The Associated Press
The U.S. two-woman bobsled team of Jean Racine (right) and Gea Johnson is among the gold-medal favorites in the first-time Olympic event.

Women's bobsled ready for Olympic debut

U.S. program arises from simple whim

PAULINE ARRILLAGA, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

On a summer day in 1995, Stew Flaherty was working out at his gym in Westerville, Ohio, when something unusual happened. Two women struck up a conversation about bobsledding.

They'd heard that Flaherty, a financial consultant, had a knack for fund raising, and they needed funds. They quickly got to the point: Could he help develop a U.S. women's bobsled team?

The Olympics weren't even a consideration. They just wanted to compete in some international races. They had no money. No sleds. No support from the federation running the sport and, really, no team.

For some reason, Flaherty said yes.

Next week, he'll be track-side as women's bobsled makes its debut as an Olympic event.

The journey to becoming an Olympic event is hardly an easy one. It is a complicated and sometimes combative process that involves everything from gender equity and medal possibilities to worldwide popularity, the quality of competition and the costs of staging an event.

The International Olympic Committee wants something that is exciting and keeps pace with the times -- snowboarding, for example, which debuted at the 1998 Winter Games. The host committee wants something that brings more medals to the home country and doesn't cost a lot to add.

The athletes want the recognition and financial support that come with being in the Games.

There's a slew of sports -- and some events that aren't really sports -- vying for a spot at the Summer or Winter Games, everything from bridge and ballroom dancing to water skiing and sumo wrestling.

To be an Olympic event, a sport must be contested in more than 24 countries and on several different continents, and it must have a competitive world championship.

Women's bobsled fell far short of the requirements in 1995.

But no one, particularly not Flaherty, was thinking about the Olympics back then. He just wanted to help the women build a team. He went to the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation in search of money and equipment, and ran into the first of many roadblocks.

"It's like asking a starving man to share his food with you," Flaherty said. "The men were very afraid that we were going to take away what little they had."

So Flaherty found an independent sponsor and began pouring his own money into the program. Seven years and numerous hurdles later, the U.S. team is favored as women's bobsled emerges onto the Olympic stage.

"The fact we're in is a miracle," Flaherty said. "We defied the odds. We were at the right place at the right time, and we had the right combination of people.

"Yes, we're in. We're in, and we're going to deliver a quality product."

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