Bo-Dyn wins Gold: Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers stunned the field Tuesday night, winning the gold medal in the inaugural women’ Olympic bobsled race and breaking a 46-year drought in the sport for the United States. The bobsledders employed a Bo-Dyn sled Tuesday, designed and heavily funded by NASCAR racer and Chemung native Geoffrey Bodine. After eight years of work, and a lot of money, the Bo-Dyn sled took home a medal and not just any medal, the gold. Bodine is scheduled to leave for Salt Lake early today, but he missed the first-ever medal run by one of his sleds. I told (Geoffrey) theyre probably partying tonight and he said, You can bet theyll be partying tommorrow when I get there, Bodine’ assistant, Lisa Cox, told The Leader late Tuesday. The gold medal rounds out a nearly perfect week for Bodine who finished third in the Daytona 500 Sunday, two years after almost perishing in a crash at the same track. The other U.S. team of Jean Racine and Gea Johnson, also using a Bo-Dyn sled, had been favored to contend for a medal and overshadowed Bakken and Flowers leading up to the race [they ended up 5th]. In the end, though, it was the USA-2 team that had the fastest combined time in the two runs, 1 minute, 37.76 seconds. Flowers, the team’ brakewoman and a former track star at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, became the first black athlete to win a Winter Olympic gold medal.(The Leader)(2-20-2002)
