Whitehall’s Bascue returns to U.S. team
At 26, he’s back to top level after injury and pandemic derailed his 2020 season
Healthy and focused, Codie Bascue of Whitehall is in the midst of a reboot of his bobsled career.
At the ripe old age of 26.
An injury and a schedule impacted by the COVID -19 pandemic combined to keep the 2018 U.S. Olympic 2-man and 4-man pilot away from the top level of the sport during 2020. Solid driving at the trials conducted during the past month at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid earned him a berth Monday on the U.S. national team for the seventh consecutive season.
He swept the two 2-man trials races in November by decisive margins. After finishing second in the 4-man race Sunday, Bascue and his crew easily won the 4-man race Monday.
The Americans are finalizing plans to travel at the end of the month to participate on the World Cup circuit in Europe in January to prepare for the World Championships in February at Altenberg, Germany.
“I just want to get over there and compete against these people on the World Cup that I’m used to competing against and get that feeling of competition back,” Bascue said. “I’m really excited about the opportunity to possibly be able to do that.”
Bascue’s last appearance on the World Cup was in December 2019 on his home track at Lake Placid, where he started in the sport as an 8-yearold. With his ability to help push the sled at the all-important start compromised by a hamstring issue sustained in an earlier race, he managed four top-10 finishes but was not a threat for a medal.
“It was probably one of the worst injuries I’ve had, just in severity in the tear of my muscle,” he said. “I took a month off from that and got back into the sled slowly going to the World Cup in December here in Lake Placid. I got through the races here at about 70 percent.”
Bascue decided not to go to Europe for the second half of the 201920 season. He stayed in Lake Placid with a twofold plan: Rehab from the injury with the sports medicine team, and then train at Mount Van Hoevenberg, the scheduled site of the 2021 World Championships.
He was back on the track by early
February and said he got in between 30 and 40 runs on the course, but because of the pandemic the World Championships were moved from Lake Placid to Altenberg.
No longer bothered by nagging back and leg injuries, Bascue said he is pleased that he took the conservative approach that has him fit and eager for the pre- Olympic season.
“It wasn’t fun to stay back and watch all of my teammates
compete without me, but looking back on it now I think it was a good decision,” he said. “I basically had a real long offseason where I trained through the winter into this season. Because of that, and many other reasons, I’m feeling the strongest that I have ever been, durability-wise, going into a season, which is good.”
Most of America’s bobsled athletes are recruited to the sport after completing collegiate football or track careers. Bascue has a far different story.
He was in elementary school when his grandfather, Alan, started a bobsled club in the Whitehall Central School district. Bascue stayed with the sport, climbing through agegroup competitions to reach the senior level. He made his World Cup debut as a 20-year-old and slid in the Olympics three years later.
At Pyeongchang, South Korea, he finished 25th in the 2-man and ninth in the 4-man in his Olympics debut.
Since quick push starts are critical to success, Bascue worked hard to build strength and added 25 pounds of muscle to move his weight to 215. He has since adjusted his goals.
“Eventually I kind of hit that ceiling in the weight room where I’m not going to get much stronger, and if I do I’m probably going to jeopardize my speed,” he said. “The past year or two it’s been more pulling back on the weightlifting side and understanding that I don’t need to be the strongest person here and focusing more on sprints now. Sprinting and being fast has been a big struggle for me for a long time. With good coaching now, I think I’m starting to understand the sprint mechanics and really get better at sprinting.”
Bascue said he is enjoying a role he has grown into: a veteran who is asked for advice — what lines to try down the course — by less-experienced drivers.
“It was kind of weird for me at 25, 26, there started to be athletes coming in who were actually younger than me,” he said with a chuckle. “It wasn’t something that I was used to for most of my career. I was always used to being the young guy.”