LISTEN: 2002 Olympic athlete, and native Utahn, reflects on Olympic past, present
Jul 23, 2024, 6:05 PM | Updated: 6:23 pm
VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 11: Bill Schuffenhauer of United States bobsleigh team addresses the media ahead of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics on February 11, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY — Track and field athlete turned bobsledder, Bill Schuffenhauer, learned about the sport that got him a spot, and eventually a silver medal, in the Olympic games, through a movie.
That movie, “Cool Runnings,” chronicled the experience of the first Jamaican bobsled team, consisting of track athlete-turned-bobsledder Devon Harris, Dudly Stokes, Michael White, Freddy Powell, and last minute replacement Chris Stokes.
Listen to Bill Shuffenhauer’s full interview with Jeff Caplan here 👇
Schuffenhauer, the only native Utahn to compete in Salt Lake’s 2002 Winter Olympics, started as track and field athlete. He attended Roy High School and Weber State University, long-held a dream to compete in the Summer Olympic games.
A new Olympic dream
Two weeks before the Olympic trials for the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics, Schuffenhauer sustained an injury that momentarily closed the door on his Olympic dream.
However, someone told him to set his sights on the Winter Olympics, which were on their way to his home state.
“There’s a sport called bobsledding… and I’m like ‘what is that?'” Schuffenhauer shared on Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News Tuesday afternoon. “And just like everyone else finds out about bobsledding I was introduced via the movie ‘Cool Runnings.’
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The Jamaican bobsled team was at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. So was Schuffenhauer.
Schuffenhauer spoke about the extensive training bobsledding requires.
“For the most part, the common citizen looks at a bobsled and is like ‘oh you just run and jump in,'” Schuffenhauer explained. “There’s a lot more to that. There’s so much aerodynamics and weight distribution.”
He says teams competing in bobsledding spend hours upon hours upon hours just in a wind tunnel, just to get the “max amount of aerodynamics for that sled.”
Schuffenhauer won a silver medal in the bobsled competition that year.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – FEBRUARY 24: (L-R) Garrett Hines, Bill Schuffenhauer and Todd Hays of the silver medal USA Bobsled team stand on the podium at the medal awards ceremony at the Olympic Medals Plaza during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games on February 24, 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by John Gichigi/Getty Images)
However, his work with the Olympics wasn’t done.
“It was always my goal and dream to serve on this side, not as an athlete… Helping the community and athletes,” he said.
He is currently the chapter president of the Utah Olympic and Paralympic Alumni Association. He was just last week elected into the executive committee for the United States Alumni Association as well.
As for the prospect of the 2034 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Schuffenhauer says “pumped” is an understatement.
“It’s pretty surreal for me, pretty emotional to see all this… An experience we’re going to share with the world.”
