survive another 5 years after her diagnosis. Luckily, thanks to surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments she has not had a reoccurrence and has been an amazing mother to my three sisters and I. After expressing my mothers involvement with breast cancer awareness in our community the Bobsled and Skeleton Federation connected with the Susan G. Komen Foundation and we had the honor of racing the entire season with their logo on our sled.

Now we take it up a notch. This week our sled was wrapped to be the “Susan G. Komen” bobsled, or as we like to call it- our ‘boobsled.’ Sporting the bright pink ribbon on it’s sides, and shadows or ribbons throughout, the last two world cup races before Christmas took on a greater purpose. Olympic sports are prized throughout the world for athlete’s endless dedication to their dreams. But that’s just one individual’s dream. We are admired for our tenacity, but the reality is Olympic athletes have made it to that level by being experts at catering to their own needs. This week was a different story however, as I had the opportunity to not only represent my country on a world platform, but also bring attention to a cause that is greater than me, greater than bobsled, and so close to my heart.

Though the usual race nerves were there, there was also a certain amount of comfort as I warmed up for these races knowing that I was in a sense, “racing for the cure.” My mother came out on the positive side of her 50-50 chances, and this was a celebration of her determination that she passed down to me. Our hope is throughout the season we can raise awareness for breast cancer research and support the Susan G Komen foundation in their quest to find a cure.