Top, left to right, Robin VanWinkle, Unnamed, Beth Melnick, Coach Joe Tyler, Unnamed, Ellen Guynn (my brakeman!). Lower, left to right, Kathy Putnam, Susan McClelland, Lois Hollan, Kathy Sawyer, Helen O'Conner. (Not shown, Diane Purdy, Kim Lamos-Matthews, Catharine M."Sweetees" Cain)

This dated picture says a good deal about the history of women in US bobsled competition. This Lake Placid brochure, now a collector's item, reflects the early involvement of women in the sport. In fact, Katherine Dewey earned the National Championship in those days, and was considered to be one of the finest drivers on Mt. Van Hoevenberg. There was little activity for women for several years to come, and one theory is that the emphasis on the sled push became critical in international competition. Where women were excellent drivers, they did not find a place in the integrated drive/push approach. It was in the 1980s when the idea of women-only teams was seriously considered.

With the support of a few, we set out to compete on the Lake Placid track, learning how to drive on the 1932 sleds (left). With borrowed helmets, we trained. By 1984, we worked our way to 10 licensed drivers and 3 competitions, including the NYS Empire Games. But looming was doubt that the FIBT would ever approve of women driving bobsleds--especially on international tracks. More remote was the notion that the IOC would approve the event. But we knew that the involvement of other nations was the only road to the Olympics. And we looked to our friends in the North, the Canadians, to start the ball rolling on the newly constructed Olympic bobrun in Calgary. They did not disappoint us.

By the early 90's, young American pioneers--like Jill Bakken--went off to foreign tracks to build world acceptance. In tandem with the hard work of Stew Flaherty, (the USBSF Director of the Women's Program), Becky Matanic, and a host of other dedicated people, there was a concerted effort to build a World Cup Circuit for women, and to convince the IOC that a women's Olympic event was a worthy cause. With a World Cup field of only a handful of nations, they persisted and they succeeded. The event was approved in 1999. The rest...as they say...is sports history.