Athlete has technology, community on her side

She's back.

And she has The Sled.

Fellow Americans — most notably Utahns — sure did deliver during the holidays for America's top female sled champion from Utah.

Orem's Noelle Pikus-Pace, the first U.S. woman to win a skeleton World Cup overall championship, will have a new sled to continue a miraculous comeback after busting her leg in a freak accident Oct. 19 in Calgary, victim of a runaway bobsled.

Pikus-Pace, competing with a titanium rod in her right leg after a bobsled mowed her down and wrecked her sled in Canada this past fall, rode a state-of-the-art newly designed skeleton sled Tuesday in Park City, putting the finishing touches on a custom fit that could launch her into the story of the 2006 Olympic games in Torino, Italy, in two months.

On Tuesday, Pikus-Pace posted the fastest skeleton run in the practice field at Park City, clocking 52.44 seconds with a 5.49-second push. Her track time was faster than 2002 Olympic champion Tristan Gale (52.49) and three-time national champion Katie Uhlaender (52.51).

Obviously, with swelling in her right leg, Pikus-Pace's push time of 5.49 was significantly slower than the two other stars' (Gale 5.38 and Uhlaender 5.22), but her work on the track made up for it during her run. The sled went back to the shop to fix some bugs, making it more responsive, according to the designer, and she will race again this week.

Pikus-Pace herself never asked for any help, or money. That's not her. But the community answered the call to help her with a new sled.

The sled, estimated to cost $5,000, is one of only two in the world, designed by Randy Parker of West Jordan. Earlier this month, in a dramatic return to the sport, Pikus-Pace borrowed the other Parker-made sled, that of U.S. teammate and the world's No. 1 ranked male skeleton slider, Zach Lund, and finished eighth in a World Cup event in Latvia.

With Pikus-Pace on the mend, now she's back on track with a sled far superior to the one with which she won the 2005 World Cup Skeleton title. The combo should put the fear into the Swiss and Canadians, Pikus-Pace's primary challengers if she qualifies for the U.S. Olympic team in coming weeks.

When a call went out several weeks ago to raise money for a Pikus-Pace sled, the community responded. Donations came in to Zions Bank, including offers from the Wolverine Club — businessmen who support Utah Valley State College athletics, where Pikus-Pace and her husband, Janson, attend school.