There were Jean Racine and Gea Johnson, a soap opera in a sled.
And there were Sandra Prokoff and Susi-Lisa Erdmann, the seemingly unbeatable German pilots.
Whoever dreamed Jill Bakken, an afterthought in the buildup to the inaugural women’s Olympic bobsled competition, and Vonetta Flowers, a track star who had planned to retire from sports after failing to make the 2000 Summer Games, would steal the spotlight Tuesday, not to mention the first gold medal in the event?
But Bakken, known as a gifted driver who faltered in major events, and brakeman Flowers came up big on the biggest day in their sporting lives.
It topped off a day that was almost a fantasy on ice for the United States women. Michelle Kwan finished the figure skating short program in first place. Sasha Cohen and Sarah Hughes were in third and fourth place heading into Thursday’s final. And, in hockey, the U.S. women’s team took the final step to the inevitable: Their 4-0 win over Sweden put them in the final against Canada on Thursday.
Bakken and Flowers did their part, posting the fastest runs in each of the two heats at Utah Olympic Park for a total time of 1 minute 37.76 seconds, a comfortable .30 ahead of Prokoff, who finished second on the recent World Cup circuit.
Erdmann, the World Cup champion, finished third in 1:38.29. Racine and Johnson were fifth in 1:38.73.
The Bakken-Flowers victory had historic overtones. Flowers became the first African-American woman or man to win a Winter Games gold medal. And this was the first U.S. bobsled medal since an American four-man team won a bronze medal in 1956.
The two were the last sledders to race in the second heat, and when their winning time flashed on the scoreboard, it set off a wild celebration among the athletes, their coaches and fans.
Bakken, 25, a Park City resident, almost immediately hugged her mother, Peggy Smith, a single mom who once took out a second mortgage on her house to help finance her daughter’s bobsled career.
Flowers was in tears an hour later at a news conference.
“I have truly been blessed to come into this sport and pick it up so fast,” said Flowers, 28, of Helena, Ala., who got into bobsledding in 2000 when she saw an ad posted at a track meet. “My goal was the Summer Olympics. God had a different plan, and I’m grateful to be here now.”
It once seemed doubtful either athlete would ascend to the top step of the medal podium. Bakken has battled injuries throughout her career and finished just ninth on the World Cup circuit in 2000-01 and sixth this season.
By last December, she questioned whether she and brakeman and good friend Shauna Rohbock could generate the kind of starts crucial to winning an Olympic medal. She wound up teaming up with Flowers, who had been out of the sport since October after splitting with another driver.
About the same time, Racine, the 2000-01 World Cup champ, dropped best friend Jen Davidson as her brakeman after the two slipped behind Prokoff and Erdmann in this season’s World Cup races. Racine added former NCAA heptathlon champion Johnson, who was suspended in 1994 from track and field for the use of steroids.
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While Bakken escaped criticism for her brakeman switch, Racine attracted a torrent of criticism. Much of the difference in reaction came from the fact she and Davidson were objects of a major marketing campaign that emphasized their friendship.
Racine and Johnson were a medal favorite, but Johnson injured her left hamstring Saturday, and the effect was obvious in their poor starts Tuesday. Even at full strength, though, Johnson and Racine wouldn’t have caught Bakken and Flowers, who set a track record of 48.81 on their first run.
While Racine and Johnson fielded endless questions about their controversies, Bakken and Flowers were happy to escape attention until Tuesday.
Flowers said she didn’t realize African-American history was there to be made until she was asked about it.
“Hopefully this will encourage other African-American girls and boys to give winter sports a try because you don’t see too many of them out there,” she said.
Bakken, a member of the U.S. Army National Guard, joined the U.S. women’s bobsled program at its inception in 1994 as a 17-year-old high school student. She remembers when women competitors got food and soap powder as prizes at some early World Cup races. Now she hopes her gold-medal performance will generate interest among young U.S. women in bobsled.
“Having women compete in this Olympics in the States gives an opportunity for people to see what bobsled is all about,” she said.