Bethel native Frankie Del Duca has been named to the U.S. Olympic Bobsled Team and will compete in Beijing next month.
The 30-year-old is in the U.S. Army and competes in the military's World Class Athlete Program.
Del Duca got the news that he qualified for the U.S. Olympic Bobsled Team on Monday after competing in the World Cup. Del Duca's father, Frank Del Duca Sr., says his son has excelled at sports since he was a boy, and that even as a teenager running track in high school, his son told his coach that he wanted to do more than just run.
"He turned to his coach and said, 'Coach, I did not come here to win. I came here to break records.' That was his mindset from a very, very young age," he says.
The elder Del Duca says bobsled racing doesn't get a lot of attention except at the Olympics, and bobsled athletes start training daily for the Olympics four years before the actual event.
"All year long these kids are working on bobsledding, the goal is the Olympics," he says. "It's not just 'a' race, it's 'the' race, and it's the race of every four years."
Frankie Del Duca started bobsled racing after college in 2015, starting as a pusher and becoming a driver two years later. He recently raced on the North American Cup level and was promoted to the World Cup level after Christmas. He competed at St. Moritz, Switzerland, and did well enough to secure a spot driving the two-man and four-man sleds on the Olympic Team.
Del Duca's parents will host watch parties at the family restaurant in Bethel during the Olympics, but are unable to attend due to the pandemic.
