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After watching skeleton in the 2010 Olympics, Rogersville native Greg West said, ‘I can do that.’
“I remember they put me on the sled, they didn’t even tell me how to steer it. They send you off at the halfway point at Lake Placid. They say to just lay there like a sack of potatoes,” West said.
This isn’t your average sled ride, these people fly head first, up to 80 miles per hour.
“About ten feet into it I was just like, this is too cool, and I was just ready to get back to the top. It’s like a kid the first time they go down a slide on the playground. It’s just like, wow, I want to do that again,” West said.
As it turned out, Greg was a natural, and he decided to quit his job to fully commit to the sport.
“I thought he was crazy. I thought he was nuts,” Greg’s mother, Tammie Franz said.
After a couple years Greg was on the US National Team, and qualified for the World Cup.
“You have less than a five percent chance of getting on the team. He has way surpassed anything that I think he ever even thought,” said Franz.
The sport has taken him all over the world, and this year he was battling for the final sled in the Olympics.
“I’m in Berchtesgaden, Germany. And unfortunately, next week I’ll be going home,” said West.
He didn’t make the cut.
“I think he was only behind like twenty-four points. It wasn’t very many,” Franz said.
“I had some bad luck, I had some bad races, and I had some incredibly good races, and it just wasn’t enough,” said West.
While he’s still dealing with his disappointment, Greg plans on taking some time to decide where he wants to go from here.
“I’m going to be honest with you, I’m already leaning pretty hard toward going another quad. You can’t get this close, and not try to see it through,” said West.
His family offered to get him a ticket to watch the Games.
“I told them it’s like going to your ex’s wedding, you can’t do that,” said West.
But, his parents are already going. They said they had to buy the tickets before knowing if their son would be competing.
“We’re going to do this, or we’re not going to do it. Dad’s like, we’re going to do it. If we don’t do it and he makes it we’re going to be crushed, so we just booked the trip and didn’t look back,” Franz said.
And, if he decides to try again in four years, they’ll do it again.
“I’ll be going to wherever that one is too,” said Franz.
