Back in the sled
Steve Langton comes out of retirement hoping for more bobsled Olympic medals
Steve Langton wasn’t one of those athletes who retired with a tentative comeback plan tucked in the back of his mind.
He had a pair of Olympic bronze medals from the Sochi Olympics and a spot in the history books with Steven Holcomb as part of the first U.S. bobsled team to win the two- and four-man titles in the same world championships. He also had a good job in the marketing department at Kohler Inc. and a 150-mile round-trip commute that left him little time to be a recreational athlete, let alone an Olympian.
“Done,” Langton said of describing his mind-set after his 2015 retirement. “Done done.”
Until the first week of February, when all of a sudden he wasn’t.
Then 33 — he turned 34 in April — Langton realized he had a limited window to compete at the highest level — a window that would likely close between the Pyeongchang and Beijing Olympics. He still kept tabs on the U.S. bobsled team and was encouraged by its potential.
So he found himself doing the unexpected: Coming out of retirement to make a run at what he hopes will be his third Olympics.
“I knew I could compete at that level. I could still be the best in the world, and this was probably the last time that I could do that. That was a big part of it,” said Langton, a push athlete, at the U.S. Olympic Committee media summit Tuesday. “And I saw some good things with some guys on the team. I knew we would be in a position, hopefully with my help, that we could win a couple of medals.”
Making the decision and making it a reality are two different things, however. Langton first needed to get into shape, and the logistics were as grueling as the work itself.
Langton was living in suburban Milwaukee and driving to Kohler, about a 65-mile drive. He’d be up at 5:30 a.m. and out the door soon after. He’d put in a full day at Kohler and then drive 80 miles to NX Level, the training facility outside Milwaukee where NFL star J.J. Watt works out when he’s home during the offseason.
Langton would sprint and lift and then make the 35-mile drive back home, eating his meals in the car. He’d arrive back home about midnight, only to get up a few hours later and do it all over again.
“I did that for two months,” Langton said.
During that time, he also talked to his bosses about working remotely. Langton runs the analytics on promotions for Lowe’s and Home Depot chains in Canada, as well as Costco in the USA, and makes recommendations when the programs are done.
“Right after I decided this is something I wanted to do, I met with my boss and my director and kind of gave them the game plan of what I thought me working remotely would look like, and they said, ‘Yeah, we support you. Let’s do this,’ ” Langton said.
Since he went to the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y., in April, Langton has juggled a full-time job with full-time training. He’ll continue that schedule through Jan. 1, when he plans to take a leave of absence.
“I’m not sleeping as much,” he said, “but I’m definitely older and wiser.”
A month after Langton returned to Lake Placid, the bobsled team was devastated by the sudden death of Holcomb. The two were expected to be reunited in USA-1, chasing the gold medal that had eluded them in Sochi.
Given that bond, it would have been understandable if Holcomb’s death had made Langton think twice about coming back. But Langton said he’d made a commitment to his teammates and he wasn’t about to go back on that.
“I miss him every day. I think about him every day,” Langton said. “But the stuff I’m reminded by is all good stuff. I’ll carry that with me.”
Despite his long layoff, Langton is in good shape to make the U.S. team for Pyeongchang. He won the national push title in July, edging Evan Weinstock. The national team trials, which determine sleds for the international circuit, begin Sunday in Lake Placid.
The Olympic team will be announced in mid-January.
“I want a gold medal this time,” Langton said.
No chance he has a change of heart on that.