Noelle Pikus-Pace thanks others for her success

Noelle Pikus-Pace believes that if she earns an Olympic medal next month it will actually belong to a lot of people who have never even been on a skeleton track.

"I can't even name how many people have helped me get here," said Pikus-Pace in a teleconference last Sunday after being officially named to the 2010 Olympic skeleton team. "Most importantly my mom, first of all. When I was in high school, she was always taking time off work to drive me two hours to and from the track so I could see if it was something I was interested in doing."

The list goes on.

"My sister Amanda," Pikus-Pace said. "She watches my daughter every single day, and she's working. Her family has made so many sacrifices just so I could be here right now."

There were letters of support, offers of financial help, including a stranger who bought her a new sled, at the cost of $5,000, when her sled was run over by a bobsled as she tried to recover from a devastating injury that occurred just a few months earlier.

"I wouldn't have been able to pay for that," she said. "There have been countless people who have been right there to support me and are right by my side. Really, this is not all about me. This isn't just my moment."

But make no mistake about it. It is a moment many years in the making, and a moment that comes after serious injuries, setbacks, heartbreak, a marriage, a baby and a lot of hard work.

Pikus-Pace is the youngest of eight children and a native of Orem. She grew up running track and playing softball at Mountain View High School. She began competing in skeleton in 2001 through a developmental program at the Utah Olympic Park.

"When I was younger, I played softball and ran track, so I was always looking at the Summer Games," she said. Then she watched as the same friends she competed with in the developmental program had success at the 2002 Games. That's when the training began in earnest, all the while she was earning her college degree at Utah Valley University on a track and field scholarship. While competing for UVU, she broke the NCAA record for high jump and was named a first-team All-American. She graduated in 2005, the same year a freak accident, in October, took her on a painful detour.

She was hit by a run away bobsled and her leg was broken. She worked hard to try and come back from the injury but failed to make the 2006 Olympic team.

Despite the extreme disappointment, Pikus-Pace said she never thought about giving up sinking into self-pity.