Monterey Bobsledder Nick Cunningham qualifies for 3rd Winter Olympic Team
The 12 athletes who will make up the 2018 U.S. Olympics Men’s Bobsled Team in PyeongChang, South Korea have been announced and one of the teammates is from Monterey.
Nick Cunningham, 32, of Monterey has been chosen to be one of three men selected to pilot the three Team USA sleds.
Cunningham is a two-time Olympian, he raced as a push athlete at the 2010 Vancouver Games, finishing 13th in four-man and 12th in two-man, and competed at the 2014 Sochi Games as a pilot, nearly echoing his 2010 finishes with a 12th place in four-man and 13th in two-man.
“A number of components were considered when the selection committee decided the 2018 U.S. Olympic Men’s Bobsled Team, including combine test and U.S. National Push Championship results, U.S. National Team Trials finishes, driver input, proven international experience with a history of results and team combinations working well together, trend of push times, start rank and velocity, and current season results,” said Olympic officials.
Cunningham says it would be an honor to bring home a medal.
“Winning a medal first and foremost for my country, for my family and my community, those are the coolest things to be able to do. I would be able to pay back all those on the Central Coast that really kind of put time into me, put effort into me, told me that you can do this if you want to be successful, you can go and do it. Those are who I think this medal would mean the most to and I’d be able to say look we did it. I didn’t do it alone. I get to hold onto the medal forever but it’s for everybody,” said Cunningham.
The USA men’s bobsled team has claimed 19 Olympic medals since 1928.
The Olympic bobsled events will take place over two-days of racing with two heats each day. The two-man competition will take place Feb. 18-19, and four-man races Feb. 24-25.
Cunningham posted his exciting news to Twitter:
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/BOBSLEDR/status/952949574385197056″,”author_name”:”Nick Cunningham, OLY”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/BOBSLEDR”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Mom and Dad- We did it!… AGAIN!! You were always there when I needed you the most. Through the good times and the bad, your love and support always kept me going. I love you and more importantly, thank you. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/TeamUSA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@TeamUSA&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ForMyFamily?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#ForMyFamily&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/xjC1PRfg5y”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/xjC1PRfg5y&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Nick Cunningham, OLY (@BOBSLEDR) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/BOBSLEDR/status/952949574385197056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;January 15, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/BOBSLEDR/status/952912484729610240″,”author_name”:”Nick Cunningham, OLY”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/BOBSLEDR”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;I am honored to announce that I have been named to my 3rd Winter Olympic Team. Thank you to all those that have supported me on this crazy journey. We did it! &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/2018WinterOlympics?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#2018WinterOlympics&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/CME7PSdNTr”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/CME7PSdNTr&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Nick Cunningham, OLY (@BOBSLEDR) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/BOBSLEDR/status/952912484729610240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;January 15, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
