Noelle Pikus-Pace believes that if she earns an Olympic medal next month it will actually belong to a lot of people who have never even been on a skeleton track.
"I can't even name how many people have helped me get here," said Pikus-Pace in a teleconference last Sunday after being officially named to the 2010 Olympic skeleton team. "Most importantly my mom, first of all. When I was in high school, she was always taking time off work to drive me two hours to and from the track so I could see if it was something I was interested in doing."
The list goes on.
"My sister Amanda," Pikus-Pace said. "She watches my daughter every single day, and she's working. Her family has made so many sacrifices just so I could be here right now."
There were letters of support, offers of financial help, including a stranger who bought her a new sled, at the cost of $5,000, when her sled was run over by a bobsled as she tried to recover from a devastating injury that occurred just a few months earlier.
"I wouldn't have been able to pay for that," she said. "There have been countless people who have been right there to support me and are right by my side. Really, this is not all about me. This isn't just my moment."
But make no mistake about it. It is a moment many years in the making, and a moment that comes after serious injuries, setbacks, heartbreak, a marriage, a baby and a lot of hard work.
Pikus-Pace is the youngest of eight children and a native of Orem. She grew up running track and playing softball at Mountain View High School. She began competing in skeleton in 2001 through a developmental program at the Utah Olympic Park.
"When I was younger, I played softball and ran track, so I was always looking at the Summer Games," she said. Then she watched as the same friends she competed with in the developmental program had success at the 2002 Games. That's when the training began in earnest, all the while she was earning her college degree at Utah Valley University on a track and field scholarship. While competing for UVU, she broke the NCAA record for high jump and was named a first-team All-American. She graduated in 2005, the same year a freak accident, in October, took her on a painful detour.
She was hit by a run away bobsled and her leg was broken. She worked hard to try and come back from the injury but failed to make the 2006 Olympic team.
Despite the extreme disappointment, Pikus-Pace said she never thought about giving up sinking into self-pity.
"I felt I had two choices — move forward or look back," she said. "I was planning on retiring after the Olympics in 2006. And then, after the accident, my husband and I both decided it wasn't time for me to be done. My dream has always been the Olympics."
She didn't earn a spot on the 2006 Olympic Team, but she came back even more determined the year after the Olympics.
Pikus-Pace became the first U.S. woman to win a World Championship in January of 2007. She won it by the largest margin in women's skeleton history.
In 2008, she took a year off to have her daughter, Lacee, who turned 2 last week, just about the same time Pikus-Pace learned she was officially on the 2010 Team.
"It's been a long, trying road," she said. "To finally make it here. I couldn't sleep last night (before the announcement). I think I went to bed at four in the morning, even though I already had a pretty good idea I was going. Just being officially named to the team meant so much to me."
Pikus-Pace credits the support of her husband, Janson Pace, whom she married in the summer of 2002, for her ability to find focus and inspiration.
"My sled was damaged going to the World Championships last year and I had to borrow a teammate's sled to compete," she said.
That's when Janson said he wanted to build her a sled himself.
"It's pretty crazy," she said, laughing. "People just don't go out and build a skeleton sled."
He did his research and built a sled that she said fits her perfectly — including the color, pink.
"I have really loved my sled," she said. "I feel very comfortable on it."
Pikus-Pace said this year is her last in international competition. She is tired of missing holidays and her daughter's birthdays. Still, she plans to savor this final season, as well as her Olympic experience.
"It has been hard every World Cup stop to say a final farewell to it, but at the same time I feel I am able to enjoy it and take it all in," she said. "The Olympic experience will be unlike anything. Obviously I've never been there, but I can imagine what it will be like. I'm doing my best to prepare for and visualize what it will be like, especially on race day. Other than race day, I just want to enjoy it all.
"But on race day, I'm really trying to visualize everybody standing on the sides and all the noise and all the media and everything there, so I can be as prepared as possible and focus on the track and every curve in front of me and not be distracted by those things around me. I'm just so excited to go and really just to take it all in and enjoy every single moment of it."
FACES OF THE GAMES
Noelle Pikus-Pace
Birthdate: Dec. 8, 1982
Hometown: Orem
Education: Graduated from Mountain View High School and Utah Valley University.
Interesting tidbits: Married to Janson Pace since 2002 and has a 2-year-old daughter, Lacee. Started a business that sells wacky winter hats (snowfirehats.com).
Web site: www.noellepikuspace.com
e-mail: adonaldson@desnews.com