Push comes to shove as ex-track stars eye Olympic bobsleigh glory

Paris (AFP) - Three former top-level female track athletes will bid to complete a remarkable transformation into winter sports stars when they take to the bobsleigh track at the Sochi Olympics.

Ex-100m hurdler Lolo Jones and Lauryn Williams, a gold medallist with the 4x100m relay team at the 2012 London Games, will represent the US bobsled team with Australia's former two-time world 400m hurdles champion Jana Pittman also making the trip to Russia.

Jones, a two-time world indoor hurdles champion who finished fourth in London and seventh in Beijing in 2008 after clipping the final hurdle while leading the field, and Williams become the ninth and tenth US athletes to compete in both Summer and Winter Games.

Neither athlete had even tried bobsled until 2012 when they were recruited after the London Games.

"It felt like someone put me in a can and threw me off of Mount Everest," Jones said after her first trip in a sled.

As a "push athlete", Jones proved to be a quick learner, winning a gold medal in the mixed team event at the 2013 World Championships.

"It honestly takes nowhere near two years to compete at a high level in bobsled if you have the required attributes," USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation start coach Stuart McMillan, who has worked with Williams and Jones, told TODAY.com.

The duo both compete as push athletes, whose role is to push the sled from the block for up to 40 metres and then jump in, relying heavily on explosive sprinting capabilities.

The selection of Jones, who consumed 9,000 calories a day to bulk up her lithe hurdler's body, has not come without some criticism, however, with some critics arguing that she was picked for her telegenic looks and high-profile positioning on social media.

But Jones simply remains focused on what lies ahead for the two-women bobsled, which made its Olympic debut at Salt Lake City in 2002.

"There are some skills that will transfer from track, obviously the running behind the bobsled, but other than that, there is actually a lot that I had to learn," said Jones.

"You just have to be really strong and powerful for bobsled, and there?s really no sport like it. It?s not like you can practice this sport in high school or middle school."

Williams, the 100m runner-up at the 2004 Athens Olympics, added: "You really have to come there and have no knowledge about it and then just have to learn everything so very quickly. It takes a lot of help from your teammates.

"It?s a lot of people just moulding together at the same time. It?s been a challenge. It?s definitely more challenging than track and field in that aspect."

Pittman's selection for the Australian bobsleigh team sees her become the country's first female to compete in a Summer and Winter Games, having already competed at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and Athens four years later.

"I really thought my career was over," Pittman told olympics.com.au in reference to calling it a day in hurdling in 2012 and trying her hand at rowing and boxing before settling on bobsleigh.

"To be able to come and do something that is really fun and that is very different and something I think we are going to be very good at is something that has drawn me here."

Pittman will partner Astrid Radjenovic, who represented Australia at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics.

"Astrid is only a tenth, two tenths of a second off the leaders so she has been looking for someone with a lot of speed and power for a while," Pittman said.

"If we can train well -- I am committed to it 100 percent -- hopefully we can become top six at the Olympics.

"You just don't know -- it's a very different sport. I have the physical attributes, it's just now whether I can put it together in the split second we take off."

Radjenovic added: "Jana trains very hard and has brought a good work ethic to our strength and conditioning.

"As for the bobsled side of things she was as much a rookie as everyone else. However she has worked hard to learn fast and contribute a lot to the team."

Another athlete featuring in the bobsleigh event will be former British sprinter Craig Pickering, who turned from the track to the ice after his funding was cut following injury problems that saw him miss the London Games.

With a best of 10.14sec over 100m and a world 4x100m relay bronze medal from 2007, Pickering said: "Two years ago I was at home thinking my career was over.

"But today I made my second Olympic Games. Never give up."