when 1986 Daytona 500 winner Geoff Bodine was invited to visit the Lake Placid Olympic training center in the early ‘90s he became fascinated by the bobsleds. In 1992 he founded Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, Inc. In 2002, they won silver and bronze, in 2010, they made the fastest sled in the world, and won gold

  After hearing how the US was an also-ran entrant in the sport using borrowed technology from Europe, Geoff decided to bring his chassis designer Bob Cuneo ( I wonder if he is related to Terence or Joan? https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=cuneo  ) in to see how they could create the next level sled and lead the US to success.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=26038459269127880&set=pcb.26038459655794508
https://usopm.org/from-the-racetrack-to-the-winter-games-building-a-better-bobsled/

With Bo-Dyn technology, the U.S. won silver and bronze for the four-man race in 2002 but still lacked that little something extra to top the podium. 

After another eight years of cutting-edge innovation and development, the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project unveiled “Night Train,” a $250,000 state-of-the-art American-made bobsled. Dubbed the fastest sled in the world

These advancements proved so successful that European teams began bidding for the sleds, a complete turn-of-the-table from the imported European sleds of the early ’90’s.

Bodine refused. “The money was dangled out in front of us to see if we would cave in and sell some of our equipment, but we said no,” said Bodine. “We didn’t do it for profit. We did it for our American athletes and no one else.”

in 2010, the U.S. Olympic Men’s Bobsled Team won its first gold medal since 1948, ending a 62-year drought

The push team included a New York Army National Guardsman, and a biological systems engineering PhD and middle linebacker for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers.

(I've already touched on Olympic bob sled teams recruiting exceptional football athletes https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2024/09/you-never-know-what-youre-going-to-find.html when I met Justin Orr, 2010 Olympics Bob Sled team)

https://www.npr.org/2010/01/14/122580366/u-s-sled-team-struggles-after-setbacks