Originally from Sebring, Ohio, para bobsled athlete Barry Schroeder juggles competing, a full-time career as a paramedic and fatherhood. He has been racing on the para bobsled World Cup circuit for the past three years and was Team USA’s most consistent slider this year, finishing in the top-six in every race.
After a season that saw him win USA Skeleton National Team Trials and compete on the World Cup circuit, Greg West is preparing for another Olympic Quad as one of Team USA’s top returning men’s skeleton athletes. West, a Missouri native and former football player at Baker University, began sliding on a dare from a roommate after watching the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
Kristi Koplin was born in American Fork, Utah, just a short distance from the city that would later host the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. After moving around as a kid and a college track and field career at Southern Utah University, Koplin would make her way back to Park City, this time as a bobsled athlete.
Originally from Meridian, Idaho, skeleton athlete Andrew Blaser was a standout track and field athlete at the University of Idaho before transitioning to skeleton post-collegiately. Blaser won his first-ever international medal in his first season competing on the North American Cup (NAC) tour in 2015-2016, but this year was by far the most successful season of his career. In eight NAC races, Blaser medaled six times and finished second in the overall men’s skeleton NAC rankings behind only teammate Austin Florian.
Nathan Weber’s offseason training regimen looks different than most other athletes. It happens in places like Niger, Cameroon and Afghanistan. Instead of pushing bobsleds on a track, he makes do with trucks and ATV’s marked ‘United States Army.’ Sometimes he’s in deserts so hot he can’t lift until the wee hours of the morning because the bar will burn his hand. Other times, his workouts follow four days of sleeping in bug netting in a jungle.
Already an Olympic bronze medalist, Jamie Greubel Poser has added motivation to make it to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games — and it has nothing to do with bobsled.
Gracie Clapp-Taylor, Nathan Crumpton, Samantha Culiver, Austin Florian and Jake Miter talk about their custom helmet designs.
Portuguese Team USA bobsledder, Army veteran, and former bodybuilder Lou Moreira is working to make his first Olympic team.
Altenberg, Germany
Calgary, Canada
Koenigssee, Germany
Lillehammer, Norway
Innsbruck, Austria