- Dave Kiernan, a mechanic from New York, maintains the bobsleds for Team Jamaica in the Winter Olympics.
- Kiernan, who has ties to Utah, had to transition from racecars to bobsleds.
- It comes as excitement builds for the 2034 Winter Olympics in Utah among enthusiasts and Team USA Olympians.
MILAN — Bobsleds are loud. All that noise, all that vibration, wrecks havoc on these sleds. That's where Dave comes in.
"I am the mechanic with the Jamaican bobsled team," said Dave Kiernan.
Right out the gate, one may notice Kiernan doesn't have much of a Jamaican accent. It's actually more of a western New York twang. That's where Kiernan lives and, more importantly, where the team trains.
"It just kinda worked out. I was close to the track," Kiernan said.
Kiernan has long been a mechanic — but not of sleds. Of cars, racecars. In fact, he's very familiar with Utah, having tuned up machines at the track formerly known as the Miller Motor Sports Park in Tooele.
When asked the difference between working on a car and a bobsled, Kiernan said cars have a lot more parts — an engine — while bobsleds have a lot more human elements to them.
In a sport where winners and losers come down to a difference of a hundredth or even thousandth of a second, a lot of what goes on — shall we say under the hood — is kept pretty close to the chest. Suffice it to say, Kiernan keeps busy.
"We break a lot of stuff. We break a lot of carbon fiber. We break a lot of welds," he said.
Kiernan and Matt Gephardt met before an Alpine skiing training, and when Gephardt told Kiernan he was from Utah, Kiernan perked up.
"I'm very excited. I think having the Olympics at home in 2034 is gonna be awesome," he said.
Kiernan's not the only bobsledder excited that the games are coming to the U.S. in eight years. Frank Del Luca on the USA men's squad said he expects it to be a shot in the arm for bobsled in the country.
And Kaysha Love, who lives in Herriman, worked hard to help Olympic organizers see the benefits of bringing the Olympics back to Utah.
