By Dennis Kellogg
Director of Communications
It’s been 16 years since Curt Tomasevicz stood on the platform at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, gold medal around his neck, American flag being raised as the United States national anthem was played.
“I realized at that time, this is my moment,” Tomasevicz said. “I’m never going to forget it. It just happened so fast. It was a pretty special moment.”
That gold medal for first place in the 4-man bobsledding competition was one of two Olympic medals the three-time Olympian would earn. The U.S. 4-man bobsledding team also earned a silver medal in the 2014 Olympic Games in Russia. Tomasevicz began his Olympic career competing in the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy, where the U.S. 4-man team came in sixth place.
Tomasevicz shared his Olympic experience recently with the students at North American Martyrs Elementary School in Lincoln, where he is a member of the parish. The students have been following the recently-completed 2026 Olympic Winter Games, with each grade adopting a country and watching its progress.
Tomasevicz attended the most recent Games in Italy last month as part of his current role as the director of sport performance for the U.S. bobsledding team, which includes scheduling, helping select the team and making sure they have the resources they need to compete.
“My role is definitely important for the success of the team without directly coaching or working with the athletes hand in hand,” he said.
The Shelby, Nebraska native graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and played football for the Huskers. It was a strength coach with the football team who suggested he consider trying out for the U.S. Olympic bobsledding team. Bobsledding was a sport he knew very little about.
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“He said you’re going to push a sled as hard as you can for about five seconds, and then you’re going to go down the hill on an icy track about a mile long and get down to the bottom as fast as you can,” Tomasevicz recalled. “So, it takes somebody who is really strong, really fast and really powerful and a little bit crazy. And I thought, that’s me!”
He talked to students at North American Martyrs Feb. 26 about different elements of bobsledding – from the equipment like the spiked shoes used to grip the ice, to the type of physical training he did to prepare for competition. He said the training wasn’t all physical, though. He had to get ready psychologically to focus on the race, and he prepared spiritually as well.
Tomsevicz said God has played a big part in his journey, including when he boarded a plane in Lincoln at 22 years old to fly by himself for the first time to the U.S. bobsledding team tryouts in Canada. He told the students he was scared and had no idea if he was good enough to make the team.
“I remember in that moment thinking it’s in God’s hands right now,” Tomasevicz said. “I can do my very best, but there’s so many things that are out of my control that I just have to have faith that God has a plan for me. That was really one of the very first times I was able to just kind of let go and let God take control of my life.”
After making the team, Tomasevicz said he soon found the time required for training and competing was leaving little time for his faith life.
“I realized pretty quickly that (my faith) needs to be part of my routine, not just in my weekly obligation to Mass, but also in my daily preparation to go down the hill,” he told the students. “Bobsled is incredibly scary. When we’re standing at the top of a track, looking over a cliff… (t)here’s a lot of things that can be out of your control.”
Tomasevicz said at those times, he realized if he was going to reach his potential as a bobsled athlete, he couldn’t spend time being scared. He needed to put his faith in God that they would have a safe run. He made prayer a part of his routine.
“Typically, I’d walk out to the start line saying Hail Marys. I pray for protection. I’d pray for a good competition,” Tomasevicz said. “I never prayed that we would win… My prayer was always focused on our safety, my competitors’ safety and how to make it a fair competition so that everybody could do their best.”
Tomasevicz told the students the one thing he wanted them to remember from his talk is they, too, need to integrate their faith into their daily routine.
“Whether it’s going to Mass, whether it’s before you take a test, before you have a sports practice, before you have a game. Whatever it might be, you can tie in your faith to be the best student you can be, to be the best brother or sister you can be. You will be a better person if you can tie your faith into what you do, just like I became a better bobsledder because I tied my faith into what I did every day.”
The Olympic gold and silver medals may have been the peak of Tomasevicz’s bobsledding career, but there were valleys as well. He estimates he may have crashed 15 or so times, at speeds of 80-90 miles per hour. He said in those crashes, you usually land on your helmet with a 450-pound sled on top of you as you slide down on the ice to the bottom of the hill.
“I remember my very first crash. We always joke, you could either swear or pray. And thankfully, my instinct was to start saying Hail Marys. I think I got through three and a half Hail Marys before the sled actually came to a stop,” he said. “Those moments where it’s a horrible moment and things are out of your control, there’s nothing you can do but put your faith in God and let things happen.”
In a sport where the difference between first and second place could be in the hundredths of a second, Tomasevicz knows the little details matter. He said the small details matter when it comes to your Catholic faith as well.
“It’s looking at the big picture. What do you want to accomplish? In order to get to that goal, what are the small things you have to do? And then at the same time, it’s realizing that some things are not in your control, and just kind of letting God’s plan happen, too.”
After retiring from bobsledding in 2014, Tomasevicz completed his Ph.D. in biological engineering in 2017. He currently works as an assistant professor in biological systems engineering at U.N.L. and is also a performance research analyst in the Nebraska Athletic Performance Laboratory. That’s in addition to his ongoing work with the U.S. bobsled team and his public speaking events looking back at his Olympic experience.
That’s what brought him before the students at North American Martyrs School. They cheered loudly and waved posters with flags from countries around the world. He said he loved to see the excitement they brought, not just for the Olympics, but for their school.
“They have an opportunity to come to a school where their faith is a part of where they are all day long,” he said. “That faith is a part of who they are… truly forming who they are. I think it’s an awesome opportunity and they’re only going to grow in that faith.”
Growing in the Catholic faith is something that’s important to Tomasevicz as well. His faith has been a part of his journey from a small-town Nebraska boy dreaming of playing football for the Huskers, to a man who did that and went on to earn two Olympic medals in a different sport as well.
“I’ve never really been outward about my faith,” Tomasevicz said. “Things that I did were many times behind the scenes that even my teammates weren’t aware of. But it was a part of who I am, and it helped me prepare to be the best person I could be. The best athlete I could be, too.”
Tomasevicz drove that point home as the U.S. Olympic Hall of Famer wrapped up his talk to the students, telling them, “I’ll see you guys at Mass every weekend here, too
Editor’s Note: See an interview with Curt Tomasevicz about his career and his Catholic faith and video of his full presentation to the students at North American Martyrs School in Lincoln on the diocesan YouTube channel, @CatholicDioceseofLincoln.
