Bobsled is the perfect sport for Jean Racine.
She is driven by a single-minded focus, and in her sport there is nothing to do but hurtle relentlessly down a winding, frozen chute toward the finish line.
Racine’s personal finish line is a medal, preferably a gold one, in the inaugural Olympic women’s bobsled competition Tuesday at Utah Olympic Park.
The 23-year-old driver from Waterford, Mich., has stayed on course despite adversity that would have derailed many an athlete. There was first, and worst, the death of her mother, Cathy, in May from a failed kidney transplant.
Next came the furor that followed her decision in December to dump former best friend Jen Davidson as her brakeman in favor of former NCAA heptathlon champion Gea Johnson.
And then came the news late last month that her father, David William Racine, faced trial on charges of second-degree criminal sexual assault and child sexual-abuse activity.
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Was it any surprise she showed up for a news conference Thursday with a 102-degree fever or that her impending Olympic debut hardly seemed to faze her?
“Compared with everything I’ve dealt with, the competition will be the easiest part of it,” Racine said.
Of all these woes, it was Racine’s decision to change bobsled partners that grabbed national attention. She and Davidson not only had been the world’s top women’s bobsled team, winning the World Cup titles in 2000 and 2001, but also were best friends and the subjects of a marketing campaign that had planted them on the front of a cereal box.
They slumped early this season, however, and Davidson feared she might not even make the Olympic team–let alone beat two powerful German sleds–without someone who could push her to a faster start. She switched to Johnson shortly before the Olympic trials, and the two broke the Utah Olympic Park track record.
Many media members bashed Racine who believes her decision would have been treated differently were she a man. Male bobsled athletes often switch partners.
“I don’t think the media focuses on relationships and friendships when it comes to men, especially in sports,” she said. “I think it’s just more understood that we all have a job out there to do, and it’s easier for men to make those kind of changes than women.”
Racine said she was tempted to stay with Davidson but couldn’t sell her medal chances short, even if the switch cost her marketing deals worth thousands of dollars.
“Winning a medal is more important than those things,” she said. “I’ve been sliding for 10 years, and I’m not going to let anything stop me from trying to win a medal.”
Racine is trying to win for her mother as well as herself. Her mom scrimped and saved to further Racine’s career, even selling chocolate door to door to help send her to overseas races.
It was only when discussing the loss of her mom that Racine’s steely focus wavered and she blinked back tears.
“It’s been hard; it’s been very hard,” she said. “I’m going to continue it and do it, and not only for myself.”
Her father’s trouble, she acknowledged, was “the last straw. Just throw another issue on the table and handle it, and I have.”
Giving up, she said, is not an option.
“If you don’t give yourself the option, it’s amazing what you can handle,” she said. “I don’t give myself that option.”