Guard takes silver

Guard Athlete takes Home Silver in Women's Bobsled
Torino, Italy - Spc. Shauna Rohbock, a member of the Utah Army National Guard, won Silver in the Women’s Bobsled competition as the pilot of USA-1 at the XX Winter Olympics on Tuesday.

Rohbock, who is in the National Guard Outstanding Athlete Program, completed the competition at Cesana Pariol in the Italian Alps with a four-run combined time of 3 minutes, 50.69 seconds – .71 seconds behind the Gold medal winner.

“I’m ecstatic and I hope our Four-Man team can pull one out too,” Rohbock said.

Ranked third in World Cup points for Bobsled, the administration specialist is a former bobsled brakeman and was an alternate to the U.S. Bobsled team for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. For this year’s Games Valerie Fleming joined her on USA-1 to operate the brakes.

“We got together in 2003,” Rohbock said. “She’s not just a teammate but a best friend as well.”

I have all the confidence in the world of Shauna,” added Fleming.

Because she has competed against most of the other women in the bobsled circuit, Rohbock understood she had to be at her best if she was going to win a medal at the Olympics. Before her first run, she watched Germany-1 set a new track record of 57.16 and Canada-1 put up a new push record of 5.16. She answered with a 5.28 push and a run time of 57.37 and closed the night with a two-run total of 1:55.02.

“It’s amazing after the first day to be sitting in third place,” she said. “I know if I have two more good, consistent runs and get down a little bit on that start, I can be right up there on the medal stand.”

Tuesday, the National Guard athlete got her wish. She opened the evening’s competition by sliding one of the straightest lines of the event. Her push time for run three was 5.30. She slid solidly into second place with a run time of 57.78.

Germany-1 kept the heat on, though. That team’s run time of 57.34 helped them extend their lead to .53 seconds. On her final run, Rohbock’s slid solidly into second with a push of 5.31 and a run time of 57.18.

Sixteen sleds from 10 countries started the competition – 15 finished. Sandra Kiriasis and Anja Schneiderheinze of Germany won Gold with a four-run time of 3:49.98. Gerda Weissensteiner and Jennifer Isacco put down a combined time of 3:51.01 to win Bronze for Italy.