Pikus-Pace back on Olympic track

Last weekend, Noelle Pikus-Pace had her own

hotel room in Italy for a few days, a perk of being the top-ranked

American woman so far this season on the World Cup skeleton circuit.

It helped make an emotionally tough time a little bit easier.

The World Cup tour is in Cesana Pariol, Italy, site of the

sliding events at the 2006 Torino Games.Pikus-Pace would have been the

gold-medal favorite at those Olympics, but saw those hopes shattered

when a bobsled smashed into her leg during a training run in Calgary,

Alberta, and a valiant comeback bid wasn't enough to get her to Torino.

She was back at Cesana Pariol last weekend, though, and while

looking ahead to Vancouver 2010, flashbacks of missing Torino 2006 were

to be fully expected.

\"It's a reminder of why I'm still doing this,\" Pikus-Pace said.

\"I've tried to map out my schedule this year and find reasons and find

aspects of this sport that I want to take with me, because this is my

last season, these are my final runs.

\"And at every track, I have different goals,\" she added, noting she

was \"excited to get on that (Torino Games) track because it was the

Olympic track.\"

Before last weekend, Pikus-Pace had been on the Torino track once

since the 2006 Olympics, finishing third in a World Cup race there in

2007, just two weeks after winning that year's world championship.

She skipped the 2007-08 season to have her daughter Lacee, and the

World Cup tour didn't race on the Cesana Pariol track last season after