Bremerton’s Bree Schaaf might be retired from bobsledding, but the 2010 Olympian helped pave the way for women to drive a four-man bobsled.
This weekend in Calgary, Elana Meyers Taylor of the United States and Kallie Humphries of Canada will become the first women to pilot four-man bobsleds in a World Cup race, smashing through the gender barrier at nearly 85 miles per hour.
Schaaf was the first woman to drive a four-man sled down a World Cup track, doing it in 2011 at Lake Placid.
“Everyone was super excited, and they were all hugging and congratulating us,” she said in a story at vicesports.com. “It was very, very cool.
Here’s more from that story written by Lindsay Gibbs:
The next season, Schaaf had hip surgery, and as she struggled to make a comeback, she found extra meaning in the push to get a four-woman bobsled event into competition. In the 2012-2013 season, Schaaf kept pushing officials to allow her to drive a four-woman sled against the men in smaller FIBT events, but she was met with resistance.
“Here we are, it’s the millennium, and we’re still asking to do the same things as the men,” she said. Schaff was given a host of reasons why she couldn’t compete with the men, such as a lack of ice time and the threat of a crash. Of course, crashing is an inherent risk for all bobsledders—male or female, two-man or four-man—so citing safety as a reason not to hand over a four-man sled to experienced pilots is an arbitrary excuse at best. And the addition of one extra bobsled to the four-man rotation would have a negligible impact on the practice and competition schedule.
“The reasons were just mind-blowing,” she said. “I worked so
hard to just maintain composure and smile and say, ‘Thanks for your
help.’ Then I’d go right above their heads.” More determined than
ever, Schaaf was not afraid to ruffle some feathers along the
way.
“In a meeting at one point, someone was once again giving me
the reasons why this would be bad for women bobsledders, and I was
like, ‘Yeah, just like voting was bad for us.'”
Here’s another excerpt:
When Schaaf didn’t make the U.S. team for Sochi, she decided to retire from the sport and begin working as a broadcaster. She said that when the FIBT announced that women could pilot four-man sleds this fall, it was a “bittersweet” moment for her.
“I’ll admit I cried for about three minutes,” she said. “Then I pictured myself in the sled, hitting my head around, and I realized, I slid for 12 years, my time’s done,” she said. “This is on these two girls. And admittedly, I’m not nearly as strong or as fast as Elana or Kallie.”
“They’re the perfect two people to bring this to the world.”
