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Shimer, Brian
- 2002 Olympics bronze medalist driver in four-man
- 5-time Olympian (1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002)
- Bronze medallist in both 2-man and 4-man bobsled at 1997 World Championships
- Won 2-man event and finished second in 4-man event at 2002 U.S. Olympic Trials
- Shimer's 4-man team just missed the bronze medal at the 1998 Nagano Games by just .02 seconds, finishing fifth with Chip Minton, Randy Jones and Garrett Hines as pushers. He and Hines finished 10th in the 2-man
- His first Olympics came in 1988 when he was a side pusher with Matt Roy, Scott Pladel and Jim Herberich. The 4-man team finished 16th in Calgary
- Shimer's best year on the World Cup circuit came in 1996-97. He finished the season ranked second in combined (2- and 4-man) World Cup points and earned three golds and three silvers
- Since he has been with the sport since 1985, Shimer has watched the sport evolve in America as more mainstream athletes got introduced to the sport. In 1992, U.S. officials lured football great, Herschel Walker, into the sport
- Shimer was paired with Walker as his pusher in the 2-man at the 1994 Albertville Olympics, but the pair missed out on a podium finish, placing seventh
- "Herschel was a great athlete, possibly the best athlete at the 1992 Games, but to bring him in for two weeks of training and then think he'd be better than the Europeans who had been at it for six to eight years was unrealistic," Shimer said
- Played football at Morehead State University and earned a bachelor's degree in industrial technology. While still at Morehead in 1985, he became the first athlete recruited from another sport by bobsled officials
Shimer's career as a bobsledder is near an end, but he wants to stay involved with the sport by attracting crossover athletes like himself to the sport. "I'd like to focus on recruiting," Shimer said. "There are so many good athletes out there that just don't know about the sport." He believes the talent supply is endless. "What's unique about the sport of bobsledding is you can take a great athlete and make him a good bobsledder. It's just athleticism. It's not something that anybody has to grow up (doing as a) little kid driving a bobsled down the street."
Related Links
Photo gallery: Bobsled's Brian Shimer
"I think this is going to end the long drought. It's in our own backyard. If we can't get it done here, it's not going to happen."
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Height: 5' 11
Born: 20-April-1962
Hometown: Naples, Fla.
Sport: Bobsled
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