From tracks and pools to icy chutes: American bobsled team welcomes all athletes

They didn’t dream of becoming Olympic bobsledders, but when their careers in football, softball, track and swimming fizzled to an end, the members of the U.S. bobsled team found their new passion: careening down an icy track at breakneck speeds.

Team USA now features an array of athletes from diverse backgrounds working toward a common goal at the Winter Olympics in Italy: racing downhill faster than anyone in the world.

The team’s coaching staff wasn’t originally impressed by a message from Carsten Vissering when the former All-American swimmer showed an interest in moving from the pool to the racetrack. Sprinters turned bobsledders made sense: If you’re fast on land, then you’ll be fast on the ice.

Coaches couldn’t see how Vissering’s career in the pool would translate.

“We were like, ‘No offense, we don’t want a swimmer,’” Chris Fogt, the head coach of the American bobsled team, told The Washington Times. “It’s hard enough to run fast on land, let alone on ice.”

Then the Bethesda native, a former USC swimmer, sent the coaching staff a video of him doing a backflip.

“We said, ‘That is an athletic human that is very large,’” Fogt said of the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Vissering. “‘We’d like to get him behind a bobsled.”

Vissering is only the most out-of-the-box example of a bobsledding phenomenon. The American team will welcome anyone. This year’s Olympic roster features track stars, softball phenoms, a former wide receiver, heptathletes and a former lacrosse player.

“If you had asked me five years ago, would you have a swimmer on the team, I’d say, ‘Absolutely not,’” Fogt said. “Now we’re in if you’re a great athlete in any sport.”

Bobsledding experts recognize their discipline as a transition sport. The Jamaican bobsled team made famous by the 1993 movie “Cool Runnings” and NFL running back Herschel Walker proved to the world that elite athletes have a place in fiberglass sleds barreling downhill at 90 mph.

Team USA’s bobsled leaders are further proof of the concept. Fogt was a sprinter specializing in the 100- and 200-meter races. Curt Tomasevicz, the team’s high-performance director, played football at Nebraska.

“I actually had one carry for 2 yards — the stats that don’t get you to the NFL,” Tomasevicz said.

They, like the athletes they now coach, fell in love with bobsledding. The shot at Olympic glory got them in the door. The adrenaline rush, competition and camaraderie keep them pushing their limits each day.

Recruiting: They want you

The American bobsledding recruitment network runs through a series of word-of-mouth connections. Tomasevicz entered the sport after his strength coach at Nebraska recommended it. Bobsledding coaches recruited Fogt when he was a senior at Utah Valley University.

Neither had really considered the sport before jumping feetfirst into the sleds. The American bobsledding team is littered with similar stories.

“For a lot of people, you know, you get done competing, and you’re what, 22 or 23, and you’ve been an athlete your whole life, but you’re not mentally ready to be done being an athlete,” Fogt said. “I felt like I still had more left in the tank, maybe not to go pro in track and field, but definitely could still be an elite athlete.”

The next generation of bobsledders gets an extra push, thanks to Fogt and Tomasevicz. They have an extensive group of supportive coaches around the country through their connections with the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

“Strength coaches, they want what’s best for their athlete,” Tomasevicz said. “It’s definitely opened a lot of eyes. And again, it’s a network now where hopefully word of mouth is helping us too.”

Fogt has a more new-school approach.

“I spend a lot of time stalking people on Instagram and getting random messages to them saying, ‘Do you want to come try out for the bobsled team?’” he said. “It’s a relatively low success rate.”

Players still find their own way to the sport. Kaysha Love was an All-American sprinter at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her coach, Larry Wade, wanted her to have a path to compete as her collegiate career neared its end.

At the time, Wade was training former Chicago Bears wide receiver Willie Gault for races on the masters circuit. Gault, a notorious speedster who made the Olympic team in the 110-meter hurdles in 1980 — the year the U.S. boycotted the games — was an Olympic alternate for the bobsled team in 1988.

“He and I would talk about it, and I mentioned to Kaysha that, ‘Hey, this might be a legitimate opportunity for you,’” Wade said. “She looked at me like, ‘Coach, are you crazy?’”

Love is a competitor at heart. She trained in gymnastics and volleyball before running at UNLV. She took a leap into bobsledding and hasn’t looked back.

“I knew she had what it took,” Wade said.

Vissering’s discovery of bobsledding didn’t shock his former USC swim coach, Chase Bloch.

Bloch described Vissering as an “adrenaline junkie” who would flip into the pool on a regular basis. The youngster picked up rugby and swimming in rivers during a study abroad trip in Australia.

“He was a freak athlete; we always knew that,” said Bloch, who keeps in touch with the Olympian. “Mindsetwise, he could probably do anything else and be successful.”

It was a mere coincidence that his 42-inch vertical and 500-pound squats — athletic traits that had USC football coaches asking whether they could play him on special teams — made Vissering a perfect fit for a second career as a bobsledder.

Crash course

Elite athletes have an uncanny ability to excel across disciplines. It doesn’t always work out — ask Tim Tebow or Michael Jordan about their baseball careers — but the unique level of physical intelligence associated with top-tier competition usually translates.

That’s a large part of the reason NFL players such as Hines Ward, Emmitt Smith and Rashad Jennings won “Dancing With the Stars.” Their spatial awareness and understanding of their bodies are unparalleled.

Bobsled is an even easier transition than ballroom dancing for some athletes.

The track stars typically have the easiest time adjusting.

“Track athletes are very aware and coached on sprint technique,” Tomasevicz said. “Football players oftentimes are told to get from point A to point B as fast as they can, whether it’s an ugly form or not.”

That doesn’t make it a flawless adjustment. The bobsled athletes usually have spent decades in other sports. They might be strong and fast, but it’s easy to fall on the ice. It’s also hard to mentally prepare for the sheer speed of the races.

“You really can test someone’s mettle by how they adjust to doing something brand new,” Fogt said. “They don’t look good their first couple of races. Most good athletes understand that to be the best in the world at something, it takes work. It takes time.”

Each athlete trains at a different pace. Jadin O’Brien was a champion heptathlete at Notre Dame. She took her first bobsled ride in October. She will join Team USA for the two-woman bobsled races this weekend, just four months after her start.

The technique comes quickly when someone already has the speed, strength and power to compete.

“We can get people pretty good a lot quicker than we used to,” said Fogt, attributing some of the success to a 120-meter ice track that the team uses in Lake Placid, New York.

Teaching Vissering to run still took about a year longer than it would for the typical track athlete.

“He just looked awkward and goofy, so we kind of had to reprogram him to run on land, but we got him the form,” Fogt said. “He’s definitely done extremely well.”

Vissering, Love and O’Brien have a clear leg up on their bobsledding crash course, thanks to strong draws in the genetic lottery. Yet after competing at elite levels in other sports, their work ethic and competitive nature are equally impactful.

“We’ll throw a lot at you, and the ones that can absorb it and take to it and are coachable. Those are the ones that we need,” Tomasevicz said. “We can tell, quickly, who are going to be some of our best athletes.”

No I in USA

The American bobsledders have developed a close rapport over the past year. It’s crucial for competition: You need to trust the other person in charge of steering or stopping a sled that is traveling at autobahn-worthy speeds.

Love, who is racing with teammate Azaria Hill in this weekend’s two-woman bobsled races, had an uncommon advantage. The pair ran together at UNLV, and Hill followed Love into the sport. Love never considered that she would be competing with her former teammate for an Olympic spot; she just wanted her friend to have the same opportunities she enjoyed.

“That shows you the unselfishness, because that’s what you want as a team,” Wade said. “These two young ladies will commit 150% in trying to do their very best for Team USA first. And if they’re able to receive medals and glory on the backside for themselves, then they’ve done themselves a service.”

It’s a running theme among the American bobsledders: a commitment to the team and country before individual glory.

“Carsten was always trying to do stuff for the team,” Bloch said of Vissering’s time at USC.

The swimmer set an unofficial record in the 50-yard breaststroke section of a medley relay in 2018, letting the Trojans earn their first title in the event. Vissering swam harder in the relays, his coach said, because he wanted to help his teammates succeed.

“He always put that team mindset first. I’m sure that relay experience is no different than what he’s got on the bobsled right now,” Bloch said. “All four guys have to kind of be in sync to be successful.”

Vissering’s goofy but devoted personality — he describes his blood type as “espresso” on the Team USA website — suits the tight-knit American bobsled team.

“When a team starts to click together, it’s a huge benefit to have that consistency, friendship, camaraderie,” Tomasevicz said.

Athletes such as Vissering, Love and Hill found bobsledding because they weren’t ready to stop competing. They were also looking to stick with a team of like-minded people.

“We’ve been on the road together since Nov. 4. We eat meals together. We stay in hotels together. And we ride very close to each other inside of a bobsled down an icy chute, 90 miles per hour,” Fogt said Wednesday. “That’s one thing that draws people to the sport. To dress up in a spandex suit and travel the world with all of your friends, it’s awesome.”

Fogt is thrilled that his athletes could help introduce another generation of Americans to his beloved sport. Those future bobsledders could find the same meaning that he has — if they can be pried away from the more well-known athletic options.

“We live in such a big country with amazing athletic programs,” said Fogt, noting that the best American athletes prioritize traditional team sports growing up. “I just think there’s so many amazing athletes in different sports that they might not even know how good they’d be if they tried out for a different sport.”

Team USA’s two-woman bobsled teams, featuring three pairs of Americans, will race Friday and Saturday. The four-man teams will take the course Saturday and Sunday.