Woman Crush Wednesday

I’ve seen pictures posted all over Facebook and Instagram for months now captioned “Woman Crush Wednesday” but have never personally participated.

But this past Friday as I watched Noelle Pikus-Pace skeleton her way to a silver medal I thought to myself, “she could be my first woman crush Wednesday.”

What I find most fascinating about Noelle is not her drive for a medal or her skill at skeleton racing but the way she loves her family and puts them above everything else.

She first started competing in Skeleton in 2001 and has since competed in two Olympics. The first in Vancouver where she finished fourth and most recently in Sochi where she won a silver medal. Her road to the Olympics wasn’t easy, she had hoped to race in the 2006 Olympics in Turin when her right leg was broken by a bobsled that failed to stop at the finish line. Noelle had to undergo surgery to repair her leg and the injury prevented her from competing. Seven weeks after surgery she returned to the circuit and placed 20^th in Austria.

In October of 2007, Pikus-Pace announced that she would not be competing in the 2007-2008 season because she was pregnant with her first child. Her daughter, Laycee was born on January 19 2008. Later that year Noelle went on to compete in the first race of the 2008-2009 season and placed 5^th.

In January of 2010 she learned she had qualified for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Her husband designed her sled for the games and despite incredible runs throughout the games Noelle finished in fourth place. After the games she announced her retirement from the sport. She wanted to spend more time with her family, and had realized that between traveling for races, training and appearances she was missing out on her life’s greatest joys. But, only 20 months later she returned to the sport in 2012 hoping to compete in the 2014 Olympics. She was named to the Olympic team in January 2014 and on February 14, 2014 she sailed across the finish line and onto the podium.

The first thing she did after dismounting her sled was to run straight into the crowd and into the waiting arms of her husband and daughter. You could sense the joy she was feeling through the television screen and despite the fact that she didn’t win gold you could tell she was absolutely thrilled!

It was during a post-race interview with Meredith Vieira that Pikus-Pace revealed why she had come out of retirement. In 2011 she and her husband found out she was pregnant for the second time, but sadly 18 weeks into her pregnancy Noelle suffered a miscarriage. Her husband urged her to channel her grief and try one more time to earn that coveted medal. With his support and that of her family Noelle gave it a go. They decided that the only way she was going to try again was if they could travel as a family. Luckily for her, the hat business she started while in retirement had taken off and her family was able to use those funds to make her dreams a reality. They traveled together as she competed in the World Cup and earned her spot on the 2014 USA Team.

As I watched her interview with Meredith I was actually shocked at how much of the time was spent discussing such a personally painful event in Noelle’s life and how little was spent talking about her career. I was awed by Noelle’s courage to be so open with what she’d gone through and how it changed her. It was incredible to watch her smile through that pain and explain how that event made her into the racer, wife and mother she is today. A few times I wanted to reach through the screen and hug her as I could personally feel the hurt in her heart.

I admire her strength both physically and emotionally and even more I applaud her for putting her family first. I can only imagine how hard it was on her family to be separated from her so frequently when she was racing. It’s amazing when you hear stories of people finding a balance between their dreams and their families. She’s very blessed to have such a support group behind her every step of the way.

She should be so proud of the example she is setting for her daughter. That having a dream doesn’t mean giving up on having a family, and having a family doesn’t mean giving up on your dreams. She found a balance between the two and clearly the joy she feels is immeasurable.

 

Congratulations to Noelle for her silver medal in Sochi and Good Luck to her in retirement. Who knows…maybe we’ll see Laycee on the skeleton course someday!