Sharp Earns Spot on Olympic Bobsled Team
January 08, 2002 | Men's Track and Field
Jan. 8, 2002
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - University of Louisville assistant men's track coach Doug Sharp can now be called an Olympian. The sixth-year coach recently qualified as a member of the U.S. four-man bobsled team that will compete at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
"This is a fulfillment of a lifelong dream," says Sharp, who will serve as a pusher for the USA II sled. "I've worked my entire life toward making this happen. Bobsledding has been a very good fit for me, and I couldn't be happier with how this has all worked out."
Sharp will be joined by another athlete with Kentucky ties, former Morehead State football player Brian Shimer (driver) who will be competing in his fifth Olympics.
In his fourth year as a member of the U.S. National Bobsled team, Sharp's four-man crew won the 1999 U.S. National Championships. He also gained a third-place finish in the 2000 Brakeman Push Championships.
A graduate of Purdue University and a doctor of chiropractic, Sharp is a former Big-Ten Champion and NCAA qualifier in the pole vault. Holding a personal-best of 18-0.5, Sharp was ranked among the top-35 in the World in 1996 and came just short of qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials when a hamstring injury curtailed his training in that same year. Ironically that injury is what introduced him to bobsledding, as a member of the U.S. Bobsled team led his rehab program.
"I have a lot of people to thank for helping me realize this dream," said Sharp. "I'm excited and anxious about what could happen at the Olympics, especially with it being right here in our country."
The bobsled competition will take place February 22-23 at Utah Olympic Park.
