By Mitch Phillips
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 5 (Reuters) – The United States is the most successful skeleton nation in Winter Olympic history but with most of those medals now gathering dust, the arrival of the new mixed relay at Cortina is a timely opportunity to get back on the podium.
The two American men’s golds came in 1928 and 2002, with the solitary women’s gold also coming on home ice in Salt Lake City 24 years ago. Sochi 2014 brought a silver for Noelle Pikus-Pace and a bronze for Matthew Antoine, but they were the only medals secured in the last six Olympics.
So it was a boost for the country when Mystique Ro and Austin Florian unexpectedly won the mixed team world championship in Lake Placid last year, ending the grip of Germany who had won the previous four editions and raising hopes of a first American Olympic skeleton gold overseas for 98 years.
“I think the mixed relay is a really great opportunity to add another element to skeleton,” Ro told a news conference in Cortina on Thursday.
“We’re a very individualistic sport, but to now have a team component with another complexity that’s from my background in track and field, a reaction start, I think it’s really helpful and fun to bring the team together to try to experience something else, and it’s another medal opportunity for us.”
The pair also finished third in the World Cup this season.
“It’s obviously an event that we’ve been pretty successful at the last few years since its inception, and to go into the Olympics in the first year of it being the world champions is a pretty cool thing,” Florian said. “We’re going to try to take the momentum from that and this past season into that and try to put a good race down.”
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
Also competing in the singles is Kelly Curtis, who has got to know the Cortina track and area well after being stationed nearby in her role in the U.S. Air Force.
Curtis warmed up for the Olympics with a silver medal at the St Moritz World Cup event a month ago and is one of several Olympians balancing motherhood with her sport after having a baby in 2023.
“Everything has been working towards these Games,” she said. “When I qualified for Beijing it was my rookie season so I think my mindset this time is instead of a surprise, it was a little bit more of a relief.
“Because of the proximity of the Air Base to Cortina, I’ll have a number of colleagues, neighbours, people I’ve met throughout the past four years I’ve been in Italy come out and support and that makes it even more special.”
U.S. skeleton has been in the news in recent weeks after Katie Uhlaender appealed, unsuccessfully, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to be added to the Games as an additional athlete after she missed out on qualification points due to the withdrawal of four Canadians from a race last month.
However, director of performance and 2010 bobsleigh gold medallist Curt Tomasevicz told reporters that it was a “very complex situation” and he wanted the focus to be on the athletes at the Games.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ed Osmond)
