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CESANA PARIOL -- Four years ago, tagged with the icy nickname "Mean Jean" and burdened with gold medal expectations as the driver of the USA I bobsled, Jean Racine had to stop reading newspapers. "It was tough," she said.
What a difference a quadrennium makes. Her name is Jean Prahm now; she married ex-baseball player Ryan Prahm last September. She's the pilot of the USA II sled. And she arrived at the Torino Olympics so far under the radar screen she's rarely mentioned in any newspapers -- and considered at best a medal contender.
Just what the bride of five months ordered. "I'm quite comfortable flying under the radar. It's how I was hoping things would be this time around," Prahm said Sunday after her final two training runs for the women's bobsled competition, which starts tonight and concludes Tuesday.
"I don't need the attention. I don't need the pressure. I just want to do my sport."
When women's bobsled made its Olympic debut four years ago in Salt Lake City, she was the face of her sport. But she rarely showed a smile after she ditched her longtime brakeman, Jen Davidson, with whom she won two World Cup titles, and replaced her with Gea Johnson before the U.S. trials.
Prahm became the eye of the storm in the publicized breakup, with one columnist dubbing her "Mean Jean."
"Sometimes a story needs to be written," Prahm said at the Olympic media summit last October. "There was no drama at that point going into the Olympics. This one promised a catfight, if you will. I think people ate it up, and I got the brunt of it."
In an interview with USA TODAY before the 2002 Games, she cried in her Park City, Utah, apartment defending herself. In the Games, she finished fifth after Johnson pulled a hamstring in training runs -- but not before she approached Vonetta Flowers and offered her Johnson's spot in her sled.
Flowers declined and won the gold medal in the USA II sled, driven by Jill Bakken.
What a difference a quadrennium makes, continued: Flowers will push for Prahm here. They partnered three years ago and have become friends. "She's bringing the same thing to the table she brought four years ago," Prahm said. "She's extremely competitive."
At the media summit, Flowers said the two discussed what happened in 2002 before she joined her sled. "When I first came into the sport in 2000, everyone on tour called her 'Mean Jean,'" Flowers said. "And she is so not mean."
The two finished fifth on the World Cup tour this season, two spots behind the USA I sled piloted by Shauna Rohbock. But they posted better training times than the USA I sled in five of six runs. "We've been up there and consistent," Prahm said.
Her expectations, in what probably is her Olympic swan song, are different this time. "I'm hopeful we'll have a good race," she said. "The podium is out there, and it's up for grabs."
What a difference a quadrennium makes.
Contributing: Mike Dodd, Vicki Michaelis
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