Salt Lake Streets, Then Salt Lake Silver

Bill Schuffenhauer spent much of his early childhood in Salt Lake City, Utah, on the streets with his parents. He has said he worried about gangs and about where his family's next meals would come from. From there he moved between living on the street, foster care and juvenile detention. He once described himself as born into that situation, following the path his parents had taken.

A change came when his maternal grandmother, Sadie Muniz, took him in. She lived just outside Ogden, and he moved with her to Roy, Utah, in seventh grade, around age 13. He called it a refreshing feeling to have a family life. That same year he picked a classmate, Jake Schultz, as a role model and began improving his grades so that he could join the track and football teams. His track coach, Neville Peterman, encouraged him to dream about Olympic gold.

Schuffenhauer and Schultz helped Roy High School win a state track and field championship. He went on to become a standout track athlete at Weber State University.

His Olympic dream came through bobsled. He won a silver medal in the four-man event at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games. He later retired and returned with driver Todd Hays, aiming to make the U.S. team again. Two bulging discs caused severe pain and weakened one arm, and he spent a season as an alternate. After Hays suffered a career-ending head injury in a training run, Schuffenhauer won a race-off to join the team.

At the 2010 Vancouver Games, at age 36, he was competing in his third Olympics. He planned to marry his fiancée, Ruth Ann Savage, and become a chiropractor, and he named his grandmother as his number one inspiration.