Erin Pac earns a bronze medal in women’s bobsled

Reporting from Whistler, Canada — 

The lineage of women’s Olympic bobsled only goes back to 2002, but in eight years, U.S. women have never been left off the podium.

Erin Pac kept the string alive with a bronze-medal effort Wednesday night, showing poise and consistency while ignoring the pain of a strained hamstring.

Her four-run time of 3 minutes 33.13 seconds put her just behind Canadians Kaillie Humphries, who gave her country its seventh gold medal of the Winter Games, and Helen Upperton. Germany was kept off the podium for the first time.

“Any medal is not a disappointment,” Pac said. “We focused on four good runs. We wanted gold, but we’re happy with bronze.”

Before the third run, Humphries said she wanted to drive her sled “more like a Ferrari and less like a John Deere tractor,” then made good on it by breaking her own track record. She led the competition wire to wire, increasing her advantage with every run and finishing a whopping 0.85 seconds ahead of Upperton.

“They know the track and they should have medaled,” said Pac, alluding to the massive difference in training time the Canadians had over other competitors.

Bree Schaaf, pilot of USA-3, was fifth (3:34.05) and 2006 silver medalist Shauna Rohbock finished sixth (3:34.06).

In her four years of driving, Pac, of Farmington, Conn., always has been in Rohbock’s shadow. As a pilot, she has three career World Cup medals; Rohbock has the same number -- two of them gold -- this season.

Pac drove her cobalt blue sled with authority, finding good lines and compensating for her mistakes. Her injured hamstring, which she said was “pretty sore,” didn’t seem to slow her. With brakeman Elana Meyers as the engine, she had the second-best start times in three of four races.

But with the silver medal within her grasp, Pac had a slow fourth push and miscalculated a small transition midway down the track. That allowed Upperton, who had the best start, to cruise to the silver (3:33.13).

After a night in which every sled made a clean run, the final included several crashes, perhaps none as scary as the one by Germany’s Cathleen Martini.

Trying to make up time in her final run, Martini steered too high in the most dangerous stretch of track and dumped her sled. It careened down the ice chute, the force breaking off a piece of sled and throwing brakeman Romy Logsch free.

Defending Olympic champion Sandra Kiriasis of Germany, who finished fourth, burst into tears and covered her eyes. Both women walked away shaken but seemingly unharmed.

For Martini, the crash must have been a grim reminder of the 2004 accident that killed her brakeman, Yvonne Cernota, as she was learning to drive at Koenigsee, Germany.

Britain’s Nicola Minichiello also could not handle the three-curve combination and crashed and flipped in a spark-filled ride to the finish line. The next run, it was Russia-2 that tipped over in the same spot.

Three four-man crews have dropped out of the competition, which begins Friday. Netherlands pilot Edwin van Calker withdrew Wednesday, citing a “lack of confidence” in being able to safely steer to the bottom.

candy.thomson

@baltsun.com