|
Chris Fogt (rhymes with vote) from Alpine ran track for UVSC where he set five school records. He had never thought of being on a bobsled team until last year when he was at a meet at BYU and was approached by two men in black fleece with the Olympic rings on them.
"I had just won a race when these guys came up and asked me if I had ever been bobsledding," he said. "They were recruiters from the Olympic Bobsledding Committee."
The six-foot athlete qualified for the requirements for a Olympic bobsledder: tall, muscular and fast. Fogt was all set to go into the Army to fulfill the obligation of his ROTC scholarship when he graduates this year from UVSC as a first lieutenant.
He was intrigued with the possibility of bobsledding, especially when the recruiters told him he would most likely qualify for the World Class Athlete Program where he could train for the Olympics and get paid what he would have gotten in the Army. He decided to go for it.
He trained with the team at Park City where he competed in the World Cup. He went to Lake Placid, N.Y., then to Europe for the next World Cup competitions.
"We came in 11th worldwide but we qualified," he said.
He said his first run down the bobsled track was frightening but exhilarating.
"It was bumpy and we were rocking back and forth," he said. "About half way down I thought I would just jump out. Then I looked up. We were going about 80 miles an hour so I decided to stay in until we got to the bottom. It's fun now. I love it."
He is one of three 'push athletes' who along with the driver make up the four-man team.
"I am the last man in so I pop down the push bars on the side and put on the brakes at the end." The team does dry runs to get the sequence of pushing and jumping into the sled down to a precision maneuver.
"You jump in and put your feet on the pegs on the side of the guy in front of you and tuck your head into the middle of his back and go."
His shoes alone cost $400 and weigh four pounds. They have between 200 and 300 short, sharp nails closely clustered on the front of the sole.
"These things can draw blood," he said. The shoes come with an outside shoe which he wears if not actually competing.
He also wears a 'burn vest' which covers his shoulders. "It helps from getting burned if you crash but you can still get burns even then," he said. The only time he wrecked was in Park City.
"The trick is to get out of the way of the other guys," he said. "It is just a mess of arms and legs sliding together down the ice at high speeds. It's not pretty."
His father, Bill Fogt, said, "He is a hard worker. He was recruited by BYU and Utah State but decided on UVSC. He works out extensively weight lifting and sprinting."
There are 10 U.S. teams competing to go to the Olympics. Each team has to make a certain number of points in the World Cup competitions to qualify. If the team makes it they will compete in Vancouver, Canada in 2010 and probably go on to Russia for the 2014 Winter Olympics. "My driver told me I have a pretty good chance of making it," he said.
However, now he has gotten acquainted with bobsledding he wants to try the skeleton.
"Your face is just five inches away from the ice," he said. "That sounds like fun."
Spoken like a true athlete. |
