U.S. sleds go 2-3

The first time Aja Evans took a run down the bobsled track, a sensation she likens to being stuffed in a garbage can and pushed off a cliff, she wasn’t sure she wanted to do it again.

Her mother insisted.

“She told me to fight through it. She told me I was in this for bigger reasons than that one run,” Evans said. “And I’m so glad I listened to her.”

Two years after heeding her mother’s advice, Evans and her pilot Jamie Greubel won a bronze medal Wednesday in the women’s bobsled. Elana Meyers and Lauryn Williams joined them on the podium after winning silver, marking the first time the United States has won multiple medals in the event.

Williams became the third woman to win a medal each in the Winter and Summer Games. A former sprinter who joined the sport seven months ago, Williams won gold as part of the women’s 400-meter relay team in London in 2012 and won silver in the 100 meters in Athens in 2004.

“This has been the most exciting experience of my life, I am so happy to have fallen into bobsled,” Williams said. “Who would have thought six months ago I would be bobsledding, let alone on the podium at the Olympics?”

Americans Jazmine Fenlator and Lolo Jones finished 11th. Jones, a two-time Olympic hurdler, joined Williams as the ninth and 10th American athletes to compete in the Summer and Winter Games.

Meyers and Williams led the event after the first three heats, but driving mistakes on their final run cost them the victory. Had they held their lead, Williams would have become the first woman to win gold in the Summer and Winter Olympics.

“We gave everything we had and left it all out there,” Meyers said. “It’s about going out there and giving everything you can to fight for your country. We couldn’t be happier with that, and hopefully America will forgive me for letting gold slip away.”

Canadian pilot Kaillie Humphries, who won the event in 2010 in Vancouver, Canada, took gold again with four clean runs during the two-day competition at the Sanki Sliding Center, finishing a tenth of a second ahead of Meyers and Williams.

Greubel and Evans finished a second behind the leaders, but no one could have guessed it from the way they hugged and grinned on the podium.

“There’s no other feeling like it,” said Evans, who has been a brakeman for two seasons. “It’s overwhelming. It’s just bliss. This is what you work so hard and sacrifice so much for.”

After their final run, Evans sprinted to the stands and high-fived older brother Fred, a Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle. Her cheering section included 10 relatives, most of whom wore knit hats with her name sewn on.

A former Big Ten Conference shotput champion, Evans plans to take a break from bobsledding and return to track to compete in heptathlon.

But first things first.

“I just can’t wait to take my medal home and show everybody,” she said. “I have had so much support and that has been my driving force. It’s why I have a medal.”

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sstclair@tribune.com

Twitter: @stacystclair

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BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX

Bobsled

Two-woman

*--* G Kaillie Humphries, Heather Moyse Canada 3:50.61 S Elana Meyers, Lauryn Williams United States 3:50.71 B Aja Evans, Jamie Greubel United States 3:51.61 *--*