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.”

Bremerton’s Bree Schaaf wrote a guest blog for Entertainment Weekly.

The skeleton athlete turned Olympic bobsledder (she was fifth in 2010 Games) turned NBC broadcaster writes:

I spent the first five years of my 12-year sliding career competing in skeleton before transitioning to the pilot seat of a bobsled. Twelve years of professional sleigh riding? Sounds like a Christmas movie starring the Lawrence brothers! But the few who have had the chance to give bobsled or skeleton a try just for “fun,” soon realize that it’s far too hardcore for made-for-TV movies. That is unless your brand of “fun” involves climbing into a washing machine, setting it on spin, getting pushed off a hill and slamming into boulders the whole way down. It is an almost violent 60 seconds, and something most people rarely want to repeat.

Here’s the full blog.

It sounds like she’s having a blast in Sochi. Here’s a recent tweet from Bree:

Heard @meredithvieira AND @MLauer just said my name! Always hoped it would be after a medal, still pretty darn cool! #Sochi2014 @NBCOlympics

Here’s Bree calling John Daly’s disappointing run in the skeleton. The American had a bad start and Schaaf calls it right away. “Oh no! ….”

Was Lolo Jones deserving of her spot on the Olympic bobsled team?

Jones earned the third and final brakeman spot, ahead of former Olympian Emily Azevedo, who helped push Bremerton’s Bree Schaaf to fifth at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and Katie Eberling.

Jones was an Olympic hurdler who transitioned to bobsled a year ago.

“I should have been working harder on gaining Twitter followers than gaining muscle mass,” said Azevedo in a USA Today story. 

Azevedo and Eberling didn’t blame Jones, but questioned the selection process.

Schaaf, like Azevedo, is basically an alternate for Sochi in the event someone is injured between now and then. Schaaf will be there regardless as she will be working as a skeleton analysis for NBC.

Bremerton’s Bree Schaaf was a close fourth — .03 seconds out of third — during a U.S. bobsled trials selection race at Park City, Utah, on Friday.

The national team was announced today and Schaaf, a fifth-place finisher at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C., was not on it. I’m not sure what this means to her career. The U.S. will send three teams out on the World Cup circuit and two of those teams, and possibly a third depending on how they perform during the World Cup, will represent the U.S. at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in February. During an interview with me earlier this month, Schaaf indicated that the odds of making it to the Olympics without being on the World Cup team were terribly slim. It would probobly take an injury to one of the drivers — Elana Meyers, Jamie Greubel or Jazmine Fenalator — or a series of really bad performances by one of those drivers in order for Schaaf to get back on the team.

“There’s a roundabout chance,” she said, “but that’s kind of counting on things going badly for another person, and that’s not how you want to live your life … you never want your success to depend on someone else’s misfortune.”

Here’s a link to a story about Friday’s selection races. You’ll notice that Schaaf’s teammate from the 2010 Olympics, Emily Azevedo, was on the winning sled Friday and is one of six push athletes named to the team. Lolo Jones and Lauryn Williams, former track and field stars, are also on the team as push athletes. Williams, a bobsled rookie, was paired with Schaaf for both selection races — the one at Park City and the previous race at Lake Placid two weeks ago where they also finished fourth.

In the men’s four-man bobsled trials, former North Kitsap state 100-meter champion Dak Kongela was part of a team that placed sixth at Friday’s selection races. Kongela’s relatively new to the sport so maybe he’ll have a chance to make it to a future Olympics if he sticks with bobsled.

When I talked to Schaaf, the Olympic High grad was so focused on the bobsled trails that she didn’t have time to think about what life would be like without the sport. She’s got so many talents, it’s hard to predict what she’ll be doing next. If you’ve read any of her Team USA blogs, you know she’s a wonderful writer with a great wit and sense of humor. She’s a versatile musician, artist, goldsmith, and even served as a broadcaster on the World Cup circuit. After all of these years of training, she’s certainly qualified to be a personal trainer.

And it wouldn’t surprise me if the former Portland State volleyball player continues to slide down those tracks in a bobsled, chasing her dream. It’s not beneath her to go back down to the minor leagues of her sport and keep her skills sharp, just in case something does happen between now and Sochi. She has accumulated so much knowledge and is such an inspiring athlete, it also wouldn’t surprise me if the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation kept her around in some sort of coaching/training role.

This is how Olympic sprinter Lauryn Willliams became Bree Schaaf’s bobsled prom date for the U.S. bobsled trials. The process of how the teams are put together are the subject of Bree’s latest Team USA blog.

Bremerton’s Schaaf and Williams placed fourth during the first stage of the U.S. bobsled trials at Lake Placid, N.Y., over the weekend. That means the duo, providing they are teamed once again, will likely need a second-place finish at the Oct. 25 trials race in Park City, Utah, in order to earn a spot on the U.S. World Cup team.

And if you’re not on the World Cup team, chances of being on the Olympic team for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, are not good.

Schaaf and Emily Azevedo placed fifth at the 2010 Olympics. Azevedo, a member of the U.S. national team, did not compete in Saturday’s trials in Lake Placid.

Following the trials, U.S. coaches will have the final say on putting the teams together.