"THE SPIDERMEN" BOBSLEIGH TEAM

In 1991 I was on a surveillance operation relating to a substantial heroin seizure we had made in Sydney. I had just finished a lengthy night shift and was preparing to head home for a sleep when my pager went off. It was a message from the AFP switch to call Athletics NSW. I wondered what they wanted to speak to me about. I called them back immediately and was told it was courtesy call because they’d been approached by Bobsled Australia asking for help to identify potential athletes who might be interested in trying a new career in bobsleigh. Athletics NSW had been given criteria for athletes that they were seeking, and they thought I was someone Bobsleigh Australia should speak to.

In the 1988 Calgary games the Jamaican bobsled team captured the world’s attention. A lot of the guys who were in the inaugural Australian team who competed in those Olympics made Australia proud, but unfortunately a number would fail drug tests following those games and the team was decimated. I know a few of those guys who were suspended, and I believe they inadvertently took supplements that they didn’t know illegal in sport. Of course, this isn’t an excuse but an ameliorating element. It wasn’t a systemic drug program; they were just naïve in my opinion.

A day or so later I received a call from John McDonald of Bobsleigh Australia who invited me to go to the AIS in Canberra for some tests to determine if I was suitable to be considered for the national team. I was recovering from a hamstring injury, I tore it playing rugby, but he said to come down anyway. Years earlier, 1981 I had unsuccessfully applied for the first intake of athletes to the AIS. I would later learn that the inaugural coach – Merv Kemp- didn’t think I had what it took to be an elite athlete, but those words would haunt me and subsequently fuel me for much of my life. I thought, this was my chance, and it came to me, I didn’t go looking for it! I arrived at the AIS and marveled at the facilities that reminded me of what I had access to whilst on scholarship at the University of Hawaii. There were five other guys there to undertake the same tests and we all quickly got to work getting to know one another. We were subjected to a battery of tests – starts, stuff on the exercise bike and weightlifting - and afterwards we watched a film on bobsleigh. We would go onto meet again a few weeks later in Adelaide where we would I would see my first sled-well not really- it looked like a sled but looked more like a very large billycart. We would go down to the then Australian Formula One Grand Prix track and practice loading- the technique of pushing to cart off then timing our entry into the sled. We had a fun weekend, but I didn’t think anything more of potentially making the team so returned home and resumed playing rugby, but I did take home some VCR copies of the tape we watched just in case.

Less than a month later I was heading to Sydney to meet my new team and was off to Calgary, Canada to prepare, train and compete in the first 1991-92 World Cup event.

Bobsledding is an interesting sport, invented by the Swiss in the late 1860s. In this strange and dangerous sport, teams run alongside a sled as they push it toward a hill, jump inside just before gravity takes over, and compete for the best run times down contoured tracks. The sleds used to be made of wood, but they're now made of fiberglass and steel. In the early days there were no weight limits so it wasn’t unusual to see competitors weighing more than 140kg competing as the heavier the sled the faster it would go. Bobsleighing is an incredibly dangerous sport and there were numerous crashes and deaths in the early years. Common sense prevailed an weight limits were imposed on the sleds and team. For me this made things difficult as I would have to seriously watch my weight and couldn’t go above 113kg in body weight.

The name bobsled comes from the bobbing of the crews to increase speed at the start of the race. The first club was started in 1897, but the sport was added to the Olympics in 1924 in Chamonix with the four-man race. The two-man race was added in 1932 at the Lake Placid Games. The first woman's Olympic event, however, wasn't held until 2002 at Salt Lake City. Runs are timed electronically to the 100th of a second. Four runs take place over two days, and the fastest aggregate time of those decides the final ranking.

I took time off work, used up all my leave, and we competed at Calgary before following the World Cup circuit all around Europe. It was a great experience, and I had a great time. We had the Australian Olympic qualification details to be selected for the 1992 Olympics at Albertville and the criteria was you had to place in the top 16 in at least one World Cup event, and we’d eventually meet that standard at the World Cup Event in Winterberg, Germany where we finished 16th. We were over the moon, so excited and couldn’t believe that a bunch of novices has made it and would be heading to our first Olympic Games. We were selected in the 1992 Winter Olympic Squad, measured for our uniforms, underwent media training, completed media commitments, learnt about the Olympic Team obligations, behavior requirements and the like and best of all got to meet other potential team members. For me it was the most surreal feeling and one of absolute euphoria. In late 1991 those feelings went up in flames when the team was officially advised by the Australian Olympic Committee that we were not considered “top 16” criteria at the games and were advised we wouldn’t be selected, it was gut-wrenching . . . we weren’t the best team, but we were far from the worst, and we were competitive. I had invested so much, and my windfall was taken from me and my team members.

We were lucky because John McDonald funded the purchase of the teams sled. It was about the same time when the wall came down in Germany, so we were one of the first teams that were able to access the old East German Dresden sleds, they were the ones who fifty-years-or-so earlier manufactured the aircraft for the German Luftwaffe. The sleds, combined with the steroids they pumped into their athletes, made them unbeatable.

A sled cost $30,000 in the 1990s, they were made of carbon fibre and very schmick. Although your work as an athlete in Bobsleigh lasts less than 5 seconds in the push component, but this sport is hard work. It was hard work because you’d get to an event, you unload everything and spend the next two nights polishing your runners – wet and dry sandpaper– you must get them pretty smooth, so you spend ours and hours doing that. You then do your walkthrough the track, that’s a priority for the pilot but as the brakeman and member of the crew you need to know where you’re on the track so that should you crash, you can try and right the sled. You also need to know where the corners are, because as a crewman, a person in the sled, you’re trying to maintain body neutrality, so while you have that burst of energy at the beginning for 40-50 metres, to get in you have to hold control your breath and movement because any slight movement will potentially knock the sled of its spine. You count the corners because at the back of the sled you need to know when to get up and brake. 90 percent of the time it is a free ride, but on those times when you went over . . . if it was a high slide crash the downside was if the people running the event didn’t have a rope in place to catch you. It was a slow, but torturous run that was a terrible burn on your head, back and shoulders. If it’s a downside crash at maximum speed the danger was it could really hurt – the one thing you don’t do is kick out of the sled because if you don’t cross the line with the entire crew intact you’re disqualified. I’ve seen teams that have crashed and one member dangling out the back of the sled trying his best to hold on with one arm – that is sufficient to not to be disqualified.

We were so fortunate that BMW sponsored us so we’d get a new car whenever we arrived in Germany, the coach would take that and I would drive the truck which was a huge responsibility because we had $60,000 worth of sleds – a 4 man and a 2 man in the back - so I got to drive around Europe. It’s not a glamourous life but it taught me how to be disciplined and to remain humble and frugal.

The first time I went down a track was in Calgary. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. We hit 130km/h and on ice and you felt the wind screaming past your ears. I’d never been to a bobsled track before, but I remember I could hear the bobsled rushing down the track … like thunder. It’s an adrenaline-junkies sport. Running and entering is a technique in itself. There is no room for error, the slightest bump can set the sled of it’s tracks and into a tip. The shoes you wear have hundreds of spikes at the top of them and you wear only lyrcra and there is always the threat that you could gouge your own leg or that of a teammate.

The crowds were incredible, they ring cow bells and create a great atmosphere. It is the combination of athletic performance and mental ability at its highest level. It’s akin to trying to play chess while you’re running a marathon. For me, I had never considered finding myself in this sport and what a sport. I pinched myself over and over-yep it was real.

We got to know Prince Albert of Monaco on the circuit. Prince Albert liked the Australians and in typical Australian style we were so laisse fair with him. We would address him as Prince Bert, to shorten his name in the Aussie way. Whenever he saw us, he’d give a cheery ‘How’s my Skippy’s today?’ His whole team was made up of his personal protection team – so they were brutes of athletes and very protective of him, but he’d often shoe them away when he’d walk over to chat with us. He was also great to us … this was the time when the Americans went nuts and they recruited Olympian Edwin Moses and Willie Gault and NFL player Herschel Walker – and they had an amazing team. No-one could do what Edwin Moses could in running off the sled and the power they possessed was awesome. They blew everybody off the track with their physical capabilities and you had an Olympic gold medallist, Super Bowl champions all in the one sled – and then you have us.

When we were in Canada, I befriended a bloke named Charles R. Poliquin who was helping the Canadian team with their strength training. Charles was a humble yet amazingly knowledgeable person in human strength and speed. We would spend time in the gym and her personally coached me and wrote me some programs. His techniques were nothing id experienced then and even to this date. We’d continue to communicate even when I left the sport. Over the decades since Charles produced hundreds of medallists across 17 different sports including 28 medallists across Winter and Summer Olympics, as well as athletes from the NBL, NHL, and NFL. He is known worldwide for producing faster and stronger athletes. As the creator of Poliquin Performance Center, Charles spent years teaching coaches worldwide a better way of getting results with their clients. Now as Strength Sensei he shares his acquired knowledge and wisdom with the emerging leaders in the strength and conditioning field. Now after decades of disciplined research and training he has refined his craft so he can educate the dedicated few who want to maximize their learning so they can bring their results back to their athletes

By mid-1993 I had used up all my leave from the AFP and requested consideration to be supported with leave to allow me to aim for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway. The AFP wasn’t as flexible back then, as they are now, and I was only a constable so held no sway. I did what I could, we did a couple of events including a push competition in Monaco with Prince Albert. and we got in and my daughter Emily was born in 1993. I didn’t have the support at work, not at home to continue extended periods away from work and home so made the tough decision to withdraw from the team. I would watch with such pride those guys walk into the 1994 Olympics knowing that I could have been there, but it wasn’t to be. I was so pleased to see them compete and do so with gusto and precision. Some of the guys would go on and repeat into the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. For me, I no longer had to diet and would move into the sport of Strongman. They say things happen for a reason. I believe missing the 1992 Olympics led validated that statement.