Konigssee and St. Moritz Update

WARINING: THIS E-MAIL IS VERY LONG!!

Good morning Everyone,

After seeing an e-mail update from a friend who informs people about her travels as a Christian Missionary I decided that I needed to make step my game when it comes to the format of my updates. The format you see before you is my test run of changing things up, so please let me know if you like it or not? Oh and my grammar, punctuation and such will still be unlike anything you ever learned in skool just because I think it’s funny at times. So sit back and enjoy another tale of intrigue and adventure of the chaos and travel that is my life! Lol

O.k so dese toos Guyes walk into a bar an da first guy sais to the second guy Hey you know what would be….! Sorry I did it again that’s the wrong story! I hate when I do that!

Konigssee, Germany

Konigssee Germany was the next top on tour, the name may sound familiar because we had a Europa Cup Race their earlier this year. Konigssee may also sound familiar since it is where World Championships were held last year. This year it would only have a regular World Cup Race but the Team Event was also scheduled to be held on this track! As of now the team event does not really count for any World Cup points but is more of a way to create excitement and unity between bobsled and Skeleton. The way it works is that each country selects a male and female sled from each discipline (Skeleton and 2-man Bobsled) to race as a team, with each discipline getting one run a piece. The firs sled to go off the top of the hill is chosen by a draw, after that initial sled all other sleds are chosen by down time. So for example if an American team draws first and their skeleton sled finishes with the fastest down time then in the next heat when the American Bobsled is scheduled to go off it would go off last in the order. As you can imagine there is a lot of jumping around in order depending on the finishes of your country’s previous slider! Its controlled chaos but it’s a fun event and we are hoping to get it into the Olympics one day!!

Unlike the last time we were in Konigssee we did not stay at the Hotel Brunneck, this time we stayed at the AlpenHotel Fischer which is our normal hotel. The AlpenHotel is a pretty nice place but the food service was not as fast as the Hotel Brunneck nor was its internet service as good either, however the room were larger which were a plus. The AlpenHotel also had a larger garage for directly underneath it where we were able to store all our bobsleds; making it easier to do sled work, practice 4-man loads and etc. To complete the ambiance that is the AlpenHotel it also had a great pool/spa/massage area that was perfect for relaxing in after long days of training.

I do not recall if I have mentioned it before or not but the Berchtesgaden/Konigssee, Germany Area is one of my favorite stops on the World Cup Tour http://en.berchtesgadener-land.com/en/live/ennavi/parser,id,75,nodeid,.html The Bobsled Track there is fun ride, it has a series of back to back curves that look like two sets of S’s turned on their side and it has a 360 degree turn that is exciting, full of pressure and speed! You know what I LIKE SPEED!! SPEEED IS GOOD! I WANT SOME MORE SPEED! The town is beautiful, there is a river that runs through it that has crystal clear water, it’s unlike anything I have seen. The Ramsauer Ache River sticks out in my head so much that when my teammate Adam and I were driving up from Altenberg the GPS had taken us a different way than I had remembered and I was started to second guess if we had gone to correct way; but after looking out the window and seeing the Ramsauer Ache I knew we were going the right way. The area is also full of historical sites from World War II, I definitely think it’s a place worth visiting.

Back on the bobsled front there is an Ice Push Track where we could do some additional Start training and testing. Being that we had the Push Track at our disposal and the Coaches were still trying to pinpoint why the USA 2 sled start times were not faster, they felt it was necessary to test the side pushing guys on USA 2 (myself and Johnny) against the two alternates (Adam and Dallas). The winners of this testing would be the team that racing in Konigssee and St. Moritz. Personally I don’t think me or Johnny was thrilled at the Ideal because we both felt that we had earned/deserved the spots we were, but hey we’re not the coaches and what they say goes. You know actually I was more pissed than anything actually and the night before I promised myself that every combination I’m involved in would be the fastest and I would erase any doubt about who JESSE BECKOM III is and my pedigree!

Since we were doing side push testing combinations we used the 4-Man push sled. The first combination was Johnny and I, the second combination was Adam and Dallas all following combinations would be some mixture of all of us i.e Johnny and Adam, Dallas and Johnny and etc. On the day of the race off the other guys wanted to warm-up inside the garage at the hotel then drive to the track. I on the other hand wanted to warm-up at the track, I grabbed the keys to one of our BMW’s and left by myself for the track. As I was driving to the track it began to rain adding to the already slippery conditions of the warm-up area at the track. It was at this time I started to doubt my decision to warm-up outside at the track!! Thoughts about having a poor warm-up began to pop in my mind……but then a smile came on my face. I remembered it was skeleton training day, the start area at the top of the track was covered providing me with a perfect area to warm-up WINNING! After an hour of preparations I was ready to rock so I drove down the hill to join my teammates at the Ice House. In order to get acclimated to the sled as well as test the timing eyes we all took a few practices pushes, after that it was game on. In order to keep the test as accurate as possible a load point was set for the first and second guy to ensure that people were not just pushing as far as they can. This is done because in an Ice House you’re able to run further than it would be possible on an actual bobsled track due to the impending first curve on a bobsled track. So adding load points limits an athlete’s ability to run it to the house as we say in order to obtain a faster time negating the fact of concerns about velocity and or load. As I mentioned the first combination out the gate was me on the left and Johnny on the right (our positions all year). Johnny and I step on the block, our coach clears the track, Napier calls the cadence, we hit the sled and BAM WE”RE PUSHING! As we are pushing my body is in the right position, I’m feeling powerful, smooth, relaxed and fast!! So Fast! As I am pushing I see the load point out the corner of my left eye and I hit the bunk (take my load step) perfectly and am up, over and down in the sled instantly! The bad thing about this is that right around the time I should have felt Johnny loading behind me I didn’t. I was focused on the approaching wire in front of me that slings the sled back up the push track and if I was not holding on tight I would flip over the front of the sled. After hitting the wire I looked back to Johnny being drug by the sled and as the sled began moving backwards he was on the verge of being run over!!! I immediately rushed to the back of the sled and reached out my hand to try and help Johnny up so he would not get crushed! At the same time Johnny was reaching our trying to grab hold of my arm somehow trying to wrap his leg around part of the sled to get from underneath it, it was tricky because I had to try and find some leverage so I would not fall out as well!! At the same time my other teammates were running down the outside of the ramp reaching in trying to grab the sled to stop it from going back!! I ended up with one foot in the sled one foot on the ice, a hand on Johnny pulling him up from by the front of his shirt while still holding on to the sled with my other hand and my teammates holding on to the sled as well!! I thank God for everyone responding so quickly because it could have ended really bad! As you can imagine Johnny was shaken up a bit but thankfully he had no major injuries besides a sore wrist. I received a nice deep cut on my wrist from being spiked by Johnny as I was reaching for him. I have to thank God again on this because if the cut was a little more to the right I would probably still be gushing blood! After about a ten minute break to make sure there were no serious injuries we were back into the competition which last another 50 minutes or so. Besides Johnny falling off the sled and almost dying in a tragic mutilated way it was a good day of pushing. Yeah my sense of humor is a bit dark at times but Johnny was fine so its ok to joke about it now. Lol Deal With it! My Blog My way Just playing but really I have issues! Lol Shhh….don’t tell anyone.

Here is the Ice House Video

A few hours after our competition the coaches sent out an e-mail of the results and I am pleased to say that I was on the fastest combination of the day and I was involved in the more fast combinations than anyone!! Unfortunately though the combinations Johnny were on were not among the fastest that day. At a meeting later that night the coaches brought us into a room and informed us that the new push crew racing this week would be me, Fogt, and Adam (Adam has the second amount of fast pushes and was on the fastest push of the day with me). It was a hard situation for everyone, since Johnny had been racing with us the entire time and now was off the sled. Especially when you take into consideration that Johnny had beaten Adam in a 2-man race off earlier in the season when we were in WInterberg, Germany. But it was the coaches decision and one we had to abide by.

Personally that week of training was frustrating because I knew that the constant testing of certain members of USA 2 was not going to end anytime soon. Which affects timing, riding position, team cohesion and overall team morale but what can you do. It was evident that the stress was getting to everyone and it manifested itself in our team’s decision go out and dance a bit the night before the race!! Yup we went out dancing and it was exactly what we needed to cut some of the tension that was forming among us. We did not stay out too late but it felt good to go out, relax a bit and listen to some good music. We were in Germany so…..I use the term good music very loosely….but still fun.

The 4-man Race went off as scheduled the next day at 9 am. In following with most of the season guessed who showed up just in time for the race? Yup Mr. Snow flake and his flurry of buddies! Lol Yeah that was a bad joke but I’m not taking it back. My warm-up before the race felt great it was probably one of the best warm-ups I had all year up to that point and ironically enough my teammates felt the same way…we were ready. After a few sleds had gone it was our turn we stepped on the block ready to do our thing. Napier called the cadence and the hit felt good but the load into the sled could have been a bit smoother but once again this is something that is fixed the more a team works together. However the push was better and relatively closer to USA 1 then we had all year. Our second load was better and our second push was even closer to USA 1 than the first one had been. We finished 13th in the race but the fact that he push was better gave us some hope and something to build on going into the St. Moritz races the next week.

St. Moritz, Switzerland

After we packed up the sleds it was time to hit the road for World Cup #6 in the beautiful area of St. Moritz, Switzerland the birthplace of Bobsleigh and Skeleton and host to the 1928 and 1948 Olympic Winter Games. The track in St. Moritz is by far the overall favorite track of athlete’s competing on World Cup! The track is the last remaining natural track in the world; it begins in the town of St. Moritz and ends in the town of Celerina. Its 1700 meters of the smoothest shaped ice in the world. This is probably the only track in the world where you really want to look up (but you can’t well not in a race that is) as you are going down because it winds through trees and a natural terrain.

The drive into St. Mortz is amazing as well although you drive up a ton of switch backs!! And I am not going to call Johnny out on his motion sickness thing but we did have to let him drive the switch back section so he did not get sick!! But other than telling you guys I will not tell anyone else that Johnny Quinn who played football at North Texas University gets motion sickness at times!! So please keep this between us. Thank you.

Going into the race week at St. Moritz we all thought the plan was set, well that was until we had a meeting Monday night. During the meeting the schedule announced that the training format for the week would be 2-Man Tuesday, and 4-man Wednesday and Thursday, Friday is a day off and off course we race Saturday and Sunday. But the catch was is that they wanted me to do one day of 4-man with my normal crew then on the second day they wanted to swap me out for Dallas (one of the Alternates) to take a trip with the USA 2 sled so they can compare numbers. Now what numbers they wanted to compare and what they wanted to use these numbers for only God knows but I was not happy. Because from my view point and other athletes it seemed very suspicious, especially since we had just done race-offs the week before in Konigssee. Once again I had a meeting with the coaches along with my athlete reps to figure out the reasoning behind this one and one scenario on the 4-man sled they wanted to have. The details of the meeting are not really important to detail here but in short they wanted to look at velocity and why the Napier seemed to be losing time down the hill. Regardless of the reasoning the schedule was set but some issues were expressed to the coaches from my perspective along with concerns from other athletes on the team.

I may have mentioned this a few times but this season was really trying for me to say the least, having to endure situations I could not imagine. But I continued to keep the faith and my counsel with God going which carried me through. The way things played out this season definitely made my favorite Bible verse, Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to such things? If God before us who can stand against us!?

On Tuesday the day of 2-man sliding Dallas was scheduled to slide with Napier. The day started of pretty normal, well until the forerunning (non-competitive sleds that are used to test the timing eyes down the track) sleds started to go. Now for the most part sleds that forerun are up and coming teams within the program hosting the World Cup Race. These teams train along National Team members and are just a little bit behind the National pace. There must have been something in the water because the forerunners were having issues with hitting the sled at the same time and getting into the sled! When the brakemen fell down on the forerunning sled all you heard was Ohhhhhhhh from everyone at the start. But to that brakemen’s credit after he slipped and fell he got up, ran down the sled and hopped in!!! Once he hopped in the Ohhhhh’s turned into cheers and applauding! After the forerunners had gone it was time for Team USA to take its runs. Usually Holcomb goes before Napier in the order but for some reason Napier was listed before Holcomb on this day. Me and the other guys not sliding moved the sled to the line for Napier and Dallas, flipped it down and brushed off the guys shoes. Napier and Dallas squat down into their start position ready to go. Napier calls the cadence and they both hit the sled!! But unfortunately as Dallas took his first step he slipped and fell while Napier was still pushing!! Dallas got up and started chasing after Napier and the sled but it was too late; the sled was too far ahead of him and there was no way Napier could have stopped the sled. Holcomb and Langton were up to push next and thankfully they had no issues, and to Dallas’s credit his next push was fine. With this turn of events it kind of put the kybosh on what the coaches had planned. Why is that you ask, well I will tell you. In bobsled as a precautionary measure there is a rule that a driver must have at least two successful trips per discipline before that week’s race. Since Napier’s first trip was a solo bob he now needed to do 2-man on Wednesday as well in order to be cleared to race in 2-man. Since another day of 2-man training was needed it cut the available 4-man days down to one making leaving no time for and experiment to gain additional data. The next day 2-man training went good without any issues and 4-man training went just as smooth. Our day off from training was pretty normal and no……we did not got out this week either! Lol However we did sand runners, adjust handles and clean the sled in preparations for our the 2-man race Saturday and the 4-man race Sunday.

On Saturday USA 1 (Steve Holcomb and Steve Langton) finished in 4th place, USA 2 (John Napier and Chris Fogt) finished in 16th place. After the race Fogt was feeling pretty down because his start times were below what he had hoped. We did our best to encourage him letting him know it’s a team effort, and that we have 4-man the next day where the pushes will be faster. I think it helped a little bit sometimes no matter what is said to a person they still have to work it out in their own minds. I am happy to say that Fogt being the athlete he is was able to shake it off or at least use that frustration as motivation for the 4-man push.

After a great night of sleep it was time to get our 4-Man Race on!!! It was a beautiful day in Zamunda (Coming to America Reference) I mean in St. Moritz, me and the boys were ready! Me and Adam were screaming Left Side!!! Strong Side!! Left Side!! Strong Side!!! (Remember the Titans Reference) in the locker room!!! Needless to say we were filling up for the occasion. We get to the block, our coaches drop the sled, we get into position and we are off!! The push and ride down the hill feel good but as we get to the bottom we find ourselves in 16th position; this is not good nor where we thought we would be. After talking to the coaches we find that the push was descent but Napier hit going into Curve 1 which killed our speeds up top, which multiplied down the track. This was not that bid of a surprise since the entrance to curve one was different in past year because now there was a Luge start built just to the right of the Bobsled start. Basically you have two different starts coming from different angles but both going into the same curve. This factor had been causing problems for every drivers all week and it was fifty/fifty when they got it right. Just like in football dwelling on the situation would not help but we had faith that Napier would correct his steer on the second heat.

Being that we were in 16th position and the second heat starts in reverse order from 20th-1 we would be off sooner than later. Now in general no team ever wants to be in that group of sleds going off first in the second heat because that means you are not in the top ten. This is even more true in St. Moritz, being that it is a natural track the ice conditions are directly related to the weather. As morning turns into early afternoon the sun continues to rise making the track faster each minute that passes giving sleds who are off later in the order a natural advantage. But we were 5th off the top of the hill, all we could do is push our hardest get low and hope for the best at the bottom and that’s what we did!! We had had a good push, Napier had a better entrance into curve one and better trip overall. After having the 16th fastest down time in the first heat our second trip was the 9th fastest down time and we had better velocity then USA 1!! We were living in the Winner’s Box at the bottom, beating four sleds that were in front of us after the first heat but the sled in 11th position was too far ahead of us for us to catch them. We ended up in 12th position about .20 out of the top ten. USA 1 finished in 4th tied with Russia 1.

Being in the Winner’s Box for so long felt Great, especially since it would be our last World Cup Race until World Championships in Lake Placid. There were two World Cup Races left one in Whistler and Calgary Canada but USA 1 and USA 2 would not be competing in them. Why would we skip these races you ask?.....well because World Championships is in Lake Placid and skipping the last two races gives us more time to prepare for worlds. This is also why we did the Europa Cup races early in the season because those points can partially replace a World Cup Race. And if you have been keeping up with the races on www.fibt.com you know that the plane worked!!.....But I will recap the events that happened during Worlds in my next update, along with the craziest race-off scenario and racing events I have experienced!!!

Please go to www.jessebeckom3.com to view all the pictures from the second half of the season. Click on the Media Tab then select 2011-2012 Bobsled Season Second Half Pictures.

Thank you all for being so patient in awaiting my updates

God Bless

Jesse

www.jessebeckom3.com

www.jessebeckom.blogspot.com

4-Man World Championships This Saturday and Sunday 9am est

Good Morning Everyone,

I just wanted to remind you to watch all 4 Heats of the 4-Man World Championship Races LIVE This Saturday and Sunday at 9AM est.!!! Just follow this link http://eurovision.digotel.com/fibt/index.html And if you are not able to watch it live, still click on this link and watch the video replay that is located in a video box link at the bottom of the web-page.

It has been a crazy season for me full of ups and downs but I will fill you in on everything at the end of Worlds.

Thanks and God Bless

Jesse

www.jessebeckom3.com

Altenberg Germany Race Week Jan 02-Jan08 2012

Flight to Frankfurt

On December 30th after ten days of semi-rest and semi-relaxation we headed back over to Europe for the second half of the World Cup Tour. In keeping with my history of flight delays/cancellations the flight back to Europe sadly would not disappoint. My flight out of Colorado Springs left at 6:20 am (I looked on line and there was a flight I could have been booked on that left at 9am) meaning I had to leave for the airport at 4:30 in the morning, then I was scheduled for a 5 hour layover at Washington Dulles Airport all of this before a 9hour flight to Frankfurt!!...yeah, I was not happy about any of this. After about four hours of sitting and playing on the internet in Washington Dulles Airport about 12 of my other teammates begin to arrive, (Must have been nice to sleep in Ahhh!).

Shortly thereafter we all boarded our plane, and after sitting there for about twenty minutes the Pilot announces that there will be about an hour delay while they fix a cargo bay door that was malfunctioning! (Thinking what I'm thinking?). We sat on the plane a good hour when it became apparent that we are not going anywhere for at least another hour if not longer. Having a good feeling about the next plausible outcome and to the chagrin of others passengers my teammates and I began making joke after joke about how we would not be going anywhere for a while. In the midst of our joking the Pilot who was in need of attention…. And…… apparently jealous of our conversation rudely comes over the PA announcing that they are unable to fix the cargo bay door and that we need to switch planes!!! I know right!! It’s not good enough for this guy to be sitting up front but he has to disrupt our conversation as well! The nerve of such people! Lol. Regardless at this point there was no need to be mad so I continued to joke with my teammates as we went to Taco Bell for a quick bite as we waited or change in aircrafts. Ironically enough the change in planes benefited everyone, since we were now on a more modern plane and.....I now had three row seat to myself! Ok so when I say everyone I mainly mean me! Lol After the plane doors officially closed I may or may not have teased our teams Physio (Sports Physician) who was sitting behind me! And I may or may not have informed him that I would be watching three different movies on each of the screens at my disposal! And… I may or may not have fully laid out in each direction possibly still teasing our Physio each time I changed direction.....I'm just saying that may have happened and that he may have deserved it since he was giving me guff (yes I just used that word) about my previous tight seating arrangement on the plane before. WHOSE THE BIG MAN NOW BUDDY!!!! OH YEAH I'M YO DADDY TODAY, THE PASSENGER WITH EXTRA LEG ROOMS LOOKS LIKE WHO? YUP HE LOOKS LIKE JESSE! ........Are some statements that I can neither confirm nor deny that I may possibly, could have made! But mind you this is purely based on speculation, hearsay, and eye witness reports by those with conflicts of interest lol

Taking into the time difference between the US and Germany we arrived on New Year's Eve. We rang in the New Year with bottles of juice in the hotel lobby!! It was so crazy; with all that apple juice we almost started a riot! lol Since we were looking at a five hour drive to Altenberg Germany we did not have any time of big celebration to ring in the New Year. And after that we tried to create a Hands Across America Chain but in Germany (Movie Beerfest reference)......yeah in short it did not work but that is a whole other story! lol

Altenberg, Germany Race Week

After arriving in Altenberg, Germany we checked into the Best Western Waldhoutel Stephanahohe. Usually when we stay in hotels overseas we are the only ones staying there (except in St. Moritz where the Canadians and the Netherlands stay at the same hotel as us), however the Entire Russian Bobsled and Skeleton Team, Austrian Bobsled Team, German Skeleton, and Australian Skeleton were at this hotel along with regular guest staying at the hotel. Although it’s fun to stat at a hotel with other teams we do enjoy being at a hotel where it’s just the American Team staying there, but not only because the competitive nature of the sport and the thought of eating three meals a day next to your competition, but also because we all use the internet which causes for an extremely slow connection. Now when I say its slow I am not being a spoiled athlete or anything but I tried to send one email that was maybe a paragraph long, without any attachments and it took me twenty minutes to do so because the server kept timing out on me. Needless to say I never even attempted to upload and pictures or videos since I could not imagine how long that would take.

Being that I had yet to race on the track in Altenberg I was extremely excited. I was not only excited because it was a new track for me but because it is in the top 3 of the hardest and more dangerous tracks in the world!! That same excitement may have been the reason for my little truck malfunction. For all practical purposes this is my first year actually driving one of our cargo trucks which happen to be all stick shifts/manual. Admittedly I am not the best manual car driver in the world and frankly I wish every car was automatic! I truly hate the fact that on a hill you have a great possibility of rolling backward or forward more easily, in my opinion it’s just dumb and now I have even more reason to hate them. It was the first day of training and since I had not driven the truck in a while figured it was my turn to drive to the track, so we load the two man sled in and head out. The day was typical enough being a just as cold and snowy and I have to admit I was handling the driving conditions like a champ. I was shifting gears a lot smoother, feeling pretty confident in my driving skills. I pulled up to the track executing a three point turn backed the truck up and unloaded the sleds just as smooth as I would in an automatic car. After the sled is unloaded I go to park our truck next to the other trucks but there is no room, causing me to have to try and park on the private road leading up to the track where other trucks are parked as well. Unfortunately all the wider parts of the road were filled and if I tried to park on a narrower part I would be blocking traffic. I end up doing a circle down to the road entrance and back up through the gate where we unloaded the bobsled when I see a space to park!!! Once again I am feeling like new money because I have been backing up and down hills doing U turns I'm Like "WHAT Stick Shift I got this!!" yeah I was Wrong So Very Wrong!! So I park the truck and hop out and head over to help with the sled. Two minutes later as I am walking towards our sled one of the Belgium girls comes running up screaming "Jesse! Jesse! were you driving the Europacar Cargo Van!? I say yes why? She says you forgot to put on the Emergency Break and it rolled backwards into a car (evidently I was parked on a slight incline)!!!.....YEAH exactly what I'm thinking! Making the situation even worse is that I knew the only car it could have rolled into was one of the BMW X5' that was parked behind it!!! I start running back towards the vehicle and the only thing I can imagine in my head is that I just totaled a $90,000 car and I am not going to be able to pay for this in any form of currency unless they take monopoly money! I get to the vehicles and to my surprise the BMW is not totaled but the Cargo Van definitely hit it. I hop into the cargo van, slowly pulling forward re-parking it and pulling the Emergency Break! then hopping out. Go look at the BMW and thankfully it only has a nice sized dent in the back door!! Thank you God!! I was so relived because it did not hit anyone, the BMW nor the truck was totaled nor did it roll forward into the track which would have been horrible. And that was my start of the week how was yours? lol

Snowball Fight USA vs. Russia

As I previously mentioned the Russian and other teams were staying at the hotel with us and as long as it not race day we all pretty much get along with one another. However we were in close proximity to one another and there was snow on the ground soooooooooooo………yeah one day at the hotel after training IT WAS Snowball Fight Time Apparently! I suppose it was bound to happen, but the Russian pulled the trigger firs….but we held the trigger a bit longer. Here’s how it began, we pulled up to the back of the hotel to unload our Four-Man sled and as the truck is backing up to the garage we see a few snowballs come flying in!! We all start looking around to see where they are coming from and Surprise Surprise they are coming from the direction of the Russians whose garage was about 150 feet down from ours. These snowballs came in with a vengeance, hard fast and accurate which should be expected since we are a bunch of 220 plus guys who lift all day throwing snow balls at each other. After a few snow ball came in we devised a plan to flank the Russians! About four guys (usually only one person parks the van hoped in the truck as if to only park the van like normal. The great thing about where we parked the Vans is that it is a hill that is to the West of the garages housing all the sleds, Yup Taking the High Grown!!! While at the same time me and two other guys are straight military crawling from the North heading straight on towards the Russians alongside the Row of Russian Vans that were parked there! As a diversionary tactic we throw snowballs from our position as our guys up top got into position. The Russians started throwing snowballs in my direction, creeping up on us getting more in the open!! Soon as they got into a good clearing Snowballs from the guys positioned at the top began raining down on them!!! In our mind it was Gladiator and we had Just Unleashed Hell!!! Lol The guys at the top of the Hill was letting them have it something serious, while we were also letting loose! The Russians were caught completely surprised and began to scatter! They put up a good fight and we were still surprised at how accurate they were it was amazing!!! But in the end we drove them back into their Garages!! Lol USA 1-Russia 0 babe!!!

Start of Racing

In following with this season’s tradition the forecast for the races showed strong signs of blizzard types of snow. I guess we should have expected that since most of our race venues are in ski towns. The day of the race we could tell it would be one of those days, especially since the race was delayed twice!!! The first delay we were aware and planned accordingly, leaving for the track later than earlier planned. Once we arrived at the track the FIBT Jury members decided to delay the race another hour due to snow. Four hours after the originally planned event the race began!! The Germans were some of the earlier sleds and the weather was actually a bit nice (Yeah they have a snow maker they control lol), ironically enough after the German sleds had gone snow flurries began off and on throughout the rest of the first heat. The Start ramp did not look that bad but I do doubt how well they really sweep the start groves out Team USA is on the block in a foreign country. Any way after the first heat USA-1 (Holcomb Driving/Langton Braking) was in fifth position and USA-2 (Napier Driving/Robinson Braking) was in 17th position. During the last fifteen minutes of the forty-five minutes break between heats they begin to send forerunners down the track to insure the track conditions are safe to continue the race. Unfortunately the snow fall significantly increased, so much that by the time the pilots of the forerunner sleds reached the bottom there visors were covered with snow making visibility difficult. After the FIBT Jury members spoke with the drivers of the forerunning sleds they decided to cancel the second heat of the race for safety issues. With the cancellation of the second heat it meant that whatever sled position you were in after heat would be the official and final results of the race. Needless to say Team USA was extremely frustrated but that's the way racing goes at times...The only positive we could take from this is that tomorrow was the four-man race which we were banking on being a better day!

The next day I woke up at 6am to start my normal preparations for our 9 a.m. race, which included a quick breakfast and a forty-five minute weight room session focusing on explosion and speed (a.k.a Potentiation). With all that done it was time to load up the 4-Man Sled and head to the Track (I was not driving!! lol) This week we (USA 2 Napier, Beckom, Clark, and Fogt) were off 12th, and at about 2-minutes per sled I knew I needed to be ready at 9:24 a.m. get or take a few minutes. This is important information to know since it dictates when I need to start my one hour warm-up. During my warm-up can you guessed what happened?.....Yup it began snowing!! I am just like oh great another lovely day with perfect race day conditions! The good thing is that as the race began the snow started to stop, well.......that is until we stepped to the line and the snow just began falling like crazy!! In an effort to minimize the amount of time snow had to build on the start ramp we began stripping down to our race suits while the before us was half way down the hill; allowing us to place the sled on the Ice quicker and go as soon as we had the green light. Like clockwork we hear the start tone, see the green light, drop into position, call the cadence and we are off!! The hit felt good and as I was pushing I was thinking we are money since the timing felt great!! We get down to the bottom and look and are surprised by the down time and then we here the push time, we are not happy! It was pretty slow and off the pace we and no clue what happened. We stood at the bottom looking up at the monitor watching as the snow cleared up and sleds with seemingly sloppier runs down the track were beating us. It was not until we got to the top that the coaches told us how bad the groves were, the force was not with us on this run and it was extremely disappointing. Our Driver Napier also informed us that we were like a snow plow coming down with all the snow that had been built up in the track. But we had one more heat to go, so we had to forget about the first, and concentrate on the next heat and see if we can make up some time.

Just a quick note, in bobsled the second starts in reverse order from 20-1. Being that our first run was so fabulous we were third or so off. Thank God that this time the snow had actually stopped for us and when we got down to the bottom we found out that we had dropped our start by .11 which is a ton of time!! The face that we dropped so much time off was a relief since we have been battling all season against the stereotype that we have a slow crew when we Don’t! We were pleased with the start but that first heat killed us and we ended up in 16th a little better than the 2-man race but nothing to write home about which is also part of the reason it has taken me so long to send out an update since I like to be in a little better spirits when I send them out!

After the Altenberg, Germany Race it was time to pack up and head to Konigssee the site of Next World Cup Race.

Also, I want to remind you all that you can watch our races live and replay races you missed at http://eurovision.digotel.com/fibt/index.html.

God Bless

JB3

www.jessebeckom3.com

Members of the Mens USA Bobsled National Team Training Videos

Hey Everyone

Really quick I just wanted to make you all aware that in hopes to get more exposure for the sport of Bobsled and to show the hard work it takes to be a member of a National Team we have created a channel on Youtube.

Please Check out some of the Training videos posted by members of the USA Men's National Bobsled Team!!! at http://www.youtube.com/user/TeamUSABobsled?ob=0

We have a handful of videos up now but more are to come!! Be sure to subscribe to our channel so you want miss out on any future post!

Thank you

Jesse

Part 2 First Half Update

It’s been a good while now, I trust everyone has fully recovered from your Christmas and New Year Shenanigans!!! (Hey Favra what’s that restaurant you like to eat at with all the stuff on the wall!? Oh you Mean Shenagigans!? OOoooooo!! Lol ) and are well on your way in fulfilling your New Year’s Resolutions.

Now where were we…hmmmm…..starting memory enhancing…Enhances…..Enhance……Enhance! lol

Ah yes, the interesting people that I met coming back from Germany. After the last race we drove two hours to Frankfurt where we spent the night in a hotel five minutes from the airport. Just a quick FYI throughout the season there are really only two nights during the season where we as athletes get a chance to relax a bit; the first is the break after the first half of the season and the second is the night after World Championships. It just so happened that the Canadians were also staying at this hotel for the night, making for some good fun challenges that ended with a few people sleeping in later than they originally planned. I can neither confirm nor deny the reports of one of the Canadians missing his originally planned airport shuttle and allegedly running after said shuttle in an attempt to board it! Once again this is purely speculation! Lol

After successfully waking up to catch my shuttle from the hotel to the Frankfurt Airport I was looking at a sixteen hour travel day!! My first flight I managed to squeeze in a few hours of sleep in between watching movies (this would pay off later in the story). Ironically enough as I searched for a good movie to watch it dawned on me that I may spend a little too much time watching movies and T.V shows! Why do I say that you ask? Ding! Ding! Survey Say!! Because I had literally already seen 95% of all the show they had to offer T.V and Movies, Das ist Nicht Gut! Actually as I type this I just turned off the T.V next to me!! Lol I may need to read a bit more. Curse you Hollywood you mother of all temptresses with your shows of wonder and amazement!

Sorry I'm back on track now. Unlike others on my team I was not heading home to be around family for the holidays although I would have greatly enjoyed that. Instead I was heading back to Colorado Springs in preparations for the second half of the season and any possible testing/race offs the coaches may throw at us. The longest leg of my trip was the nine hour flight from Frankfurt to the Washington Dulles Airport, which as I mentioned was not to eventful but ironically very important. From there I caught a three hour flight to Colorado Springs where I had to pleasure of meeting Stuart W. Symington. I’m not sure if it’s due to the fact that I have traveled so much over the last ten years but I can now tell when I am going to have a good conversation with a person sitting next to me on the plane, this was the case when I met Stuart on the flight to Colorado Springs.

As I boarded the plane I was in straight Zombie Mode equipped with headphones in blaring music from my iPod. While I was preparing to sit down I noticed this guy who looked to be a good 6’4 in a suit behind me motioning as to say he was sitting in the window seat next to me. I took one of my ear buds to better hear what the guy was saying. To my astonishment I heard a booming voice come out as if this guy was the White House Speaker. He was holding his suit coat in one hand and a drink from Starbucks in the other. Without hesitation he looks at me and says “Hey you mind holding this for me?” I’m not sure if was just his general candor but something told me I was about to engage in a good conversation. At that moment I agreed to hold his drink and decided to take my other ear bud out, wrap up my iPhone and place it in my pocket. Immediately after we sat down the conversation begins. We exchange normal pleasantries ending with both of us respecting each others career choices (I have to admit I was astonished at what all Stuart had and is currently accomplishing). It turned out that Stuart is currently working at NORAD/NORTHCOM and was previously an ambassador to Rwanda and several South American Countries. There is a ton of things this man has accomplished but instead of listing them all (sorry Stuart I hope you don’t mind me talking you up) here is a general link about him http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/115603.htm .

We began talking about City Planning, Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, how to effectively build relationships between communities, and how to address gang and drug problems that we are having in both the USA and Mexico. Keep in mind people I am physically and mentally exhausted from a brutal first half of racing and travel. As I was listening to every bit of insight that Stuart was providing one of the main thoughts going to my head is “Jesse please use some five dollar words so you don’t sound like a dumb athlete!” lol. Nothing against any of the conversations that I have had since beginning Bobsled but I had forgot how much I enjoyed in-depth mentally challenging conversations, it was by far one the best conversation I ever had. Halfway through the conversation we conversation we actually came up with a project of similar interest that we could assist each other with so we exchanged business information. As we continued to converse I could see the gears turning in Stuarts mind; and each time I asked what he was thinking one great ideal after another came from this man including the Name of the book for my Autobiography. To say I was in amazement was an understatement, Stuart possessed an honest general concern for his common man and I find that rare. The conversation continued until touchdown and ended with us exchanging contact information before parting ways.

After grabbing my luggage I hopped on the OTC shuttle that was awaiting me. I was very happy that it was only a twenty minutes ride from the airport to the OTC since in New York it’s a Two and a half hour shuttle from Albany to the OTC in Lake Placid. Upon my arrival I was pleased to see that dinner was still being served. I have to say that after a long day of traveling having fast food as my sole source of nutrition a good meal at the OTC was more than welcomed. (Come on that’s a line you would see in a fancy novel or a T.V stars inner monologue! Lol I am handing out gold here and no one wants it? You’re killing me smalls you’re killing me!)

Once I was done eating I went to my room to begin unpacking my bags along with everything I had packed in my car and that I had in storage in the OTC. By the way have I mentioned it was 9pm by now and I had been traveling since the crack of existence the day before!! But for some reason I tend to have OCD when it comes to settling into my room. Because I can never really seem to sleep until every little thing is unpacked, in its correct place and my bags are stored where they need to be. Jesse what time did I eventually go to be you ask…? Why 1am naturally but thank you for asking. What’s that you say….What time did I wake up because surely you slept in right? Sleep in? Are you kidding me you talking about SLEEPING IN!? SLEEP IN?! WHAT YOU REALLY ASKING ME ABOUT SLEEPING IN!? Being that I am brilliant and all Naturally woke up at 6am ready to eat breakfast and start my normal training routine.

As usual after I was done training I hit up Sports Med to stretch out, Ice down, and spent 30 minutes in the Normatec Recovering pants (Air pressured compression pants that aid in muscle recovery). I then returned to my room and figured I would shoot Stuart an e-mail to revisit what we had talked about the previous day. Later on that evening I received a response back from Stuart which eventually led to him inviting me to an annual Holiday lunch for his family and some of their close friends the following week. Yeah Exactly I was blown away by the invite myself so of course I accepted it.

The following week I met with Stuart and his group at the Garden of the Gods Club house for lunch. Unfortunately I did not have a blue blazer to where which was preferred, but I did have a nice shirt and tie which fit the occasion. For the record I have been to many luncheons to date but ironically and no offense to anyone but this was one of the most impressive luncheons I had been to. Not to mention the fact that the Symington’s as a family have their ducks in a row!! This was not your average luncheon! From the parents down to the kids in high school everyone here were world travelers and were fully aware of what was happening socially and economically. I want say any specific names but the high school kids were doing well in sports (golf, basketball, football and I believe swimming) and in their class work. When it came to those children college age and older, one was going to film school in Singapore, another was studying to be an actor in New York, one as a paralegal at a law firm, another was working on her Doctorate in Microbiology. Since Stuart was now working for NORAD/NORTCOM I also meet Lieutenant General, USA Deputy Commander Frank Grass, as well and a very successful multiple restaurant franchise owner named Christopher. Yeah yeah when I type it out it sounds like a random group of people but in actuality the thing that everyone there had in common was their ability to turn their work ethic and drive into success!

Among the general lighter get to know you conversations that you would expect at such a gathering Christopher posed a very thought provoking question. He asked us “Considering all of individual success how could we use our motivation to inspire others around us? He also asked us if we thought that the majority of our piers possessed the same since of pride in country as generations before us?” Once again I was thrilled to express myself in another format other than squatting an ungodly (That was a play on words because we were at the Garden of the Gods Club…..come on people!! Gold I tell you Gold! Lol) amount of weight or pushing a sled fast as Hermes!! (Gold again people!) After the lunch we exchanged pleasantries, I left and went to go workout. Another day in the life of the International Man of Mystery that is Jesse Beckom III! lol (come on that is funny!). The conversation was great and full of several good answers.

If you cannot tell I had a blast at this lunch getting to know Stuart , his family, and some of their friends. I may have only been in Colorado Springs for ten days, but in those ten days I met some great people, started a new project that will be very fruitful, made headway on a current project and had some solid training days! It was a Great Christmas Break.

God Bless Everyone

Jesse

2011-2012 Bobsled Season First Half Pictures

Greetings everyone I have posted the pictures form the first half of the season just paste the following link in your browser. http://www.jessebeckom3.com/37.html

Thank you