While the two-woman bobsled team of Orem's Shauna Rohbock and Park City's Valerie Fleming was elated over winning silver medals at the Cesana Pariol, Italy, track, Salt Lake City speedskater Chad Hedrick seemed more interested in continuing his cold war with teammate Shani Davis of Chicago than celebrating his second medal of the Turin Games.

"I think I've lost my edge a little," Hedrick said in a joint news conference with Davis in Turin after adding bronze in the 1,500 meters to the gold he won in the 5,000 on Feb. 11.

Hedrick still seemed miffed over the fact that Davis refused to compete in the four-man team pursuit last week, leaving Hedrick with a subpar cast that failed to make it past the semifinal round.

The native Texan said he "felt betrayed" by Davis, who eventually walked out of Tuesday's news conference.

No amount of adversity could stand in the way of Rohbock's and Fleming's accomplishment.

When she was replaced four years ago by Vonetta Flowers as Jill Bakken's brakewoman, then watched Bakken and Flowers go on to win the first Olympic gold medal in women's bobsled, Rohbock didn't pout or give up.

She made up her mind to take control of her destiny and become a driver.

And when her brakewoman, Fleming, developed back problems that until Saturday had U.S. team officials uncertain whether she could compete, Rohbock didn't panic. She stuck by her partner and now they are sharing a spot on the podium.

Going head-to-head against two of the most distinguished women sliders in history - Sandra Prokoff Kiriasis of Germany and Gerda Weissensteiner of Italy - didn't intimidate Rohbock. She finished right between them.

Even the prospect of being deployed to Iraq in 2003, something that would have rendered this Olympic medal impossible, didn't deter her from following orders. She's a soldier, after all.

About the only thing she was afraid of was talking to her dad, Charles, on the eve of Tuesday's final two heats, which she and Fleming entered in third place.

"I talked to him the night before and he couldn't even get off the phone, he was crying so hard," Rohbock said. "I told him I wouldn't call him last night because I knew it would turn into a bawl-fest."

They can cry all they want now.

Rohbock and Fleming put together two solid runs Tuesday. They could not catch the No. 1 German sled, driven by 2002 Winter Olympic silver medalist Kiriasis, who pulled away to win the event by 0.71 seconds.

But they held off a hard charge by the 37-year-old Weissensteiner, the 1994 gold medalist in luge.

"For Shauna to do this is unbelievable," said U.S. women's bobsled coach Bill Tavares. "Four years is not a long time to be driving [a bobsled] and to win a medal. A lot of people don't really realize what she just accomplished today." Rohbock doesn't know how she got so good so fast.

But No. 2 U.S. sled driver Jean Racine Prahm, who jumped three spots in Tuesday's heats to finish sixth, does.

"We knew Shauna was going to be a good driver from the day we saw her get into the front of a sled," said Prahm. "She's just a natural athlete in all respects. I've never seen anyone pick up this ability as quickly as Shauna has."

After growing up in Provo, she went to Brigham Young University, where she played soccer competed in the heptathlon for the track and field team.

She later played professional soccer in San Diego until the league folded. So she turned to bobsled, serving as a brakewoman for three years.

But she didn't particularly like that position. And when Bakken opted to go to the Salt Lake Olympics with Flowers instead of her, Rohbock made up her mind to make sure she was in charge and started driving.

A year later, she was at a World Cup event in Lake Placid, N.Y., when her career nearly came to an end. She got a call saying her unit in the Utah National Guard was being called up. They were going to Iraq. She flew home the next day and was sent to Fort Carson, Colo., for two weeks of training before being shipped out.

But a pre-departure physical examination showed she had a torn rotator cuff, probably suffered while playing pro soccer. That kept her out of Iraq but not out of a bobsled.

I f she had been deployed, Rohbock said, "I would have tried to come back [to bobsledding], but as a driver that would be pretty impossible . . . Taking a year off after I only had one year as a driver, there would have been no chance [to continue] because you don't get to train in the summer, and the runs I would have missed would've been very important."

Rohbock hopes other soldiers will be inspired by seeing her draped in the American flag.

"We have the most beautiful flag and I want to show everybody that flag," she said. "I'm excited to be a civilian and a soldier . . . I just hope it lifts the spirits of the soldiers out there. It's the greatest thing to win a medal for your country."

- Kurt Kragthorpe contributed to this story