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USA Bobsled caught Steven Holcomb in a state he desperately wanted to return to: jumpy and tense and ready for another World Cup gold medal to add to his name. The video posted on the team's Twitter account last Friday showed Holcomb at the finish line in Lake Placid, N.Y., watching the final two-man bobsled race.
The Park City driver, who won gold in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, paced. With each passed curve and each time update, the 35-year-old Holcomb shook his head in anticipation. He and teammate Carlo Valdes sat in first place in the first of two back-to-back World Cup stops on home soil last weekend. So when the moment of truth came, Holcomb stopped fidgeting. He leaned down to get a closer look at the monitor.
For the first time since Jan. 2014, his first-place time held up. It was Holcomb's first World Cup victory in two seasons, the last coming a few weeks before the 2014 Sochi Games, where he won two bronze medals. It was also his first medal in two years.
"Pretty much 2015 was a terrible year for me and I'm really happy to just put it behind me," Holcomb said this week. "To come back [to the U.S.] and win the first race in 2016 was just kind of overwhelming. [I] just realized that you can still do it and you do still have what it takes."
Battling injury and age and rebuilding a whole new team after his crew that proved so dominant on the World Cup circuit for years retired after Sochi, Holcomb questioned if his time was up.
"You wonder," he said, "if you're washed up, or if it's over."
The most-seasoned American bobsled driver said all he needed was one win. A gold to get back on track. For his frame of mind, for the next race, to prove to the newcomers on the team he's now surrounded with in both the four-man and two-man bobsled that it can be done.
It's now out of the way. Or so he hopes.
Holcomb and USA Bobsled & Skeleton return to Utah Olympic Park this weekend for the BMW IBSF World Cup stop in Park City with two four-man bobsled races Friday and Saturday. Now that momentum he's been craving the past two seasons is back — at least in some form.
The win presented perspective for Holcomb, too. A micro-tear in his Achilles he suffered in Sochi lingered. He wasn't able to prepare for the World Cup season the way he usually does. That led to an early-season quadriceps injury in 2015 that slowed him.
"When you get hurt, you always question, 'What am I doing?' " Holcomb said. "But at the same time, a bad day of bobsledding is better than anything else."
In his 18th season, Holcomb turns 36 in April. Preparation for each season — and each Olympic Games — takes a bit longer than it used to. With age comes adaptation, which he admits he's done since Sochi.
Looking ahead to Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018, Holcomb says the elusive two-man gold medal is what calls to him. He piloted the first two-man U.S. medal sled in 62 years two years ago in Sochi when he won bronze.
But gold?
"That's kind of the one I'm looking for," he said. "But at the same time, I'm good at this, I love it, why would I stop? It took me this long to get to this point, why would I just all of a sudden stop doing this?"
After the times in Lake Placid were official last weekend and Holcomb and Valdes had won, the team swarmed Holcomb in celebration. That experience is what he wants to permeate into this weekend in Park City, into the rest of the World Cup season and into the future.
"This is how we used to do it almost every race," he said. "Now it's in their minds."
Twitter: @chriskamrani —
A look at Steven Holcomb
Position • Driver of four-man USA Bobsled team
Age • 35
Hometown • Park City, Utah
Getting back on track • 2015-2016 World Cup four-man finishes: 18th in Winterberg, Germany, 12th in Koenigssee, Germany and 8th last weekend in Lake Placid, N.Y., but won first World Cup race since Jan. 2014 in two-man event last weekend in Lake Placid.
Accolades • Gold medal in four-man bobsled in 2010 Olympic Games, bronze medal in four-man bobsled and a bronze in two-man bobsled, won four World Cup gold medals in both four-man and two-man bobsled in 2013-14 season, a four-time World Champion —
Bobsled & Skeleton World Cup
Utah Olympic Park, Park City
Friday, Jan. 15
11 a.m. • Women's bobsled
6 p.m. • 4-person bobsled
Saturday, Jan. 16
11 a.m. • Women's skeleton
Noon • Men's skeleton
5 p.m. • 4-person bobsled