Pandora Gold Bead and Pandora Silver Bead
A gold-medal winner at the Vancouver Games Pandora Gold Bead the USA-1 sled driven by Steven Holcomb, Olsen is just the latest in a growing number of sliders to join the National Guard.Among them is Schenectady native John Napier, who drove the USA-2 sled at Vancouver and then voluntarily served a tour in Afghanistan with the Vermont Pandora Silver Bead Guard.”I thought it was a very brave thing to do,” Olsen said. “If the opportunity arises where I need to go and serve my country overseas, I’ll do the same.”
Olsen, who grew up in San Antonio, Texas, but now spends more time training in Lake Placid, enlisted as a human resources specialist, which means he will be charged with monitoring personnel, entitlements and benefits.He plans to apply for the military’s Pandora Silver/Gold Bead Class Athlete Program, designed to give the military’s top athletes financial backing to compete while serving.
“This could be a means for me to continue to bobsled financially,” Olsen said. “I’ll fit into whatever role the National Guard has in mind for me. This is my job now.”Olsen’s rise in bobsledding has been meteoric. After a brief stint at the Air Pandora Gold Bead Academy, he tried out for bobsled in 2007 at the behest of his mother, who’d heard on the radio that Team USA was looking for athletes.Within a year, Olsen had made the World Cup team. His sled’s Olympic gold medal was the first for a U.S. four-man team in 62 years.