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Utah connections
Utahns watching the 2002 Winter Olympics bobsled competition are likely to find familiar faces among the winners and workers at Bear Hollow. Among residents of the state or those with strong ties to Utah who are notable in the sport during the past year:
Bill Schuffenhaur, a decathlete from Ogden, was a newcomer to bobsledding last December when he served as brakeman on a sled that was among the top finishers in an America's Cup race at the Utah Olympic Park.
He was brakeman on both the two-man and four-man teams driven by Bruce Rosselli of Terre Haute, Ind., Don McMurrian of Boise and Denton Randolph of Newton, Mass., joined the pair in the four-man sled.
Mark Hoaglin, Ogden, was part of the Rosselli team in January when they made impressive runs during the Europa Cup races in Cortina, Italy. In this competition, Hoaglin was in the sled instead of McMurrian.
Todd Hays, originally from Del Rio, Texas, was living in Heber City with his father early in 2001 when the bobsled he piloted launched a phenomenal drive at the start of a World Cup race at the Utah Olympic Park. But Paul Jovanovic of Toms River, N.J., nearly fell out of the sled, and the mishap assured that the team did not finish at the top.
Hays finished fourth in driver's ratings in the World Cup four-man competition and fifth overall.
Jean Racine, sometimes living in Waterford, Mich., and sometimes in Park City, and Jennifer Davidson, Layton, are the reigning duo in women's bobsled. In February they won the 2000-01 World Cup, the second year in a row they won the season title. This time, they collected six of the seven World Cup gold medals.
Pat Brown, bobsled program director at the Utah Olympic Park, is an old hand at the sport, having coached the famous Jamaican Bobsled Team in the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. That was the team that inspired the 1993 fictionalized Disney film "Cool Runnings."
Jill Bakken, Park City, who missed part of the 2000-01 season because of a knee injury, won the driver's division in July during the summer push championships in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Shauna Rohbock, Orem, also recovering from an injury, was brakeman for Bakken when they came in third in U.S. Championships Race competition at Bear Hollow last winter. Cynthia Wright, Park City, and Katie Koczynski of Upper Nyack, N.Y., came in fifth in that race.
Steve Holcomb, Park City, was in the sixth-place bobsled in a World Cup race held at Lake Placid, N.Y., in March.
Kurt Prusse, Logan, was part of the record-setting run on the Lake Placid track last December. He was part of the team led by Joe Sisson, a 20-year-old from Evanston, Wyo., that also included Rick Baird, Las Vegas, and Denton Randolph, Newton, Mass. In setting the record of 46.83 for the Mt. Van Hoevenberg track, they took the gold medal in an America's Cup race.
Sisson and Prusse also took the gold in the same meet during the two-man bobsled competition, setting a track record in that race also.
Utah's Polynesian community and non-Polynesians connected with the Pacific islands are fueling a drive by America Samoa to compete in women's bobsledding. Taylor Boyd of the American Samoa Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, based in Dallas, estimated that 60,000 to 80,000 Polynesians live in the Salt Lake area.
Recruiters held events in the Salt Lake area, finding strong competitors.
In Calgary's Olympic Park, Kassie T. Afo, South Jordan, raced during the Women's Bobsled World Championships in February. Her driver was Jennifer Watt, Provo.
Helping Americans maintain bobsleds at Bear Hollow competition this past January were teenagers Landon Phillips from Woodland, Summit County, and Adam Revelli of Highland, Utah County. They also enjoyed speeding down the track as forerunners for the women's selection team.
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