National Guard Bobsledder Jill Bakken Wins Olympic Gold

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2002 -- A soft-spoken National Guard
soldier steered her two-seat bobsled to a gold medal Feb.
19 in the first women's bobsled competition featured in the
Olympic Games.

Spc. Jill Bakken, 25, of the Utah Army National Guard and
the Army World Class Athlete Program and civilian brakeman-
pusher Vonetta Flowers of Alabama drove into the pages of
Olympic history.

The unheralded USA-2 duo's two-run total time of 1:37.76
seconds at the Utah Olympic Park beat two German teams that
slid to the silver and bronze medals. The better-known USA-
1 team of driver Jean Racine and brakeman Gea Johnson
finished fifth.

Bakken's the first World Class Athlete Program member ever
to win Olympic gold, according to Army officials. Flowers
became the first African American ever to win Winter
Olympic gold -- and during African American History Month.
The two are the first Americans to medal in Olympic
bobsledding since 1956, when the U.S. men claimed the
bronze.

"It's an amazing feeling. We had a lot of fun today,"
Bakken said afterward. "There was a lot of tough
competition, so we definitely had our work cut out for us.
The Germans are tough teams to beat. I just knew that I had
to put in two solid, clean runs."

The duo had to battle back from injuries to make it to Salt
Lake. Bakken underwent back surgery and two knee operations
in the past four years to earn her shot at gold. Flowers,
28, was a track and field star at the University of Alabama
at Birmingham. She originally set her sights on
representing the United States at the Summer Olympics, but
injuries ended that dream. She switched sports and hooked
up with Bakken in December.

"I knew we had to have a good start, and I knew we were
going to do really well on that," Bakken said. "I was
thinking about how I needed to get down the track clean."

It was also a golden moment for two other Army Guard
soldiers, Spc. Bill Tavares of New York and Sgt. Tuffield
"Tuffy" Latour of Vermont. They are women's bobsled team
coaches and members of the World Class Athlete Program.

Tavares, head coach, is a three-time Olympian who rode the
luge in the 1992 Winter Games. Latour is the driving coach.
His grandfather was a bobsled driver for the United States
in the 1948 Games.

Bakken joined the Utah Guard's 115th Engineer Group
headquarters in Draper in March 2000. She became an Army
world-class athlete after basic and advanced individual
training in mid-2000.

"She went from boot camp back to bobsledding," beamed her
mother, Peggy Smith. "I knew she had it in her. I'm so
happy for her. She's gone through a lot of injuries and
come back to do this."

Bakken competed Feb. 19 in her hometown of Park City, Utah.
About 40 members of her family witnessed the gold medal
efforts that included a track-record time of 48.81 seconds
during the first run.

Bakken is an American bobsledding pioneer. Born in
Portland, Ore., she attended the first training camp of the
fledgling U.S. women's team in 1994 when she was a high
school junior. That made her, at 17, the youngest
bobsledder in the sport's history.

"I had a ton of relatives there. It was awesome," Bakken
said Tuesday night, admitting that she thought she was
dreaming. "They've supported me through the whole thing -
not just this race - but ever since I started sliding.

"I never really wanted to quit. There were tough times
injury-wise, but I never wanted to quit. I wanted to go the
Olympics, and now I'm here," she said.

(Master Sgt. Bob Haskell is assigned to the National Guard
Bureau Public Affairs Office, Arlington, Va. The United
States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation also contributed to
this report.)

200202202a.jpg Spc. Jill Bakken of the Utah Army National
Guard and the Army World Class athlete program was half the
U.S. bobsledding team that captured Winter Olympic gold in
Salt Lake City. The Feb. 19, 2002, victory marked the first
time since 1956 that any U.S. team has won any medal in any
Olympic bobsledding event. Photo by Petty Officer 1st class
Preston Keres, USN. (Click photo for screen-resolution
image.)

200202202b.jpg Spc. Jill Bakken of the Utah Army National
Guard (left) and her civilian brakeman-pusher Vonetta
Flowers adopt a pre-race pose before negotiating the 16-turn
Olympic bobsled track and capturing first place and gold.
Their victory Feb. 19, 2002, marked the first time America
has won a medal in any Olympic bobsledding event since 1956.
Flowers became the first African American to win a Winter
Olympic gold medal. Photo by Master Sgt. Bob Haskell,
USARNG. (Click photo for screen-resolution image.)

200202202c.jpg Vonetta Flowers (left) and Spc. Jill Bakken
power up in the push zone for their 80-mile-an-hour ride
down the Winter Olympic bobsledding track. Bakken, the
driver, and Flowers, the brakeman, won the first gold medal
presented in Olympic women's bobsledding Feb. 19, 2002.
Photo by Petty Officer 1st class Preston Keres, USN. (Click
photo for screen-resolution image.)
 

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Visit the Department of Defense "2002 Winter Olympics"
Web site at http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/olympics2002/
for the latest look at DoD’s participation in this year’s
winter games.

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