Olympic champion bobsledder Steven Holcomb found dead at 37

Olympic champion bobsledder Steven Holcomb was determined lifeless in his room at the U.S. Olympic training middle in Lake Placid, N.Y., the U.S. Olympic Committee announced Saturday. He became 37.

usa Bobsled & Skeleton CEO Darrin Steele said there was no evidence of what triggered Holcomb's loss of life and he expected an autopsy to be finished on Sunday.

Holcomb gained an Olympic gold medal on the 2010 Vancouver games, piloting the "night time educate" to victory inside the four-guy bobsled competition. It become the first U.S. gold medal within the event due to the fact 1948.

four years later in Sochi, he went on to win bronze medals in each -man and 4-guy bobsled.

"The whole Olympic own family is bowled over and saddened with the aid of the tremendously tragic loss these days of Steven Holcomb,” stated Scott Blackmun, USOC CEO. “Steve become a exceptional athlete and even better character, and his perseverance and achievements were an idea to us all. Our thoughts and prayers are with Steve's family and the whole bobsledding network.”

a native of Park metropolis, Utah, who joined the arena Cup circuit as a brakeman in 1998, Holcomb became one of the maximum decorated bobsled pilots within the global. He received 60 world Cup medals and 10 medals at world championships similarly to his 3 Olympic medals. He changed into a five-time world champion.

Holcomb completed the season ranked No. 2 in two-man bobsled on the arena Cup circuit and 1/3 in 4-guy. In March he competed on the song with the intention to host subsequent year's Olympics, posting pics on social media from Pyeongchang, South Korea.

"My coronary heart is damaged and i am nevertheless in surprise," U.S. Olympic bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor informed america today sports. "We now not best misplaced a exceptional bobsledder nowadays, we lost a excellent teammate and a good better pal. He became united states bobsled and will for all time be. i'm able to leave out him deeply."

Michael Phelps, Allison Schmitt talk approximately fighting despair
Steele remembered Holcomb’s perseverance in the sport. After failing to make the Olympic group as a brakeman in 2002, Holcomb no longer best got here again but sought to come to be a pilot. He made the Olympic team four years later.

even though Holcomb didn’t win a medal in Turin, Steele said it turned into important to Holcomb that he become riding the pinnacle American sled. He started out triumphing rapidly thereafter, marveling that he became using just as he had before.

That perception in himself, of desiring to be the first-rate in the global, modified the subculture for the yank group, Steele stated.

“I don’t want people to be too grounded and too sensible. I need them to be dreamers that check out the clouds and aren’t afraid to head for matters. That’s what he delivered,” he stated.

“For a team recreation, you might not have that belief in your self, however if you could consider on your teammates and especially, your motive force, that’s sufficient. And over the years, you get that perception in your self as well. He gave that. He was, doesn’t be counted what year it changed into, the athletes may want to observe him and know that the U.S. can get gold medals. That man proper there has confirmed it, demonstrated it in Vancouver. And by using the manner, he’s no longer superhuman. He was an implausible force, he changed into an excellent athlete. however in lots of ways, he’s a normal guy.”

In 2008, Holcomb had experimental eye surgery to correct a disorder referred to as keratoconus, which distorts vision and often leads to blindness. earlier than the corrective surgical procedure, Holcomb battled melancholy, and in his 2012 e book, but Now I See: My adventure From Blindness to Olympic Gold, he discovered that he tried suicide in 2007.

"despair isn't some thing you trap inside the wind at some point and get unwell the next," Holcomb wrote. "it's far a slow, degenerative system, similar to my keratoconus. And much like my blindness, I chose to battle the demon by myself, without telling every body or searching for assist from others."

Brant Feldman, who has been Holcomb’s agent because 2009, said he couldn't launch any info on Holcomb’s dying.

Feldman said he currently spent per week with Holcomb in l.  a. for NBC promos earlier of the Pyeongchang Olympics and a documentary about Holcomb. Feldman turned into running with a potential new sponsor who deliberate to fly Holcomb and his father out to the Indy 500 later this month.

“everything changed into cool,” Feldman stated. “We had been speaking approximately while he wanted to retire, and he informed me with the sector championships being in Whistler in 2019, that could be his swan tune.”

Feldman remembered Holcomb because the consummate teammate.

In 2014, Holcomb asked his helmet sponsor to provide tools for some of the ladies’s bobsledders, Feldman said.

“Steven turned into, for the human beings that clearly got to recognise him, they truly cherished this guy. He turned into quiet and he changed into reserved and quiet and nature, but his word became his bond,” he said.

“in case you were on Steven’s team, you were on his team. He became the type of guy that was extremely unswerving to those around him that had been his friends. The really near friends that he had are devastated proper now.

“I’m getting messages from all over the region right now, and every person is amazed. Steve become certainly cherished with the aid of quite a few humans.”

Steele stated he expects memorials for Holcomb in Park city and Lake Placid. He reached out to the USOC, which offered help with counseling for the athletes.

Like Steele, the ones athletes are grappling with Holcomb’s demise.

“I’m not positive that he understood why he related with human beings so properly, however I assume it turned into due to the fact he did show he turned into a ordinary man with flaws and positives and negatives. however he wasn’t afraid to head ahead,” Steele said. “He wasn’t afraid to put it on the road. He did have implausible items whilst it came to riding. He become a wonderful athlete. And seeing humans that we are able to relate to doing wonderful such things as he did, that’s rare. He had that. That’s one greater factor that makes it tough to think about that he’s long past.

Source: Rachel Axon