After injuries ended his lacrosse career, a Seminole High School graduate pushes ahead in bobsledding as one of eight winners on “The Next Olympic Hopeful.”
When Josh Williamson attended Seminole High School, he was intrigued by a sport as foreign to most Floridians as low humidity.
“He said, ‘I’m going to do this,’ and we tried to offer him support,’’ said Kay Williamson, Josh’s mother. “As a parent, you don’t want to discourage him, but you’re thinking, ‘Bobsledding? In Florida?’ ’’
Williamson, 21, was good enough at lacrosse to earn a college scholarship. As for bobsled, that is a big unknown, but early returns are encouraging.
The Lake Mary native emerged as one of eight winners on a reality show called “Scouting Camp: The Next Olympic Hopeful,’’ which aired on NBC Sports Network last month. One man and one woman were selected in four sports — bobsled, skeleton, rugby and track cycling — after testing at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Williamson was ready for a change.
“I got burned out on [lacrosse] because there were parts I didn’t like, but in bobsled, they do everything I like,’’ he said. “I am excited to go work out every day instead of dreading to do a mile or something.’’
By becoming a Next Olympic Hopeful, Williamson earned a chance to continue training but with no guarantees. Besides Colorado Springs, Williamson’s introduction to bobsled took him to Calgary for the National Push Championships. Trips are planned to Lake Placid, N.Y., and possibly Park City, Utah.
“[The testing] is an initial evaluation, and it shows he has physical skills that other successful bobsled athletes possess,’’ said Scott Riewald, director of high performance for the U.S. Olympic Committee. “What the longterm future looks like, I can’t really say. The short term, he has opened some eyes.’’
Williamson transferred to FSU, where he is taking off this semester, after one season on the lacrosse team at Mercer University in Macon, Ga. He never played a regular-season match after injuries to his left ankle and left hip during
fall practice.
He underwent shoulder surgery in January as he prepared to change sports.
“It was hard to step away from lacrosse, but I knew I had been doing it for seven or eight years,’’ Williamson said. “I was like, ‘You know what? I played this out.’
“There’s not really an end game in lacrosse. I was going to be done playing lacrosse in four years, or I’m going to be done now.’’
So what used to be a flicker of thought — attempting to become a bobsledder — became something more.
“We were watching the Summer Olympics, and he clearly said, ‘I’m going to do this bobsled thing,’ ’’ Kay Williamson said. “He is definitely a focused young man.’’
Williamson is admittedly a long shot to make Team USA for the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, but his hopes extend beyond that. Maybe that’s a spot on the national team. Maybe it’s a wandering
eye toward the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
“Talent-wise, he’s right there with our top athletes, but experience-wise, he is so far behind,’’ said bobsled coach Brian Shimer, a five-time Olympian. “He’s never even been in a sled. It just takes time to get efficient at that, and the start is so important, the load and the ride and all that. Without any experience, it’s an unknown.’’
Williamson’s first time in the bobsled could come next month in Lake Placid. With bobsleds capable of achieving speeds of 90 mph or more, he expects a wild ride.
“I’m excited to do it,’’ Williamson said. “Everyone tells me how much fun it is, but the way they explain it is, however long it is, it is like one long car wreck. I said, ‘OK, that doesn’t sound great, but I’m willing to give it a shot.’ ”