U.S. women win silver, bronze in women's bobsled
EMPEHI Star AJA EVANS WINS THE BRONZE!!!
 Silver medalists Elana Meyers (from left) and Lauryn Williams of the United States pose with bronze medalists Aja Evans and Jamie Greubel during the flower ceremony. (Al Bello / Getty Images /February 19, 2014) |
SOCHI, Russia – U.S. bobsledder Lauryn Williams pushed her way into the history books Wednesday, becoming the fifth athlete to medal in both the Winter and Summer Games.
U.S. pilot Jamie Greubel and brakeman and Chicago native Aja Evans took bronze.
A former sprinting star who won a silver medal in the 100 meters in Athens in 2004, Williams captured silver in the women’s bobsled competition with pilot Elana Meyers. The pair had the lead after the first three heats, but a few driving mistakes on the way down the track cost them the top podium spot.
If they had held their lead, Williams would have become the first woman to win gold in both Games. She joined the U.S. bobsled team in July.
"This has been the most exciting experience of my life, I am so happy to have fallen into bobsled. Who would have thought six months ago I would be bobsledding, let alone on the podium at the Olympics?” Williams said. "I didn't come here to make history, I came to help team USA and I happened to make history in the process."
Canadian pilot Kaillie Humphries, who won the event in Vancouver four years ago, took gold with four clean runs during the two-day competition at the Sanki Sliding Center. She bested her American rivals by one-tenth of a second.
When Greubel and Evans earned the bronze, marking the first time the American team has won multiple medals in the event.
“There’s no other feeling like it,” said Evans, a former Illinois track star. “It’s just bliss. This is what you work so hard and sacrifice so much for.”
Americans Jazmine Fenlator and Lolo Jones finished in 11th place. Jones, two-time Olympian in track, joined Williams as the ninth and tenth American athletes to compete in both the Summer and Winter Games.
U.S. pilot Jamie Greubel and brakeman and Chicago native Aja Evans took bronze.
A former sprinting star who won a silver medal in the 100 meters in Athens in 2004, Williams captured silver in the women’s bobsled competition with pilot Elana Meyers. The pair had the lead after the first three heats, but a few driving mistakes on the way down the track cost them the top podium spot.
If they had held their lead, Williams would have become the first woman to win gold in both Games. She joined the U.S. bobsled team in July.
"This has been the most exciting experience of my life, I am so happy to have fallen into bobsled. Who would have thought six months ago I would be bobsledding, let alone on the podium at the Olympics?” Williams said. "I didn't come here to make history, I came to help team USA and I happened to make history in the process."
Canadian pilot Kaillie Humphries, who won the event in Vancouver four years ago, took gold with four clean runs during the two-day competition at the Sanki Sliding Center. She bested her American rivals by one-tenth of a second.
When Greubel and Evans earned the bronze, marking the first time the American team has won multiple medals in the event.
“There’s no other feeling like it,” said Evans, a former Illinois track star. “It’s just bliss. This is what you work so hard and sacrifice so much for.”
Americans Jazmine Fenlator and Lolo Jones finished in 11th place. Jones, two-time Olympian in track, joined Williams as the ninth and tenth American athletes to compete in both the Summer and Winter Games.
Gold Medallist, Canada-1 two-woman bobsleigh pilot Kaillie Humphries (2nd L) and brakewoman Heather Moyse (C) celebrate with Silver Medallist, US-1 two-woman bobsleigh pilot Elana Meyers (L) and brakewoman Lauryn Williams (3rd L) and Bronze Medallist US-2 two-woman bobsleigh pilot Jamie Greubel (R) and brakewoman Aja Evans at the Women's Bobsleigh Flower Ceremony at the Sliding Center Sanki during the Sochi Winter Olympics on February 19, 2014.
JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia -- Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse had a simple approach heading into the final two runs of the women's bobsledding competition at the Sochi Olympics
Going as fast as they could, they figured, would be enough.
Oh, how right they were. Again.
The Canadians won their second straight gold medal in women's Olympic bobsled, rallying in the final two heats Wednesday night to beat the American duo of Elana Meyers and Lauryn Williams in USA-1 by 0.10 seconds. Humphries and Moyse finished a full second ahead of Jamie Greubel and Aja Evans in USA-2, the bronze winners.
Humphries was the World Cup champion this season, edging Meyers by one point.
For the Americans, there was plenty of history to savor. It was the first time two U.S. women's bobsleds medaled at the Olympics. Meyers became the first American woman with two bobsled medals. And Williams - whose entire bobsled career spans about six months - is now the fifth Olympian to medal in different events at the Summer and Winter Games.
She has a gold medal from the 4x100-meter relay in the London Olympics in 2012, as well as a silver from the 100 meters at the Athens Games eight years earlier. CBSSports.com notes that had she pulled out the victory, Williams would have become the first woman to win a gold medal in the Winter and Summer Games.
And Williams hardly seemed dissatisfied with silver in Sochi. When it was over, she wrapped herself in an American flag, jumped up and down and she and Meyers - a bronze medalist as a push athlete four years ago - smiled broadly.
Entering the second night of competition, Humphries and Moyse said the margin between first and second was irrelevant. The way they saw it, knowing time differences wouldn't allow themselves to will the sled to move any more quickly.
So they just focused on themselves.
The Americans gave them some help.
Meyers was first off the hill in the third run and a couple big mistakes - a bang into the wall here, a skid in a straightaway there - cost her time and opened the door.
Humphries and Moyse responded. The U.S. lead had been 0.23 seconds; after Canada-1's third run, the margin was more than cut in half to 0.11 seconds.
All that was a wrap entering the final heat was the bronze, with Greubel and Evans 0.76 seconds away from second place entering Run 4, but with a cushion of 0.64 seconds between themselves and fourth.
Put simply, they needed only to stay upright to win bronze. When they did that, the first to reach them to jump up and down and start the congratulatory party were Lolo Jones and Jazmine Fenlator, the USA-3 team, part of the "wolfpack" the women's team had described themselves as repeatedly in recent weeks.
Go, EMPEHI!!!
High School: A 2006 graduate of Morgan Park HS ... lettered four years for the Mustangs under coach Derrick Calhoun ... helped lead the team to the Chicago city championship in 2003 ... were runners-up from 2004-06 ...
Mustangs finished second in the state in 2004, 2005 and 2006 ... named a high school All-American three times ... holds the school record in the shot put and was the city champion in the event in 2006 ... finished fourth in the state in the 100 and seventh in the shot put in 2005 ... named the 2006 NAACP Ark-Chi Golf Club female student-athlete of the year.
Personal: Aja L. Evans ... born on May 12, 1988, in Chicago ... the daughter of Sequocaria Mallory ... has one brother, Fred, and a sister, Racheal ... brother is a rookie defensive tackle for the Miami Dolphins ... uncle is Gary Matthews, who is the former hitting coach of the Chicago Cubs ... cousin is current Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. ... undecided on a major.
Morgan Park HS Alum Closing In On Olympic Medal
Personal: Aja L. Evans ... born on May 12, 1988, in Chicago ... the daughter of Sequocaria Mallory ... has one brother, Fred, and a sister, Racheal ... brother is a rookie defensive tackle for the Miami Dolphins ... uncle is Gary Matthews, who is the former hitting coach of the Chicago Cubs ... cousin is current Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. ... undecided on a major.
Morgan Park HS Alum Closing In On Olympic Medal
Aja Evans is so close to medalling in the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
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