Graceful Insanity and Night Train.

Like most Americans, I don’t have much of an appreciation for Bobsleigh racing. Or at least I didn’t. Not a lot of youth leagues in Florida promoted the sliding sports when I was a kid. That being said, watching the luge, skeleton and bobsleigh events first hand, has changed my perspective.

Besides the tights, it’s a pretty tough sport. These guys lay flat on a sled (face down forwards for skeleton and on their back feet first for luge), dive down a steep ice track and hit speeds between 80 and 90 mph Not for the faint of heart and not a lot of room for error (as you saw in the training leading up to the Olympics). It is graceful insanity.

I had the benefit of working for Olympic Broadcasting for the 2010 Vancouver games and was able to sit track side for most all of the sliding events. Here is my vid of USA-1 (AKA Night Train) winning the gold medal in men’s 4 man bobsleigh. Keep in mind the difference between gold, silver and bronze is 10ths of seconds and the difference between first place and 21st place is about a second and a half. Pretty outstanding.