Her future was expected to be as a medallist in the Summer Olympics, but in the Olympic trials of both 1996 and 2000, injuries limited her effectiveness and she failed to make the team either year. So, as a lark, Vonetta Flowers answered an ad placed from the U.S. Olympic Committee to try out for women's bobsled -- and she blew away the field!

It didn't take long for Vonetta to have an impact on the U.S. bobsleigh program. She started racing in the fall of 2000 as the pusher for veteran Bonny Warner after a standout collegiate track career at the University of Alabama. The Warner-Flowers pair finished in the top 10 in all seven World Cup races in 2000-2001 and closed the season with four straight top-three finishes. The pair placed second at the World Cup races on the Olympic track in Park City in February and earned a third-place finish in the overall standings. Flowers finished eighth with Warner at the 2001 World Championships in Calgary, Alberta.

"I always thought God had planned for me to win a medal, but I never dreamed it would be the winter games," said Vonetta Flowers, a committed Christian who is very open about her faith and how it has sustained her. "It shows you never know what God has in mind. This is beyond anything I could have ever imagined."