Herberich Leaning Toward Continuing

While the focus was on Brian Shimer’s attempt to end the bobsled medal drought in four-man competition, Jim Herberich finished 12th in USA II. Herberich, 35 on March 8, is a Harvard graduate who works as a hydrologist with a consulting and engineering firm.

He said he was leaning toward continuing his bobsled career, “But I’m not sure I want to go through this again. It’s five or six months on the road every winter, and I’m getting a little old for that. It’s also been 13 years on tour for me, so I’m weighing that against the fact that bobsled is still very much fun and still competitive, so I’m not sure I’m done yet. But who knows? Some of the younger drivers may bump me out before I’m done.”

Herberich, however, said the U.S. is not very deep in young prospects.

“We probably have the smallest talent pool of any sport in the Olympics, not just the Winter Olympics,” he said. “That comes from being isolated like we have been without any track and not having the good Olympic results. We have a good development program and good coaches who can work with young athletes. It’s a matter of getting them out on a hill, making a lot of runs and gaining the experience. It’s possible now [with the new Olympic track] in Salt Lake. It wasn’t in Lake Placid [with its deteriorating track].

“The biggest problem is funding the new programs. We have enough competitive drivers that we can field three on the World Cup, but that really drains our budget from what we’re able to raise and we don’t really have the funding we need for development and especially the women’s program that they’re talking about coming on line in the Olympics as early as 2002. Fund-raising is the key issue.”