ESPN reports: “He had not yet had a chance to talk to his wife. Had not yet told her what it felt like to finally have an Olympic medal hanging from his neck. But already, the tears were beginning to fall.”  

“This had been the dream since 2007, when Chris Fogt attended a bobsled camp in Lake Placid, N.Y. Three years later, he was part of the USA-2 sled that crashed and finished last in Vancouver. Since that disappointment, he had counted the days until Sochi. Even in the year he spent on duty in Iraq as an Army captain, his mind thought of his other mission: to win an Olympic medal.”  

“On the days when the pain was too much to bear, when the fibers in his quadriceps muscles seared with pain amid a grueling workout, Fogt thought about Iraq. He thought about the birthdays and anniversaries and high school graduations that his troops had missed. He thought about the sacrifice. And then he’d push harder. And harder. And harder still.”  

“And so it was here, on the final day of the Sochi Games, that all that hard work finally paid off. Riding with driver Steve Holcomb, Curt Tomasevicz and Steve Langton, Fogt and the USA-1 sled’s four-run time of 3:49.99 earned them a bronze medal.”