CESANA, Italy — Just before Valerie Fleming began her final push to a silver medal in the women's bobsled Tuesday, teammate Shauna Rohbock gently put a hand on her shoulder.
The gesture was meant to calm the high-strung Fleming, who revealed after the race that she almost withdrew from the 2006 Winter Olympics last weekend because of back injury.
After leaving track and field three years ago because of a shoulder injury, she came close to having her Olympic dream cut short again.
"It was unnerving," Fleming said on a snowy evening in the Alps.
After taking two training runs Saturday at the Cesana Pariol track, Fleming, 29, was in so much pain she started to question herself.
"I couldn't even move," she said. "I couldn't bend over. I was a little scared."
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More than the excruciating pain, she feared for what she would miss. But with the help of anti-inflammatory medications, Fleming came to the track Monday and Tuesday ready to push a 500-pound sled as she had never done before.
Rohbock and Fleming entered the Turin Games as strong challengers for a medal. But most expected it to be a bronze, judging from their World Cup results the past two seasons. They finished third at last year's world championships.
Instead they laid down two solid runs Tuesday to finish second behind the incomparable Sandra Kiriasis of Germany. She and partner Anja Scheiderheinze started the day with an almost perfect ride to win the gold medal by 0.71 of a second over the four runs. The reigning world champions entered the second day with a lead of .08 of a second.
Gerda Weissensteiner, with Jennifer Isacco pushing, won the bronze for Italy. Weissensteiner, a 1994 gold medalist in luge, was competing in her sixth Olympics. Americans Jean Prahm and Vonetta Flowers moved up three places after Monday's runs to take sixth.
Rohbock and Fleming gave U.S. sliders their first medal of the Games, but they were not concerned about American pride when guiding their jet-black sled through the serpentine course. It had been a difficult season for both because of injuries. Fleming tweaked her back while lifting weights in the summer. Rohbock had hip problems.
U.S. bobsled coach Bill Travares said they never had time to heal properly. It did not show throughout the season as they reached the podium in almost every World Cup race they entered.
Two weeks ago, though, Fleming aggravated her back injury while doing a hopping exercise. When the pain intensified Saturday, Rohbock felt for her friend. Four years ago, the pilot pushed for Jill Bakken. But weeks before the Salt Lake Games, Bakken replaced her with Flowers, and they went on to win the gold medal.
That is why she did not force Fleming out of the sled.
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