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Show The Salt Lal ke Tribune 2 4 ake % > > Wednesday, Feb: OtVr. Li Ww N 1 013 TER WOMEN’S BOBSLED America’s ‘other’ team slides to gold in sport’s premiere BY SKIP KNOWLES THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE UTAH OLYMPIC PARK — Jill Bakken drove her Bodine bobsled like a demon to the first women’s gold medal in Olympic history Tuesday, finishing with a combined time in two runs of 1 minute,37.76 seconds. A degenerative back disease and the best German pilots in the world could not stop the shy, unsponsored pilot who drives her smoking, beater Subaru to the track to train. So how come her brakewoman, seven-time All-American track athlete Vonetta Flowers, could not stop crying? Flowers became the first AfricanAmerican to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics, for starters. And her stupendous pushefforts Tuesday night brought U.S. bobsled its first Olympic medal in 46 years. “T’m just so happy.I never thought I'd be here,” Flowers said. “My goal was the Summer Olympics, but God had a different plan for me, and I'm just so thankful to be here.” Bakken beamed butsaidlittle. “It was a lot of fun today. The Germans are tough teams to beat.” Top U.S.pilot Jean Racine drove with near perfection but suffered a meltdown at the start with injured first-year brakewoman Gea Johnson. Racine, long expected to rule Tuesday’s race, finished fifth with a com- bined time of 1:38.73. German greats Sandra Prokoff and Susi Erdmann, ranked first and second in the world, came out with conan starts and broke track neU.S. men and womencrowded aroundthe television anxiously — the weightof their Olympic dreams lying entirely on Bakken's shoulders. Bakken and Flowers, starting 10th in the first heat, blasted off the top with a wicked quickstart oftheir own and putthe race out of reach in the first heat with a stunning lead of 0.30 seconds. In bobsled, 0.30 is roughly 200,000 miles oflead time. Bakken would have needed to crash the second heatto fail. Photos by Trent Nelson/TheSalt Lake Tribune But Prokoff answered by down a new start record (5.29 seconds), just like Swiss pilot Martin Annen did to steal the bronze from U.S.pilot Todd Hays on Sunday. It was not enough. Her combined time of 1:38.06 earned her the silver medal; Erdmann earned the bronze with a time of 1:38.29. Bakken, wholacks a single corporate sponsor because she can earn nothing under terms ofher contract as a U.S. Army-sponsored athlete, joked earlier that she did not even know if she could keep a medal if she wonit. Nowshe will actuallyfind out. Flowers has had five knee, shoulder and hip surgeries, and Bakken’s back condition and recurring leg injuries made her ineffective the past two years. Yet she and Racine had alee ee aa track, and Bakken, the sole founding member TemelsgeSs. women's bobsled team, fulfilled her destiny. For. Racine, Tuesday nightoo jured ing caused her to stumble at the start. Racine paid the price “Itfelt like someone stabbedit with a knife and then just dragged it down yourleg.” GEA JOHNSON U.S. brakeworan for swapping two-time world cham- pion brakewoman Jen Davidson for a first-year rookie in hopes of gaining a hundredth ofa second. Johnson weptas she exited the sled. “It felt like someone stabbed it with a knife and then just dragged it down your leg,” she said. | SALT LAKE 2002 | uSA2 Gea Johnson,left, and Jean Racine leavethefinish areaaftertheir Bobsled historian John Morgan disappointing day said there is no way Johnson should have beenin that sled, but Racine defended the decision, saying she felt Johnson was herbest chance. But with either Davidson, Shauna Tuesday. Johnson's injured leg hampered the team’s start, and though Racine Rohbock or Bethany Hart, Racine may have won a medal Tuesday night. made uptime with After her atrocious start, she still drove to within 0.20 seconds in the first heat when she should have been closer to a second behind. her skillful driving, they could do no better than fifth. CURLING British, Canadian Womenin Semis "98 gold medalist Canada hopesfor repeat of Nagano the match outof reach. Germanyhad its chance to clinch the last semifinal spot in its closing BY GREG LAVINE Olympics for training schedule violations. Nessler moved up from vice In Great Britain's morning match with Sweden, the game-breaker came in the fourth end. Gustafson was unable to knock out several British stones in that end, resulting in a British steal of two. Team Great Britain committed more thievery in the following end to put Sweden in a b hole. j Mert like we struggled a lo,” la mented Gustafson, who won bronze at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Topranked Canada will play Canadian Men Again Find Sweden Blocking Their Path to Gold Medal GreatBritain in the semifinals. Can ada’s Kelley Law beat Martin in the BY GREG LAVINE preliminary round. “We'll be tryingto focus tonight,” THE SALT LAKETRIBUNE Martin said after her afternoon win. “We couldn't think about the semis fore now.” At the 2000 world championships, Law beat Scotland in the semifinals en route to the world title. Scotland did top Canada in the round-robin portion of those worlds. “Who knows what will happen this time?” Martin said. The other match features Kari Erickson’s U.S. squad and Luzia Ebnoether’s Swiss curlers. Switzerland escaped its round-robin encounter against the United States with a 74 victory. Canada seeks to repeat its 1998 Nagano gold medal-winning performance. Legendary curler Sandra captured the first official Olympic gold for curling at the last Winter Games. OGDEN — Canadian skip Kevin Martin says he is unconcerned about his semifinal matchup today with reigning world champion Peter Lind holm of Sweden. Lindholm should prove a formida: ble hurdle in Martin's quest for his first world-class gold medal. Memories of a semifinal loss to Lindholm in the 1997 World Curling Champion- ships arelikely floating somewhere in Martin's mind. “I don’t think it matters who we play, either team will come out and shoot well,” Martin said before the playoff pairings wereset. “There's not a lot ofdifference.” The main difference is that the other possible opponent would have been Switzerland a team Canada crushed 7-2 in round-robin play. Lind: holm topped Martin 65 in the preliminaries, which turnedoutto be Canada's onlyloss. Lindholm certainly remembers 1997, when he went onto take the worldtitle after beating Martin. It might be a good thing for us,” Lindholm said of whether history would play a role, “It doesn't matter whoweplay. We're going for a medal Gold would be best.” The winner of Canada-Sweden moves on to the championship match. Theloser battles it out for bronze. In 1997, Martin missed the bronze,falling to Great Britain's Hammy McMillan. Not only does Martin have some- thing to prove on a personallevel, his country remains hungry for a men's curling gold. The world's curling su perpowersettled for a somewhat dis- appointing silver in the 1996 Nagano Olympics. Paal Trulsen's Norway meets An. dreas Schwaller’s Switzerland in ‘the other semifinal match. Switzerland beat Norway5-4 in round-robin plav. |