Sydney Milani walks to the driveway of her family's Runnells home on an unseasonably warm December day and prepares to sprint. Milani, wearing a long-sleeved Team USA shirt, looks down at her German Shepherd, Benelli, who stands faithfully by her side.
“Are you ready, Nelly?” she asks him.
Getting the look she wants from her four-legged friend, the 24-year-old sets off on one of several sprints down the gravel road, kicking up small dirt and rocks along the way. Benelli follows close behind her and stays with her as she reaches the end of the long driveway and stops.
“Her competitive nature will keep her going until she’s done,” said Milani’s father, Jeremy.
Because for Milani the task is far from over. Milani is one of the most successful runners in Iowa high school history and is still early in her bobsleigh career. But like her running career, her latest endeavor is full of promise and promise.
“She definitely has all the skills that our former Olympians need to have in the sport,” said Curt Tomasevicz, director of athletic performance for Team USA Bobsled.
“At first I thought it was spam”
Milani had everything Tomasevicz wanted from a bobsledder. Tomasevicz, a former bobsledder himself, regularly checks out some of the best track times in the country and contacts college coaches about possible prospects in his sport. One day he came across Milani.
Milani was a superstar runner at Southeast Polk High School, where she became the first athlete to win the Iowa high school state championships in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 meters in the same year. After high school, she ran at Iowa State and then Alabama. Milani had elite speed and power, both important elements for Tomasevicz.
“This gives her the foundation and tools to really excel,” Tomasevicz said.
Dan Steele, Milani's track and field coach at Iowa State, was a pusher on the 2002 U.S. Olympic bobsleigh team that won a bronze medal in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tomasevicz thought Milani was the perfect candidate and called her when she graduated at the end of 2022. Milani missed the call. Tomasevicz left her a message explaining who he was and how interested he was in getting her into bobsledding.
She couldn't believe it.
“At first I thought it was spam,” Milani said. “I was honestly very shocked, very surprised.”
Milani wasn't sure she wanted to pursue it. She had no idea about bobsledding and was already thinking about quitting the sport. Milani had completed a few internships in strength and conditioning training and planned to enter that industry.
But before making a decision, Milani wanted to seek advice. So she called her father and two of her coaches at Alabama, Blaine Wiley and James O'Brien. All three encouraged her to try bobsledding.
“I said, 'Girl, you're young, you're fit, you're hungry, you're capable, why wait?' “You have the opportunity to do something special in your life that very, very few people get,” Wiley remembers. “You’re talking about a chance to become an Olympian.”
Milani decided to do it. There was a lot to do and learn: Milani had no idea about bobsledding. She immediately got to work. Tomasevicz invited her to a rookie camp so she could learn the basics of the sport. The camp was also an opportunity for Tomasevicz and others on Team USA to evaluate Milani to see if her speed and strength translated to the ice.
Milani had to learn where to place her hands on the sled and had to get used to wearing special shoes while running on the ice. Milani had to learn the biomechanics and technique of pushing the sled correctly to get the right amount of energy. She even learned to carry and care for a sleigh. No detail was too small.
She accepted everything.
“It was completely different than I thought,” Milani said.
Tomasevicz was impressed with how coachable Milani was. The transition to the new sport was almost seamless. Milani was able to harness her unique skills and apply them while pushing a sled. This led to great starts for their team. After demonstrating what she had learned with strong performances at the Push Championships and some of her performance camps, Milani was selected to represent the United States for the 2023-24 IBSF World Cup competition season.
“She was good,” Tomasevicz said. “She had the right personality and proved to be a team player. Although we are a small team sport, it is very important that our athletes embrace the team concept.”
Milani did it. And it put them on the fast track to the Olympics.
What's next for Milani? A bright future in sports and a possible spot in the Olympics
Milani has his sights set on the 2026 Winter Olympics. The hope is that with more training, more experience and more time in the sport, she will be ready to take that leap. She has already made huge progress and has put herself in a good position to secure a place in the squad with impressive performances this season. Milani was part of a first-place finish at the North American Cup in December 2023 and again in March of this year.
“She has a quick learning curve,” Tomasevicz said. “She caught on really quickly, and with her speed she definitely has all the skills that all of our previous Olympians had.”
One of those Olympians was Des Moines native Lolo Jones, who was a two-time track and field Olympian (2008, 2012) before turning to bobsledding. She won a gold medal at the 2013 World Championships and competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Milani puts all her time and energy into training for the sport and learning how to become the best bobsledder she can be. Milani has already established herself as a star pusher in her team of two. In her role, Milani is instrumental in the initial push, a crucial part of the run. She is then responsible for applying the brakes. Because she sits so much in the sleigh, Milani usually can't see much. So she learns as much as she can about the track so she can feel the curves and the pressure where they are to know how to guide the sled.
“I am the engine of the sleigh,” Milani said. “I can do it.”
Milani lives and completes most of her education in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Once a month she goes to the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY. The constant competition and training made it difficult for her to come home. But when she does, the sport is rarely far from her mind. Even in Iowa, there is a lot for Milani to do. She can run outside and lift weights at a gym she set up behind her family's home, where her father runs his woodworking business.
Jeremy Milani sometimes takes a break from work to take a look at his daughter's hard work. It's no surprise to him that she's already successful. In fact, he expects to see her at the Olympics.
“I really do,” he said.
This also applies to Sydney. For her, it almost seems as if fate led her into the new sport. That's one of the reasons she still has the phone message Tomasevicz first left her. It's a reminder of how far she's come. Sometimes she needs it because sometimes she can't even understand what she's doing.
“I can’t believe it,” Milani said. “I can’t believe I had the opportunities and people I love pushing me toward those opportunities.”
Tommy Birch, a Register sports writer and reporter, has worked for the newspaper since 2008. He is the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at [email protected] or 515-284-8468.
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