Codie Bascue won the first world cup medal of his bobsled career at the beginning of this season, and now he’s going to his first Olympics. Sort of.
The 23-year-old is ranked sixth in the four-man world rankings and all but ensured himself a spot on the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team by being the highest ranked American four-man sled, even with one world cup left before the Olympic team selections.
Bascue's spot on the team will become official after the USA Bobsled & Skeleton selection committee meets and then nominates the entire 2018 U.S. Olympic Bobsled Team on Jan. 15.
He is extraordinarily young for an Olympic bobsled driver, but that is because Bascue is a rarity in the sport. Instead of transitioning from a sport like track or football after college, as most American bobsled athletes do, Bascue began driving sled at the age of 8.
The Whitehall, New York, native would take trips to Lake Placid with his grandfather growing up and has been involved in the sport for most of his life.
Bascue competed at the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2012 in Innsbruck, Austria, finishing seventh with Jake Peterson.
He made his world cup debut in the 2014-15 season, and three years later began winning medals.
In November he captured a bronze medal in two-man at the first world cup of the season, then followed it up with his first-ever gold in two-man the next day in Lake Placid. He is the only American man other than Steven Holcomb to win a world cup gold medal since 2009.
The following weekend Bascue earned his first career medal in four-man, winning silver in Park City, Utah.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
