Todd HAYS

Todd Hays was a linebacker at Tulsa University, and then played two seasons with the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League. He then began another sport, but not bobsledding, rather kickboxing. He was US kickboxing champion in 1993, and competed thru 1996 before turning to bobsledding. On the sled, he has four third-place finishes in the year-end World Cup, and won a silver medal at the 2003 World Championships, and a bronze at the 2004 Worlds, both in the four-man. His 2002 Olympic silver medal was the first US medal in the sport since 1956. He posted three victories in World Cup races, and in 2004, became the first American driver to win a medal on every track on the World Cup circuit. Hays later returned to football, coaching briefly, but came out of retirement in 2008 to try to make another attempt at the Olympics in 2010. However, following a crash in Winterberg in late 2009, Hays was forced to retire due to the serious brain damage sustained in the accident.