SOCHI WINTER OLYMPICS 2014: Lauryn Williams races to Olympic history after silver in bobsleigh

ilver medallists Elana Meyers (L) and Lauryn Williams of the United States team 1 pose during the Women's Bobsleigh on Day 12 of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at Sliding Center Sanki on February 19, 2014 in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

By Andrea Giannini, AIPS

SOCHI, February 19, 2014 –Winter and Summer Olympic Game history has been rewritten this evening on the tracks of Sanki Sliding Center in Krasnaya Polyana. Lauryn Williams, a former sprinter of the USA Track&Field Team, where she won a gold medal in the 4x100 meters at the London 2012 Games and a 100m silver medal in Athens 2004,  added another jewel to her career tonight. This time, she wion the silver women’s bobsleigh together with pilot Elana Meyers in the USA-1 team. Before her, only four people were able to obtain medals in the Winter and Summer Olympic Games. The first - and the only one to win two gold medals in two different disciplines - was the American Eddie Eagan, gold in the light heavyweight boxing category in 1920, and then again on the highest step of the podium in Lake Placid 1932, when along with Billy Fiske, Clifford Barton Gray Jay and Bob James O'Brien, he triumphed in the Men’s 4 Bobsleigh.  A few years later, almost at the same time, it was Norwegian Jacob Thullin Thams’ turn, gold medalist in ski jumping in Chamonix 1924, he then won silver in sailing - 8 meter Class– in Berlin 1936. The first woman to achieve this goal was the East German Christa Luding, with four medals in three editions of the Olympic Winter Games (gold in the 500m in Sarajevo 1984 and in 1000m in Calgary 1988, silver in 5000m in Calgary 1988 and Albertville 1992), to which she added a silver in cycling - specialty sprint in track – in Seoul 1988. The last in order of time before Williams was the Canadian Clara Hughes, who at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics won two bronze medals in cycling (road race and road time trial) before switching to speed skating where, in three editions of Winter Olympics was able to win 1 gold (in the 5000m in Turin 2006) , 1 silver (women's pursuit in Turin 2006) and 2 bronzes (both in the 5000m in Salt Lake City 2002 and Vancouver 2010). Lauryn Williams, despite the disappointment of losing the gold in the last heat and only 10/100 behind Canada-1, has nonetheless accomplished an amazing feat. In her career as a sprinter, she won two Olympic medals, and another five World Championships between 2003 and 2007 - 1 gold and a silver in the 100 meters, 2 golds and 1 silver in the 4x100 relay - and was able to run 100 meters in 10"88 and 200 meters in 22"27. She retired from athletics after the 2013 season, and to the following autumn tried out bobsleigh with fellow athlete LoLo Jones, Eleventh today with USA-3 team. Despite her lack of experience, Williams forged ahead, and just few days before the Sochi Games, she was promoted to the USA-1 – the strongest team thanks to the experience of the pilot Elana Meyers, already bronze in Vancouver 2010 in the same discipline.  The Olympic adventure of USA-1 in Sochi did not start in the best way: in the first training together, Meyers and Williams braked too late and crashed against a wall, seriously damaging their bob. Fortunately, the engineers of USA Team succeeded in repairing it in time, and in the meantime, the chemistry between pilot and brakeman improved so that, under the push of Williams, USA-1 improved their track record twice (in terms of start times, with a best of 5" 12). This means that the former sprinter was good at adapting to her role as brakeman, and running in a technically very different way from the kind she was used to on the athletics track: without her arms, with shorter and less round steps than the stroke of an athlete. She was even seconds away from winning the gold: a dream that faded away in the last heat. But this aside, Lauryn Williams’ performance still enters the historybooks of the Olympic Games.