Erin Pac's grandfather was a ski jumper. He went to the Olympic trials but injured his knee, and that was the end of his Olympic aspirations.
"It kind of skipped a generation, meaning me," Erin's mother, Gail Boettger, said Friday.
But Olympic fever found her daughter. Erin Pac was a runner, soccer player, swimmer and diver at Farmington High in Connecticut (she graduated in 1999) and a heptathlete at Springfield College.
Now she is the top-ranked U.S. female bobsled driver and will find out next month if she will compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
"The road to Vancouver has been long, but I wouldn't take back what I have learned from it," Pac, 29, wrote in an e-mail last week from Cesena, Italy, where she was getting ready for her third World Cup race. "I have dreamt about being in the Olympics since I was in elementary school.
"I feel confident in my abilities, my pushing, my driving, my equipment and coaches. If it is in the cards, I will be there come Feb."
Pac always wanted to be an Olympian, but thought it would be on the track.
"She did very well (in track)," her mother said, "but she wasn't quite good enough."
Pac is much faster in a bobsled. The highest speed she has reached, according to her mom, is 85 mph.
"I've always loved to go fast," Pac wrote, "and what a better way to live on the edge."
Her journey to Vancouver started in 2002 -- the first year women's bobsled was offered at the Olympics -- when her track coach at Springfield received an e-mail about a national team tryout in June. He told Pac, who is 5 feet, 7 inches, 170 pounds, that she should go.
So in December 2002, instead of studying for finals at Springfield, Pac found herself competing in a World Cup race at Lake Placid, as a brakeman in the back of a bobsled.
"Bobsledding kind of fell into my life," Pac wrote. "At first, I didn't really like it until I started pushing well. My true passion started the instant I set foot in the driver's seat. My very first trip down, I knew that this is where I belonged."
Pac wasn't chosen for the 2006 Olympic team as a brakeman and started driving immediately after that.
"As a brakeman, you are subjected to being in race-offs for a spot in a sled," she wrote. "Sometimes, it's not all about how well you push. Personality clashes can cause problems for a brakeman. Switching to the driver's seat has given me control of my own destiny. Most drivers take about four-plus years to become a good driver."
A good driver must be able to channel aggressiveness, explosiveness and speed into the initial push, then be able to jump in the sled and calm down immediately and focus on driving.
Pac had her best race last spring at Whistler, the Olympic venue, where she finished third in a World Cup event. She finished fifth in Saturday's race in Italy. Five races remain in the series.
Pac got her degree at Springfield in rehabilitation and disabilities studies and planned to be a social worker before her Olympic dream surfaced.
"I would like to open up a breakfast/lunch bistro when I am done sliding," Pac wrote. "My future is untold! I don't know if I will continue another 4 years. I will make a decision at the end of this season."
Comments