Former Gator Steve Mesler Goes For Gold In Torino
Monday, February 20, 2006 | Men's Track and Field
By Mike Vietti, UF Sports Information
Steve Mesler likes to say his life is where it's at because of "dumb luck."
Turns out, "luck" just might be a whole lot smarter than he thought.
After graduating from Florida, THE proverbial question struck Mesler like any of the javelins he so often launched from his hand: "What I am going to do now?"
For Mesler, "luck" answered his inquisitiveness with a notion so far-fetched that his ensuing success almost seems like a foregone conclusion because of the initial absurdity.
On Friday, Mesler will begin his quest for an Olympic Gold Medal. But the former decathlete has long since turned in his pole vault, his discus, his cleats and his shot put. Now, he furnishes a sleek helmet, a burn suit, a pair of gloves and an aerodynamic sled capable of speeds faster than 80 miles per hour.
Mesler and the rest of the team from USA 1 will begin competition at the Torino Games in the four-man bobsled on Friday at 5:30 p.m. Torino time (coverage will air on NBC on Friday at 8 p.m. ET).
"I've been waiting four years for it," Mesler said. "I'm pretty excited to say the least."
In less than six years, Mesler has gone from not knowing what to do with his life to a two-time Olympian after serving as an alternate at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. But his trip to Italy will likely be more worthwhile. Since the 2002 Games when the U.S. ended a 46-year medal drought by claiming the Silver, Mesler and his teammates, which includes one of the top drivers in the world in Todd Hayes, have enjoyed tremendous success on the bobsled Word Cup circuit. In fact, they're among the favorite to contend for a Gold Medal.
"Our goal is to win - without question," said Mesler, a pusher on the team. "We've prepared for this for the last four years. As a team, we just have to do what we've done to get to this point and things will take care of themselves.
"Right now, we're seen as an established threat," he said. "The U.S. had a lot of World Cup success in the 90s, but not in the Olympics. Now, we've got arguably the fastest four-man sled in the world. It's a credit to the people who've been involved in the past as well as now. We're mentioned along with Germany, Switzerland, Canada and Russia as one of the five countries right now who are dominating."
While the tables have clearly turned for the U.S. in the bobsled, so too have they for Mesler. A decathlete at Florida who migrated from Buffalo, N.Y., and still ranks sixth in school history (6,817 points), Mesler suffered through nagging injuries and never quite reached his potential.
After graduating from UF with honors and a degree in sport and exercise sciences in 2000, he toiled for months not knowing what to do. At first, he worked in the University Athletic Association. Then as a substitute teacher, a personal trainer and a high school track coach - some all at the same time.
After surfing on the internet one day, Mesler read about a bobsledding camp in San Diego in 2001 and thought, "Why not?"
Not quite the same as his mother's reaction.
"Just get a job!" - that's the first thing she said. I told my parents it'd just take a year and if it didn't work out, I'd move on," Mesler said. "My parents have always been there for me. They took me to Junior Olympic meets ever since I was 10 years old and those were the only vacations we had - taking me and my sister to track meets. They watched me struggle a little at Florida and they were ready to see me move on with my life."
"Luck" dictated otherwise. Though smaller than most of the hulking figures who typically serve as pushers, Mesler fit in.
And he was good. So good, in fact, that he was the alternate in the 2002 Olympics. From substitute teacher to Olympian in less than a year - not too shabby.
Mesler still remembers the 2002 Games like a wide-eyed child visiting Disney World for the first time.
"At the opening ceremony," Mesler said, "we were about a third of the way into the U.S. delegation, so we could hear the announcement of the U.S. team and the explosion of the crowd afterward. It's still pretty vivid in my mind.
"It was just four or five months after September 11 and the country hadn't been filled with that much nationalistic pride for decades, if not more," he said. "To get to be a part of that at home and in front of everybody was unbelievable."
Though he didn't compete in Salt Lake City, Mesler knew that "luck" had found his calling for him. In four years, he's grown accustomed to the lifestyle of a bobsledder.
Each year, in mid-April, Mesler begins training for a month in San Diego. There are only three bobsled tracks in North America, one of which is in Calgary where Mesler lives in a house and trains from mid-May through the beginning of the World Cup season in October. The team travels the globe until after the World Championships in February. Mesler then has about six weeks off before he starts the process all over again.
Like the life of a bobsledder, the sport as a whole is a completely different enterprise in Europe than in North America.
"The viewer ship for the World Cup races last year was over 200 million people in Europe," Mesler said. "In some countries, Germany especially, people are waiting for you at hotels for autographs and it's pretty neat in that respect. In the U.S., when it comes time for the Winter Games, you have your 15 minutes and that's about it."
Mesler, who wants to become a driver for the next 4-8 years, will have plenty of opportunity for more than 15 minutes. And it all stems from his first trip down the track. Like every bobsledder, Mesler can talk for hours about his first time: Park City, Utah in 2001.
"The driver goes over everything with you ahead of time - curve one goes left, curve four goes left, curve six goes right - you're positive that you know these things," Mesler said. "The first curve turns to the left and then it disappears. But you know there's about a mile of ice past there. As a push athlete, you have to know where you're going. You have to be aware of the turns and the finish because if you don't pull the brakes, you fall off the end of the track and that's no fun.
"At Park City, curve four is like somebody stuck a piece of dynamite at the back of the sled and lit it because the bottom drops out and you're gone," he said. "You think that was curve five and maybe that was curve six and before you know it, you have no idea where you are. The G forces start to take over - four or five Gs on most tracks. My guts wanted to go through the bottom of the sled and lay on the ice to get some rest. All of a sudden the driver slaps you on the head with his elbows so that you pull the breaks. You're just amazed that you finished and are still alive. You can't really recognize what happened. You're so sensory overloaded that you can't digest everything. But I loved it. And I wanted to know how much longer until we could do it again."
Despite his immediate love for the sport, he did have a few doubts.
"Every now and then you get out there on the hill and it's minus 20 degrees and you're moving 500-pound sleds around and you think, "What am I doing?" Mesler said. "But then you're back in the hotel by noon because training's in the morning and you have the rest of the day."
And, as incredible as the perfectly executed trips down the track are, there's also the alternative.
"I've never been so scared in my life as the first time the bobsled went over," said Mesler, who has crashed twice in the last four years. "The sled weighs 450-500 pounds, but you've also got the weight of the guys in the sled. As it falls over, your helmet hits the ice and your shoulder hits the ice. At 80 miles per hour, you're glad you're wearing burn suits. You're taught to put your helmet on the ice. You're hoping that the guy behind you gets out of the sled so that you have more room to get down. It's a pretty lousy experience, to say the least."
While not the perfect word to describe the transition Mesler's about to make, "lousy" might be close. After the Olympics, he's aiming to become a driver of his own team, which is no easy task. Until success is attained on the World Cup circuit, teams are often left to secure their own financing.
"When you're driving it's a different level," Mesler said. "You're responsible for your team. When you start out, you're not funded very well. You're kind of on your own and it's a brutal, brutal thing. I'm hoping with some success this year and exposure in Gainesville - there's a lot of people down there that like to help fellow Gators out. It's something different for people to be involved in."
And, on Friday, Mesler and his group will attempt something different: attaining a U.S. Gold Medal. But, no matter the outcome, there is a certainty: "luck" isn't dumb and Mesler's quite grateful for that.
"The thought of being able to say 'two-time Olympian' is something I never thought I'd be able to say once," Mesler said. "To get to do it twice is going to be great. I really don't know what to expect. I was in Salt Lake under different circumstances and with different expectations. To have worked for the last four years to get to this point - it's a special feeling and it won't be taken for granted."
