Sydney Milani was a Southeast Polk track star. She's aiming for the Olympics as a bobsledder.

Sydney Milani walks to the driveway of her family’s home in Runnells on an unseasonably warm December day and prepares for a sprint. Milani, wearing a long-sleeved Team USA shirt, looks down at her German Shepherd Benelli, who is faithfully standing by her side.

“You ready, Nelly?” she asks him.

The 24-year-old gets the look she wants from her four-legged friend and takes off down the gravel road for one of several sprints, kicking up small dirt and rocks along the way. Benelli closely follows, staying with her as she reaches the end of the long driveway and stops.

“Her competitive nature will keep her driving until she’s done,” Milani’s father, Jeremy, said.

That’s because the job is far from finished for Milani. One of the most accomplished runners in Iowa high school history, Milani is in the early stages of her bobsledding career. But, like her running career, her latest endeavor has tons of promise and potential.

“She definitely has all the tools that our past Olympians have to be in that sport,” said Curt Tomasevicz, director of sports performance for Team USA bobsledding.

'At first I thought it was spam'

Milani had everything Tomasevicz was looking for in a bobsledder. Tomasevicz, a former bobsledder himself, routinely scans some of the top track times in the nation and reaches out to college coaches for 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 Iowa high school state titles in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 in the same year. After high school, she ran at Iowa State and then Alabama. Milani had elite speed and strength, both important elements to Tomasevicz.

“That kind of gives her the base and the tools to really excel and do well,” Tomasevicz said.

Dan Steele, Milani's track coach at Iowa State, was a brakeman on the 2002 U.S. Olympic bobsled team that earned a bronze medal in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tomasevicz thought Milani was a perfect candidate and called her as she was finishing up college late in 2022. Milani missed the call. Tomasevicz left her a message explaining who he was and how he was interested in recruiting her to bobsled.

She couldn't believe it.

“At first I thought it was spam,” Milani said. “I was honestly very shocked, very taken aback.”

Milani wasn’t sure it was something she wanted to pursue. She didn’t know anything about bobsledding and was already thinking about moving on from sports. Milani had done some internships in strength and conditioning and was planning on going into that industry.

But before she made a decision, Milani wanted to get some advice. So she called her dad and two of her coaches at Alabama, Blaine Wiley and James O’Brien. All three encouraged her to give bobsledding a shot.

“I said, ‘Girl, you’re young, you’re fit, you’re hungry, you’re capable, why wait? You have this opportunity in your life to do something special that very, very few people get,’” Wiley recalled. “You talk about a chance to be an Olympian.”

Milani decided to do it. There was lots to do and learn: Milani knew nothing about bobsledding. She got right to work. Tomasevicz invited her to a rookie camp so she could learn the basics of the sport. The camp was also a chance for Tomasevicz and others at Team USA to evaluate Milani to see if her speed and strength would translate to the ice.

Milani had to learn where to place her hands on the sled and had to adjust to wearing special shoes to run on the ice. Milani had to figure out the biomechanics and technique of pushing the sled correctly to get the proper amount of energy needed. She even learned how to carry a sled and take care of it. No detail was too small.

She embraced it all.

"It was way different than I thought it was going to be," Milani said.

Tomasevicz was impressed with how coachable Milani was. It made the transition to the new sport nearly flawless. Milani was able to utilize her unique skill sets and apply them to pushing a sled. It led to tremendous starts for her team. After Milani showcased what she had learned during strong showings at the Push Championships and at some of their performance camps, she 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 she’s proven to be a team player, which even though we’re a small team sport, it’s really important that our athletes buy into the team concept.”

Milani did. And it’s put her on the fast track to the Olympics.

What's next for Milani? A bright future in the sport and a possible spot in the Olympics

Milani has her sights set on the 2026 Winter Olympics. The hope is that with more training, more experience and more time in the sport, she'll be ready to make that jump. She's already made massive improvements and put herself in a strong spot to earn a roster spot 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 fast, and with her speed she definitely has all the tools that all our past Olympians have 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 in the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Milani is putting all her time and energy into training for the sport and learning the ins and outs of becoming the best bobsledder she can be. Milani has already established herself as a star brakeman on her two-person team. In her role, Milani has a huge hand in the initial push, a critical part of the run. She's then in charge of pulling the brakes. Because she's so crouched down in the sled, Milani usually can't see much. So she learns as much of the track as possible so she can feel the curves and the pressures of where they are in order to know how to help guide the sled.

"I'm the engine of the sled," Milani said. "I make it go."

Milani lives and does most of her training in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She'll go to the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y., once a month. The constant competition and training have made it hard for her to come home. But when she does, the sport is rarely far from her mind. There's plenty of work to do even in Iowa for Milani, who can run outside and lift weights in a gym she set up behind her family's house where her dad runs his woodworking business.

Jeremy Milani sometimes will take a break from his work to catch a glimpse of his daughter putting in some hard work. It's no surprise to him that she's already having success. In fact, he expects to see her in the Olympics.

"I really do," he said.

So does Sydney. She looks at it almost as though fate has landed her in the new sport. That's part of the reason 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 she can't even grasp what she's doing at times.

"I cannot believe it," Milani said. "I cannot believe that I have had the opportunities and people I love who push me to these opportunities."

Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Former Iowa prep runner Sydney Milani aims for Olympics as bobsledder