Hunter Church.Photo: Hunter Church/Instagram
Hunter Church, Joshua Williamson, Carlo Valdes and Charles Volker of Team USA compete in the four-man bobsleigh.Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty
A young Hunter Church and his father Thomas Church.Hunter Church/Instagram
Church says the U.S. team is ready to shock the world and make it back to the podium in the coming years, poised to give the world’s most dominant teams from Germany, Russia, and Austria a run for their money. No matter what those teams do, Church says he’s focused on his own performance in Beijing.
“It kind of just feels like I’m heading to another race,” he says. “I just feel a sense of calm. Maybe that’s part of the relief of all these years of work and knowing that I have made it.”
Hunter Church.Kerstin Joensson/AP/Shutterstock
The road to Beijing wasn’t an easy one.
After not making the 2018 Olympic squad, Church went back to the development circuit and finished in the top 13 of the world’s four-man rankings. But then he was left off the U.S. national team and told it might be time to find a new career.
“I came back to write the story the way I wanted to and now I’m told I’ve wasted my time and it’s time to leave,” he recalls. Then, less than 48 hours later, a pilot on the national team pulled out of the IBSF World Championships and Church got called up, making best of the opportunity and finishing the season ranked fifth worldwide in four-man. He helped the U.S. capture bronze at the world championship — the country’s first international medal since Holcomb’s team in 2017.Church’s team repeated as bronze medalists at the world championships this January, proving neither his nor Team USA’s turnaround were flukes.
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visitTeamUSA.org. Watch the Winter Olympics, beginning Feb 3, and the Paralympics, beginning March 4, on NBC.
source: people.com
