Guardsman finishes 6th in women’s bobsled - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Guardsman finishes 6th in women’s bobsled

WHISTLER, British Columbia — The three fastest sleds at the end of the women’s bobsled competition at Whistler Sliding Center were CAN-1, CAN-2 and USA-2.

Sgt. Shauna Rohbock didn’t pilot any of them.

Her USA-1 sled came in sixth at the Vancouver Olympics, 1.78 seconds behind CAN-1 and pilot Kaillie Humphries’ winning time of 3 minutes, 32.28 seconds over four runs.

“It wasn’t the Olympics that I dreamed of for four years, but the U.S. got a medal today and that’s amazing,” said Rohbock, a Utah National Guard soldier who won silver four years ago in Torino. “That’s awesome. That’s all I want to see, is the U.S. on the medals stand.”

Entering these Games, the 32-year-old pilot was a podium hopeful along with brakeman Michelle Rzepka. But she struggled to solve the tricky track in Whistler.

“I figured it out a little too late,” Rohbock said. “It would’ve been nice to have a few more runs on this track.”

On both Tuesday and Wednesday, USA-1’s faster run was its second run.

Turns 4 and 5 were particularly troublesome early. But on Wednesday, it was the lower portion that challenged Rohbock, who gave time back on both runs as her sled made its way down the course.

“We did everything we could do today and unfortunately it didn’t work out the way that we wanted to,” Rzepka said. “You always come in wanting to medal. But we were three sleds in the top six. Our team got the bronze medal. The North Americans were all on the podium.”

The USA-2 sled of Erin Pac and Elana Meyers took third in 3:33.40. CAN-2’s sled, piloted by Helen Upperton along with Shelley-Ann Brown, finished in 3:33.13.

USA-3 finished fifth with a time of 3:34.05.

The Canadians had upwards of 150 practice runs on the difficult course, which saw three crashes over the final two runs.

Rohbock, a member of the National Guard Outstanding Athlete Program, estimated that she had been down about 40 times over World Cup, Olympic and general practice training runs.

“I definitely felt like if I had 10 more runs I would’ve figured a lot more stuff out,” she said. “Every run I was just trying something different.”

The veteran racer will get a few more looks at the sliding center in Whistler. Next year’s World Cup circuit begins here, and Rohbock has no plans to leave the sport following these Olympics.

“I don’t think this year,” she said about possible retirement. “But I don’t know about four more.”

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