Aggie alumna Emily Azevedo isn't going to Disneyland. At least not yet.

She's going to the Olympics.

"Vancouver here I come!" she wrote in an e-mail to Dateline on Jan. 17 after the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation put her on the team for the games that are due to start Feb. 12.

Azevedo, from Chico, is on Team USA's third sled with Bree Schaaf of Bremerton, Wash. Officially, Azevedo is the "brakewoman," but she is also a pusher, and Schaaf is the driver. The pair won the national championship in 2009.

Darrin Steele, chief executive officer of the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, said in a Jan. 16 statement: “The selection committee had to make some very difficult decisions regarding the push athletes chosen to the team. Our deep pool of talented athletes is what makes us hard to beat.”

Azevedo, who graduated from UC Davis with a degree in exercise biology in 2005, is a first-time Olympian. She has been bobsledding for only four years.

She is not from a winter sports town, and, during her time at UC Davis, she did not compete in bobsledding (funny thing, we do not have a bobsledding team!). Not unlike other bobsledders, Azevedo has a background in track.

Bobsledders need speed and strength. They start from a standing position, dig their cleats into the iced runway and explode toward the frozen chute that goes down the mountain.

"Ninety miles an hour is the fastest we have gone," Azevedo said. "It feels like an out-of-control roller coaster with no seat belts!"

Oh, and don't forget: Just before the speedy descent begins, the driver and then the brakewoman must swing themselves into the sled.

That takes dexterity, something Azevedo proved she had as a hurdler at UC Davis. In 2005, she set the university's record in the 100-meter hurdles (outdoors) at 14.23 seconds — a record that held until April 2008, and which today stands as UC Davis' second best.

Now Azevedo has hurdled onto Team USA.

Up until last weekend, there was no guarantee that the United States would be able to send three sleds to the Vancouver Olympics; it all depended on the World Cup standings. Schaaf and Azevedo came through Jan. 16 with an 11th-place finish in St. Moritz, Switzerland, securing that third slot for the United States.

The sledders have one more World Cup competition in Europe, in Igls, Austria, before they return to the states.

Results from St. Moritz show Schaaf and Azevedo with push times of 5.79 seconds in the first heat and 5.74 seconds in the second, for run times of 1:08.01 and 1:08.45, respectively. Schaaf and Azevedo were in seventh place after the first heat but fell back into 11th after Schaaf made a driving error exiting the pivotal corner named Horseshoe, according to a news release from the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation.

The news release included these comments: “I was 100 times more nervous for that second run than I was for the first,” Schaaf said. “We were excited and ready to go for the first run, but the second run I felt a wave of fear. I don’t know where it came from, but I almost blew up out of Horseshoe. I’m surprised I still have bunks on the left side of the sled."

The rest of the women's bobsled lineup for the Olympics: driver Shauna Rohbock, silver medalist in 2006, in the U.S. team's first sled with Michelle Rzepka; and driver Erin Pac with Elana Meyers in the second sled.

Inspired by the 2006 games

Azevedo said she became involved in bobsledding in 2006 after watching the winter games with her roommates at UC Davis.

"I had just graduated from college and was not sure of my next step in life," Azevedo wrote on her new blog. "I was done with my collegiate track career, and, long story short, thought that bobsled would be a great way to put off the real world while getting a chance to compete for Team USA.

"Of course I told my parents I thought it would help me make some connections for jobs, and that I just wanted to try it out. I was sure there would be a way to utilize my exercise biology degree in bobsledding, right?

"It took my mom a few years to stop leaving newspaper clippings of potential jobs on my desk, but I think she has finally come to terms with the career I have chosen (of course, career is used VERY loosely, as most people with careers get paychecks)."

ON THE NET

Azevedo is blogging for In the Arena, a nonprofit organization with a goal of "connecting American youth and today's athletes to cultivate character and community." Follow her Olympics adventure at in-the-arena-emily.blogspot.com. Her first post describes how she got into blogging and bobsledding, and her second post (Jan. 17) describes how a teammate threw her support to Azevedo for a spot on the Vancouver team. "In a sport (in which) I have never felt appreciated, I just received the greatest honor: respect," Azevedo wrote.

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EARLIER COVERAGE: Winter Olympics connections — and we are looking for more

One of our assistant athletic trainers, Jill Radzinski, has signed on as a trainer for the U.S. women’s hockey team. One of our alums, Emily Azevedo, has a shot at making the U.S. bobsled team.

These are two UC Davis folks we know about with ties to the forthcoming Winter Olympics, as participants or staff, and we here at the News Service are hoping to hear from anyone out there who knows of anybody else.

Athletic trainer for women's hockey team

Radzinski — whose nickname is "Rad" — has been an assistant trainer at UC Davis since 1997. Her primary assignments are the women’s soccer and lacrosse teams, and the swimming and diving teams.

She took a leave to work with the U.S. women’s hockey team, which has been training in Blaine, Minn., since early September. The team also has been competing in the United States (where opponents have included men's and boys teams) and internationally — all leading up to the Olympics next month in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

At Penn State, Radzinski played a different kind of hockey — field hockey — but she lists another winter sport as an avocation: snowboarding. And she has been involved with U.S. Olympics since she completed graduate school at the University of Richmond (Va.).

Radzinski went from Richmond to a one-year internship at the U.S. Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, Colo., and has continued her involvement since then. She has worked with short- and long-track speed skaters (including Apolo Anton Ohno) and softball players (including Jenny Finch).

Her stint with the hockey team is her first Olympic Games assignment.

"She is very proud of this," said her UC Davis boss, Jeff Hogan, director of athletic training. "But I must say, I may be more proud to say a member of this staff is working the Olympics. It has been many years in the making, and this entire staff has worked hard to allow Rad to continue her quest."

The U.S. women’s hockey team is scheduled to open Olympics play Feb. 14 against China.

From track and field to bobsledding

Azevedo graduated in 2005 with a degree in exercise biology.

She is not from a winter sports town (she is from Chico), and during her time at UC Davis we did not have a bobsled team (nor do we have one now!). But she was a fast and nimble runner (a record holder in the 100-meter hurdles, as a matter of fact), which makes her well suited for bobsled — in which the participants run and push their sleds to get started down the hill.

Azevedo set UC Davis’ record for the 100-meter hurdles (outdoors) at 14.23 seconds in 2005, and this record held until April 2008. Sirena Williams set the new record, and last year she ran the race even faster, setting a new record of 13.50.

Azevedo’s name also appears in the UC Davis record book for two indoor races:

• Tied with her sister Chelsea for third-best in the 60-meter hurdles, at 8.95 seconds. (Chelsea is a senior this year, majoring in exercise biology and human development.)

• Fourth-best in the 60 meters (7.99 seconds).

Now, Emily Azevedo is affiliated with the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, as a brakewoman. According to her profile on the federation’s Web site, Azevedo decided to become a bobsledder after watching the 2006 games in Torino, Italy; she made her debut in the 2006-07 season, placing eighth at the world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and 10th in Innsbruck, Austria, both times with driver Erin Pac.

Azevedo raced with Pac and Jamia Jackson in 2007-08 World Cup competition, placing as high as sixth at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Azevedo teamed with Pac for a silver medal in the America’s Cup in 2008-09, and with Bree Schaaf for fifth- and sixth-place finishes in World Cup competitions that same year.

Azevedo and Schaaf won the 2009 national championships and placed 10th in the world championships the same year.

In World Cup competition in 2009-10, teamed with Schaaf and Shauna Rohbock, Azevedo has placed as high as sixth, in Cesana, Italy.

In a Jan. 8 e-mail from Konigssee, Germany, Azevedo described the "grueling" process of trying to quality "as the right brakeman" for the team's third sled. And, even then, there is no guarantee that the United States will get to send three sleds to the games; two for sure, but, according to Azevedo, the United States is dueling with Canada in the world standings for the right to send three.

"I have been constantly tested and will continue to be throughout the next week," Azevedo wrote. "After all the tests and races, a committee gets to together to decide who the best brakeman for each sled is."

A spokeswoman said the federation will announce its Olympics delegation no later than Jan. 20. Opening ceremonies for the games are scheduled for Feb. 12.

Back in her hometown, the Chico News & Review included Azevedo in a Jan. 7 article titled "Who to Watch in 2010: Nine People Who Are Likely to Make Waves This Year."

The News & Review quoted Azevedo as saying: “We have two more races until the Olympic team is selected. ... I am sure I will be tested many more times in the next few weeks, so the coaching staff feels they have enough numbers and data on each athlete to make the right selection for each sled.

“I never had anticipated how stressful and intense an Olympic year would be, but I have learned that surrounding yourself with positive people who are as confident (or more) in your abilities is the only way to stay determined and focused.”

Do you know of anyone else?

If you know of anyone else who might be involved — say, a faculty member who is serving as a coach or consultant, or whose research may be connected to the Olympics; or students past and present who may be competing — please let us know by sending an e-mail to fridayupdate@ucdavis.edu.