NEBRASKA /A.P. SPORTS
NEBRASKAN MAKES SECOND BID FOR OLYMPIC MEDAL (with audio)
By John Axtell
Feb 26, 2010 - 12:30:46 AM

    Former Husker football player and Shelby native Curt Tomasevicz begins his second bid for a gold medal in the Vancouver Olympics today with the start of competition in the 4-man bobsled.

     Tomasevicz...a brakeman...and driver Steve Holcomb were 6th last weekend in the 2-man competition, but their black “Night Trainâ€� sled is one of the favorites in the 4-man event.

      They're the defending world champions...the first 4-man title for the U-S in half a century...and are the leaders this year.

     Tomasevicz is considered both one of the top bobsled pushers in the world and an oddity...the latter because he's from the flatlands of Nebraska and got interested in the bobsled only after 4 years as a walk-on Husker football player.

    The 29-year old Tomasevicz freely admits he got into bobsledding by accident...being in the right place at the right time.  He says it happened when he was looking for a new workout routine as a graduate student in Lincoln.

      Friend and former Husker hammer thrower Amanda Morely was a pusher and brakeman on the Canada women's bobsled team and suggested he try the sport and work out with her.

     Tomasevicz says he was instantly taken with the danger and thrill of the sport while his football background gave him the size, strength, and quickness to excel in it. He says most bobsled pushers are former football players or ex-track athletes.

         These are the second Olympics for Tomasevicz, whose 4-man sled finished 6th in Turin 4 years ago. He says the excitement of marching in the opening ceremonies there reminded him of  going through the tunnel at Memorial Stadium for games as a Husker.

      While bobsledding has taken Tomasevicz around the world, his heart remains in Nebraska...especially Shelby, where residents raised over $20,000 to help him keep training and competing the past 2 yearss.
  
    Tomasevicz has a number of career choices available to him after bobsledding...he holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from UNL and was 1st-team All-Academic Big 12 selection...but for now, the sport remains his focus.

     Each of the teams in the men's 4-man bobsled competition have 2 runs today and two more tomorrow, with the medals based on the combined times of the 4 runs.


© Copyright  by Double Q Country Radio