DC Games 2014: A Tale from Heartbreak Hotel

By DC Cueva

@DC408dxtr

We are into Day 6 of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, and more than a week has past since competition began a day before the Opening Ceremony. Tonight sees the beginning of men's figure skating and the short program including Russia's legendary Yevgeny Plushenko (4-time Olympic medalist & 2006 Olympic champ), defending world champion Patrick Chan of Canada, and this season’s Grand Prix Final winner, Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu. Also, American speed skaters Heather Richardson & Brittany Bowe go for gold in the women's 1000m (for which the former went to the same high school as one of my fellow followers on twitter), as well as the gold medal final in men's slope style in men's freestyle skiing featuring Indiana's Nick Goepper. After starting yesterday, men's hockey hits into overdrive today with the first games of the tournament for the United States, Canada and the host nation Russians.

   And after Erin Hamlin collected the first-ever American singles & women's medal in luge, activity at the Sanki Sliding Center will be busy today with the first-ever luge mixed team relay, along with the beginning of competiton in skeleton as the women's event begins. But if you're both a fan of the Olympics as much as I am, but is also a fan of MTV's The Challenge and eagerly awaiting the upcoming 25th season of the so-called "fifth major professional sport," you might be interested in this story which harks back to the most heartbreaking moment from the last Challenge, Rivals II, and how it relates to what one member of the U.S. skeleton team, who's also a gold medal contender in Sochi. And that's where we head into that unenviable task of entering the Heartbreak Hotel.

For me, the most-heartbreaking moment of Rivals II last summer came in the 3rd men's jungle elimination between Zach & Trey and Leroy & Ty. In "Breaking on Through," from the naked eye it appeared that Zach & Trey won their elimination, and the former football wide receiver even celebrated by tossing his helmet in the air, almost getting in contact with the rest of the cast watching. But in the most shocking of instances, by a mere technicality, thanks to Trey's helmet cam catching them working out of order in one of the obstacles, the result was reversed and they were the ones who went home after being disqualified, giving the win to Leroy & Ty.

   Then, three months later on Black Friday while many of us were shopping, eating leftovers and watching football, the first stop on the Skeleton World Cup in this Olympic season took place in Calgary, Canada, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 1988. Like most Olympic sports events and taking place during the heart of the fall sports season, this one barely registered on most sports fans' radar. But this story registered a good deal on mine, and contains the link from what happened that summer night in Thailand with what happened that Thanksgiving weekend in Alberta.

The top American competitor in women's skeleton, and one of the best in the world is Noelle Pikus-Pace from just north of Salt Lake City. She was the overall Skeleton World Cup champion in 2004-05, silver medalist at the '05 World Championships, and became a medal favorite for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino. But an right leg injury suffered in a freak accident during training in October 2005 in Calgary would ultimately dent her Olympic dreams, as a late season comeback eventually became too late for her to be included on the '06 U.S. team. Then a year later she became pregnant, and took the '07-08 World Cup season off to give birth to her baby. 

   Eventually, Pikus-Pace would eventually get her chance to race at an Olympics in 2010 in Vancouver, but only barely. Two of her sleds were damaged, first in the Calgary accident and then en route to the 2009 World Championships in Lake Placid, so it was left to husband Janson Pace to design a new sled, which helped her place 4th but out of the medals in Whistler. Shortly after the Games, she retired to spend more time with her growing family.

   But after suffering a miscarriage two years later, that retirement didn't last long, as she came out of her hiatus in the summer of 2012 with eyes on Sochi and needed skeleton to cope with that loss. And in her comeback tour, she helped the U.S. win team gold at the 2013 World's in St. Moritz, Switzerland and won a silver in the women's event; and won two World Cup events in Germany and in Sochi on the same Sanki Sliding Center track where she competes today in day 1 of 2 of the Olympic women's skeleton competition.

At that very opening race of the 2013-14 World Cup season in Canada, Pikus-Pace started with a personal best start time of :05.55, posted the fastest heat of the night with a :57.25, and clocked a total time of 1:55.88 to claim a 0.16-second win over her top threat in the race for gold in Russia, Great Britain's Elizabeth Yarnold. Or, she thought. Afterwards, Yarnold's coaching staff filed a protest to FIBT, the international governing body for skeleton and bobsled, contending that the nickel-sized tape the American used on the handle of her sled would give her a competitive advantage, even though her sled had passed inspection a few days earlier and didn't make any changes until the race on Friday. The FIBT board agreed with the British team's claims, and without any warning, Pikus-Pace was disqualified and the British slider was given the win.

After the disqualification, Noelle posted the following on her Facebook page:

"My heart is broken. I just won gold in the first World Cup and have been disqualified due to a protest from the British team. My sled was cleared by the international federation for competition but without a warning they disqualified me for having 3 pieces of tape on my handle to help me push my sled, which many athletes do. So so sad and disappointed that thousands of hours of training came down to a protest and decision for 3 pieces of non performance enhancing tape. I would have obviously removed it if they had told me in my sled inspection that it was wrong in any way. Thank you all for your love and support!"

U.S. Skeleton head coach Tuffy Latour put her frustration this way: "Noelle is devastated. She didn't violate the spirit of the rule. But I'll tell you what; this has released the lioness in her. She is going to be on a tear, and I have no doubt she'll be back on the medal stand in Park City, Utah." And U.S. assistant coach and former Olympian Zach Lund would add, "It's a travesty. There's no competitive advantage, and we are really disappointed."

   Inspired by the events in Calgary, Pikus-Pace would go on that tear, as she would eventually place on the podium in all seven succeeding World Cup stops leading to the Sochi Olympics, including winning her next two starts, first close to home over there in Park City and then in Lake Placid, plus wins overseas in St. Moritz and the last pre-Olympic event in Germany.

   Plus in all this, a condition of her comeback was they she could only compete if her family came along for the ride. And Janson and kids Lacee & Traycen will be cheering their mom on today. Yes, it's a family affair in Sochi for her.

In a way, what happened to Noelle Pikus-Pace in Calgary echoed what happened with Trey and Zach on Rivals II. But in Noelle's case, this DQ wasn't as catastrophic as what happened to Team Green when they were sent home from Thailand, as it was just the opening World Cup event when the buzz isn't as big and the event wasn't as important to most sports fans as an Olympics. But the storyline is the same: you do your best and you think you won something, only to have the victory taken away when a mere technicality costs you the win.

   It's always tough to see people go through events like this in the competitive world. But it's been great to see someone recover so quickly from an unfortunate event to eventually being motivated by it to do so well. And for Noelle Pikus-Pace, four years have come & gone, and today & tomorrow she gets another chance to not only step onto the Olympic podium, but to the top of it as well. The kids would like nothing else than for her mom to share gold with them.

Keep it here on DCBLOG for more Games 2014 posts during Sochi 2014 as we cover various aspects of the Olympics, the sports and events from Olympic world, taking the SocialPulse of key moments and so much more as the action unfolds from Russia. And Twitter @DC408dxtr will offer live tweeting (Pacific time) of TV coverage including tonight's primetime show and live streaming & cable coverage, time permitting.

   We're also covering MTV's Real World Ex-Plosion and Are You The One? here & on twitter, including a Fan's View of the RW After Shows and, later tonight, the SocialPulse of Tuesday's explosive episode of ATYO & the inspiring comeback story of one of the castmates. For now, until I join you on twitter at 8pm PT and then here on the blog later, thanks for reading and see you then. Go USA!

- DC