Todd Hays, newfound retirement

Olympic silver medalist bobsledder Todd Hays has returned home to Lake Placid, N.Y., where he is trying to make sense of his newfound retirement. 

Hays was hoping to compete in his fourth Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver next month, but he suffered a head injury during a training session last month in Winterberg, Germany, which forced the 40-year-old to end his 15-year career as a bobsled pilot. The injury, first diagnosed as a concussion, was actually an intraparenchymal hematoma, a life-threatening condition involving bleeding into the soft tissues of the brain. 

 

“When the doctor told me that I couldn’t come back, I was shocked,” Hays said. 

“I’ve had many crashes, blows to the head. I’ve taken some shots in football, never really like this, but I felt like, I didn’t think this one of the worst ones. I just thought it would take a little time and I’d recover.”

 

A “little time” will turn out to be almost four months. Hays, a former college football player at the University of Tulsa and the kick boxing national champion in 1993, has followed a strict regimen of rest and relaxation since his diagnosis. A final CT scan is scheduled for March 2. At that point Hays’s doctors will know if the lifelong athlete can resume such everyday activities as jogging and weightlifting. 

 

Hays said the symptoms of his injury are much more subtle than the diagnosis. 

 

“When you feel OK, you’re really not OK, which is something you’re not used to as an athlete,” he said. 

 

The accident occurred on a rainy, foggy day during a World Cup training session in Winterberg. Training runs were halted temporarily after the incident. Hays’s three pushers were not hurt in the crash. 

 

Ranked ninth in the World Cup standings prior to the accident, Hays’s sleds were the third best of the American teams behind drivers Steven Holcomb and young upstart John Napier. 

 

Since his injury, Hays has focused his energy on getting another third American sled into the Olympics. He has worked closely with driver Mike Kohn, serving as an unofficial coach to the 37-year-old and his teammates. Kohn won a bronze medal in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games as a pusher for driver Brian Shimer. 

 

On Sunday, The U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation named Kohn to the Olympic team. 

 

“Mike has fallen right into the World Cup mix,” Hays said. “John Napier and my team are pretty much home free right now, but Mike has his work cut out still. It’s been real tense for Mike. It’s a nerve-racking time of year and of their careers. These guys have put their lives on hold and dedicated everything to this and it’s coming down to the wire right now.”

 

Though his role as a national team coach remains unofficial, Hays hopes to change that one day.

“I’ve come to love this sport,” Hays said. “I really enjoy coaching and being around on race day and all those fun things. The plan right now is to stay involved. Hopefully I can become a part of the U.S. program in a more official role in the future.”

 

After being away from bobsledding for only a few weeks, Hays already is missing certain aspects of the sport, like the electricity of race days and the camaraderie of his teammates. Hays has followed their progress during the European World Cup events closely online. He calls himself the U.S. team’s “biggest cheerleader” and he said he will always be their most supportive fan no matter what the future holds for him as a coach. 

 

Hays would love to watch his friends and teammates compete in Vancouver, but that trip will depend on factors outside of his control. Hays would need to be cleared for travel by his doctors and he would somehow need to secure credentials from the U.S. Olympic Committee. 

 

“I’d like to be there, but I don’t know if the opportunity will present itself,” Hays said. 

 

Hays said he actually is OK with the forced retirement is actually OK. It is easier for him to step away as a competitor since he has enjoyed a lengthy, highlight-filled bobsledding career. 

 

Hays’s 2002 Olympic silver medal in the four-man bobsled event ended a 46-year Olympic medal drought by the U.S. men’s bobsled team. He followed his Salt Lake City medal with silver and bronze World Championship performances in 2003 and 2004. He finished seventh in two-man and four-man bobsled at the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games and then took a year off from the sport before returning in 2008 to start preparing for Vancouver.

 

Bobsled driving wasn’t Hays first, or even his second, athletic endeavor. Hays was a linebacker in college. He tried out for the Canadian Football League, but his background in jujitsu and martial arts led him to a kickboxing national title. With money raised from a prestigious 1995 No-Holds-Barred martial arts tournament, Hays bought his first sled and started his career as a bobsled pilot. 

 

“It’s not like my sporting career was cut short in my youth or something,” Hays said. “My silver medal, I’ll always have that. Some athletes walk away with nothing, and that would be a lot harder deal with. My family, they realize what a great time I’ve had. Now it’s my time to move on.”

 

Move on, yes, but to where?

 

“I like having a goal and a challenge in front of me, I’ve always been that way,” Hays said. “Now I just have to figure out what the next goal’s going to be.”

 

 Story courtesy  HYPERLINK "http://www.redlineeditorial.com" Red Line Editorial, Inc. Annabelle Tometich is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of any National Governing Bodies.

 

Tags: Annabelle Tometich, Brian Shimer, John Napier , Mike Kohn, Todd Hays, USA Ski & Snowboard, Vancouver 2010, Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games