New Sled Thanks

Many thanks - more than I can ever articulate - go out to:

Vic and Denise Method
&
Don Becker
&
USANA Health Sciences

The story:
As mentioned in my recent Team Trials post, Brad and I both got new sleds this summer. It was long overdue - our old sleds were decent and solid, but no longer cutting edge enough for the competition we faced. My old sled got me to the World Cup and through part of the first season there, and I still have a soft spot for it, but it's time to pass it on.

Our new sleds are made by Willi Schneider, the skeleton driving coach, from Germany. He's an amazing coach and changed my sliding dramatically last season, and builds a fantastic sled.

You know that saying, you get what you pay for?

Well, these type of sleds aren't cheap. I won't put a specific price out there, but let's just say that between the two of us we basically bought the equivalent of a brand new car this summer. And had to pay for it in its entirety.

We'd been saving all summer....and then I happened to meet a fantastic man named Vic Method this summer, at a fundraiser for the Women's Ski Jumpers. He's one of the most passionate Olympic winter sports supporters that I've met (second only to Russ Collison, USA Skeleton #1 fan), and helped the WSJ get organized and funded. We started chatting and talking about skeleton....chatting led to coffee, and within five minutes he was going 100 miles an hour with ideas.

Well, long story short, some of those ideas came through. I'd managed to save a large portion of the sled expenses but wasn't quite there, and Vic, along with his wife Denise, helped put the rest together! Amazing.

Donations from Vic and Denise and Don Becker pushed my savings through! Our sleds arrived in Lake Placid, and while we are still learning to drive them, they are a great improvement over the old and are going to be fast!

At the same time, Vic introduced me to Dan Macuga of USANA, and from there an amazing relationship blossomed. I'm happy to say that I'm now a member of Team USANA, and loving it! (Why? We can finally can take vitamins and other supplements without fear of an accidental positive drug test from contaminated supplements - USANA has a guarantee, and extremely high level of quality control, unlike some others...as a bonus their stuff is very tasty...check them out!)