Germans Win as Hays Hangs It Up

For an aspiring college football coach, Todd Hays has a pretty intriguing recruiting pitch.

“Hire this poor starving Olympian and you’ll win the national title,” he said.

Hey, Pete Carroll, could you use a graduate assistant with a silver medal? Hays would love to know, because today is the first day of the rest of his life.

There was no happy ending to his bobsled career Saturday, but neither were there tears. Four years after leading the U.S. to its first bobsled medal in 46 years, Hays and his four-man team finished seventh.

Andre Lange led the German team that won, with Lange becoming the first driver in 22 years to win gold in the two-man and four-man competitions. Alexandre Zoubkov’s Russian team won the silver medal and Martin Annen’s Swiss team took the bronze, with Steven Holcomb leading the other U.S. entry to sixth.

Hays, 36, announced Friday that this race would be his last. He left, he said, with no regrets.

“I got to put on the red, white and blue,” he said. “I got to represent the greatest nation on Earth, and I got to do that three times. That is a fantastic thing. To win a medal along with it -- a boy from Del Rio, Texas, a long way from home -- I’m real proud of what I’ve done.”

Hays was every bit the Texas boy growing up -- that is, he played football. As a linebacker, he played well enough to earn a scholarship to the University of Tulsa. He would have started his coaching career 12 years ago, but he passed up a graduate assistant position at Arkansas State to try the bobsled.

It is not farfetched to say that Hays might ultimately help U.S. bobsledding more as a college football coach than as a bobsledder. He won’t intercept the guys headed for the NFL, of course. But, if he can spread the word among the thousands of college players with no pro future, the U.S. might draw from a far wider pool of bobsled prospects.

“I hope to get across to some young guys what a great opportunity this is,” he said. “I want to pass on to every young guy out there that has some athleticism that, hey, if football doesn’t work out and if track and field doesn’t work out, go give bobsled a try.”

Bobsled will never be a first choice for American athletes, not with the riches of football, basketball and baseball. In Germany and Switzerland, Hays said, bobsledders can make six-figure salaries. And what did Hays make?

“Just enough to pay the rent,” he said.

In return, he saw the world and represented his country for 12 years, enriching himself in ways a boy from Texas never dreamed. But the time has come, he said, for a career and a living.

“Michael Jordan retired,” Hays said. “Bobsledders have to find a job.”