http://detnews.com/article/20100223/SPO ... lle-RzepkaThere's no slowing down for Novi bobsledder Michelle Rzepka
Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News
Vancouver, British Columbia -- When Michelle Rzepka was a little girl, the boys in the neighborhood constantly knocked on the door, pleading with her mom and dad to let her come out and race.
She rarely lost.
"Mickie's whole life has been in sports," said her mom, Holly Rzepka, of Novi. "She was a tomboy. She grew up with all of the boys in the neighborhood.
"She was the fastest little girl in the neighborhood, and she beat all of the boys."
Rzepka is still fast, and as startling as it might seem, it might well pay off for the United States in women's bobsled.
In fact, there's some possibility it will pay off in gold, silver or bronze.
Amid the considerable dangers of bobsledding that have been significantly increased by a too-quick track, where a Georgian luger died on the first day of the games, Mickie Rzepka is running strong against her Canadian and German rivals.
"The dream is becoming reality," Rzepka said after her trial runs down the track on the mountain left her and the ace U.S. driver Shauna Rohbock, fractions of a second from first place.
"Everytime I take a trip down the track I get more and more excited for race day," Rzepka, 26, said. "I'm ready to show everyone what we can do and that we are in contention for medal."
Rzepka's speed carried her through childhood and to track and volleyball at Novi High School. Her mom and dad say that hanging out with her brother, Ryan, and his friends toughened Mickie and made her even more competitive.
"Her freshman year in high school was the first time they had pole-vaulting for the girls," her mom said. "And when she came to us with the idea, we said, 'Pole vaulting?'
"Mickie has always been very, very competitive," said her father, David. "When Mickie sets her mind to something, it's 100 percent. She always sets some high goals for herself and does everything all in."
Rzepka competed in the state track meet in the 100 meters in high school. But the pole vaulting was really starting to happen.
At Michigan State, she was a two-time All-American. But a stress fracture to her shin derailed hope for the Summer Olympics.
The lion in her was suddenly in repose.
For the first time since the little boys used to knock, it looked like Mickie Rzepka was finally done running and playing.
Then, the phone rang.
"She came home one day, and out of the blue, she gets this call from U.S. bobsledding," her father said, referring to the U.S. Bobsledding and Skeleton Federation.
Like many of the winter sports that are rarely played by kids in the United States, U.S. bobsledding officials are regularly looking for successful high school and college athletes who may well be able to compete, after some training, in the Winter Games. Those efforts have begun to pay huge dividends.
Bobsled officials knew Mickie could run and loved to compete. And it was not lost on them that running down a track with a pole in her hand, planting the end, and jumping, was not unlike what a brakeman does in bobsled.
"There was an emptiness inside of her, no doubt about it, for not being able to make it to the big stage," Dave Rzepka said. "Here was that opportunity, and as soon as she got that phone call, there really was no decision.
"She was going to seize the opportunity."
Her mom laughs at the memory. Holly remembers her and Dave sort of acting surprised. But to parents used to the twists and turns of life, they simply realized they were about to get used to their daughter speeding on ice through the twists and turns of bobsled.
"We said, 'Bobsledding?' " her mom recalled. "And, of course, she said it was something she'd like to try.
"Her rookie year, in 2007, she went straight to the World Cup," Holly said. "It was pretty incredible and really unusual that she would do that her rookie year."
The lion was back in her lair.
"I always said that bobsledding chose me; I didn't choose bobsled," Rzepka said. "It was just kind of there.
"I am the sort of person that if you ask me what I would do five years from now, I really don't know. But I have a really strong sense I will be happy and doing what I want.
"Life has a real way of figuring itself out, and that's how it happened."
When it comes to Rzepka, life still had a lot of figuring out to do.
Her first years in bobsled were wildly successful, and she sat in one of the subordinate U.S. sleds just before Christmas, hopeful of qualifying for the Games.
Then, Valerie Fleming, the brakewoman for Rohbok, the most successful women's bobsled skipper in U.S history, injured her leg.
Rzepka got another phone call. And now, the ol' Spartans' pole vaulter is looking straight down an icy track, on a snowy mountain, right at the possibility of an Olympic gold medal, tonight.
She's the brakeman in USA-1. Through two training runs, the sled finished mere tenths and then, three-hundredths of a second behind Canada-1.
On Sunday, Rohbok started having a little trouble with the combination of turns three and four, and USA-1 slipped back to fifth.
Meanwhile, trouble can quickly become danger, here.
The sleds, or sleighs as they are officially known in Olympic parlance, are coming down the same luge track where the Georgian rider, Nodar Komaritashvili, died.
But the tomboy is not scared. Rzepka has been competing with the boys her whole life -- with lion's heart.
She seems to go back, in her mind, to the experience of running against the boys, and training with her brother Ryan and his friends.
