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After Todd Hays announced in Turin that he was retiring from bobsledding, teammate Steve Mesler predicted Hays would return.
It took two years for Mesler to be right.Hays, a Del Rio native, said late last year that he was making a comeback attempt. And his quest to qualify for a fourth Olympic team received a boost when he earned a World Cup roster spot."If feeling good means anything, then I think I’m going to have a great season," Hays said on a conference call. "I feel healthy; I feel strong; I’ve got a great team behind me; I’ve got great equipment. The only thing you can ask for in life is a chance, and I have that this year, and I’m real excited about it."Hays is one of the best U.S. bobsledders ever. He has two world championship medals and an Olympic silver medal.But Hays is 40 and seven years removed from the Salt Lake City Games, where he ended a 46-year Olympic medal drought for the U.S. men’s bobsled team. He retired after finishing seventh at the Turin Games, hoping to follow his brother, Lee, in becoming a college football coach.Hays, though, couldn’t stay away from bobsledding.He announced his return to the sport in 2008, and at the 2009 World Championships, Hays’ two-man team was 11th and his four-man team was ninth.The results did not deter him."Coming back, I was still going through some growing pains with teammates," said Hays, a linebacker at Tulsa who twice was cut by the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. "I was trying to put them in the right places, and we were flip-flopping guys. Anytime you do that, you’re not going to have great results, so I wasn’t expecting any type of major results. I knew that I was going to have to kind of get two years of rust off of me. My biggest goal was to qualify for this season and to be able to come in with relatively decent rank into the first race, trying to position myself rank-wise for good push athletes and equipment. I did accomplish all those goals. "Of course, I would have liked to have won the World Championships last year, but everyone who was there wanted to do that as well. But realistically, that wasn’t going to be a real good chance for me. So I’ve got to concentrate on just getting ready for this year."The Olympic team will be selected Jan. 23 at the conclusion of the World Cup tour.Hays expects to be on it, though he calls this "the most competitive team I’ve seen."American Steven Holcomb won the World Championships in the four-man bobsled and placed third in the two-man.
2010 Vancouver Games Feb. 12-28Men’s bobsled schedule: Two-man — Feb. 20, 21 (medal); Four-man — 26, 27 (medal)Online:www.vancouver2010.com
Charean Williams, 817-390-7760
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