After my hair was placed in big curlers, I stood up and saw the Gold Medal Winning Bobsledding Team.  I was so engrossed by all things bobsledding from the Olympics I rushed over -curlers and all.

Olympic Gold Medalists Steve Mesler & Curt Tomasevicz with Stephanie Oppenheim

They were extremely friendly to everyone–even letting us hold their medals (they’re heavy in case you were wondering).  I had my picture taken with two members, one was upstairs, and unfortunately I completely offended one of them by having my picture taken with them in curlers.  Sorry…really.  I’ve met lots of people in the green room over the years, but I was really excited to meet these guys.  We live in such an age of false celebrity–that meeting people who work incredibly hard and achieve their dream- it’s hard to be jaded about such an accomplishment.

I had so many questions for them – questions no one seemed to answer during the Olympic coverage.  Althought I do have to say that I had my eyes covered for most of the bobsledding, luge and skeleton events–so maybe I wasn’t listening very well either but here are a sampling of my questions.

For example–how do you decide the order in the bobsled.  (I get the driver’s skill, but I was really curious about the two in the middle). They explained that it has to do with where you can push off the best and provide the most speed to the team.   Did they feel the original track was too fast before it was adjusted?  Yes…and they thought the adjustments were very good, allowing them to focus on the race rather than survival!  Spandex…it makes them go faster. How do they train in the summer? They do other types of training to keep them in shape. My mother also asked about how many tracks there are around the world? 12.  How did they get the bobsled around — usually in a crate in a truck.

These guys were incredibly gracious and while it may sound completely corny…it made me feel really happy as an American that we were so well represented.

Here’s my picture with two of the members of the team (my hair sans curlers!)….my mother insisted I take another one to post!