Tough Hays still hoping to end long drought

By Patrick Vignal

CESANA, Italy (Reuters) – Painful memories from the Cesana
track and a poor show in the two-man are not enough to stop
Todd Hays from hoping to become the first American to win a
men’s Olympic bobsleigh title since 1948.

“I haven’t been fast in the two-man here at all but I’m
hoping we can pull it off in the four-man,” Hays said after
finishing seventh in the two-man competition of the Turin
Games, won by German Andre Lange on Sunday.

Bad starts and a wrong choice of runners ruled out the
tough Texan, now looking forward to the February 24-25 four-man
runs.

The former bull rider, kickboxer and professional brawler,
who will try anything as long as it is dangerous, will have a
very simple strategy: “It will be the same thing, get the sled
down the hill without beating up too many walls.”

Several competitors complained about the conditions on
Sunday, heavy snowfalls meaning they had to hurtle down at 130
kmh with hardly any visibility.

For Hays, who entered a few rodeos and was a national
kickboxing champion before jumping into a bobsleigh, the
atrocious weather was not a problem.

“It’s an outdoor event and it’s winter, it’s going to
snow,” he said. “We just got beaten all around. No excuses, no
regrets.”

A four-man silver medallist at the previous Winter Games
four years ago in Salt Lake City, Hays is determined to shine
in his preferred event.

BIG CADILLAC

The 36-year-old thought he had seen it all when his first
encounter with the Cesana track, in January last year, resulted
in a nasty foot injury.

“I got a little excited and took the wrong approach angle,
so my right foot was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he
recalled.

“I could feel blood running down into my shoe and I thought
it was just a scratch. When I got to the bottom, my boot was
completely torn and you could see parts of the foot that you
didn’t want to see.”

That was not the end of the world for a man such as Hays,
but then the ambulance driver got lost twice.

“You know it’s bad when you look out the window and see the
driver talking to a civilian pointing in every direction. And I
am in the back with no pain killers. Luckily, the foot got
infected and I needed surgery.”

For anybody but Hays, returning to that very track might be
a traumatic experience.

Not for him: “It’s not a big deal,” he said.