An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Home : News : Article View
NEWS | Feb. 18, 2014

National Guard skeleton coach Tuffy Latour is ‘a rock,’ Olympics athlete says

By Tim Hipps U.S Army Installation Management Command

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia - Team USA Olympic skeleton coach Vermont Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Tuffy Latour helped coach Team USA's Noelle Pikus-Pace to an Olympic silver medal and Matt Antoine to a bronze at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia.

Latour, 45, a four-time Olympic coach from Saranac Lake, N.Y., who is attached to the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, has led U.S. and Canadian athletes to six Olympic medals. He helped coach Team USA's Noelle Pikus-Pace to an Olympic silver medal and Katie Uhlaender to a fourth-place finish Friday night in the women's skeleton event.

One day later, Latour led Matt Antoine to an Olympic bronze medal and John Daly to 15th place in men's skeleton.

"He's a rock," Pikus-Pace said. "He's the absolute best coach I've ever had, whether it's track and field, skeleton, softball, basketball or soccer.

"It's not just because of his coaching on the track," Pikus-Pace continued. "It's because of the sacrifice he makes for us. He puts his athletes first, and he cares so much about us. He's results-based and all about what will make us better as a team."

Uhlaender thanked Latour for his support at the start of the bobsled run, and asked him to hold the good-luck necklace charm she usually wears during competition. It was the Major League Baseball National League Championship ring passed on by her late father, Ted Otto Uhlaender, whose Cincinnati Reds lost the 1972 World Series in seven games to the Oakland Athletics. Katie told Tuffy she wanted to make the final Olympic run on her own - without her father's presence, yet in honor of his name. It was a psychological way of "moving on," so to speak.

Ted Uhlaender, an outfielder for the Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds from 1965 through 1972, died of a heart attack at his ranch in Atwood, Kan., on Feb. 12, 2009, shortly before Katie finished second in the World Cup season finale at Utah Olympic Park in Park City, Utah.

"He made me feel like a warrior," Uhlaender said. "He made me feel like I have a purpose, and I felt like I lost my way when he passed away."

Nonetheless, Katie came roaring back on skeleton tracks and battled through numerous injuries to finish fourth at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games -- five years and two days after losing her dad. Seemingly atop on her game during the 2012-2013 World Cup skeleton season, Uhlaender again was forced to persevere after suffering a concussion last autumn. Having resiliently rebounded from numerous injuries and surgeries, including a shattered kneecap, Uhlaender expected to be in the medal hunt here.

"I can't help but wonder what if I hadn't had that concussion, what if I had slid more, what if my start number was better," she said.

Pikus-Pace did not complete her six training runs here for the women's skeleton event and few really knew what troubled the sure-fire Olympic medal contender. She missed some practice runs, and blamed it on back pains. During a post-race press conference after winning the silver and sniffing the flowers, Pikus-Pace admitted that she had sustained a concussion.

"On Wednesday, I had a concussion," Pikus-Pace said. "On Friday, I was getting MRIs. I was pretty out of it. I couldn't see clearly. My vision was blurred, so for medical reasons I could not take those runs. My back has bothered me, but my federation was just trying to protect me from the media to protect me for this race. I had the MRIs on Friday and it was just deduced that I needed to take the maximum runs off that I could. But, honestly, I felt my best and I felt very good today."

After likely the final race of her career, Pikus-Pace said she was "confident and coming back," and experienced "only a little vertigo," but "Lizzy just threw down."

Elizabeth Yarnold won Great Britain's first gold medal of the Sochi Games with a four-run cumulative time of 3 minutes, 52.89 seconds. Pikus-Pace (3:53.86) took the silver, followed by bronze medalist Elena Nikitina (3:54.30) of host Russia. Uhlaender finished fourth in 3:54.34.

"I slid my heart out," said Uhlaender, 29, of Breckenridge, Colo. "There wasn't anything else I could have done. I am heartbroken."

Already a world champion, World Cup champion and Olympian, Pikus-Pace finally got the Olympic medal that eluded her by one-tenth of a second at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Whistler, B.C., Canada. She retired from skeleton to expand her family, but a miscarriage in 2012 inspired her back onto the fast track. Her husband, Janson, and two children, Lacee and Tracyen, supported her long road to Sochi and were here Friday night to share in the celebration.

"It was worth the wait," Pikus-Pace said. "It was worth every minute of it. Honestly, getting hit by the bobsled, people said: 'Oh man, that's horrible.' Getting fourth at the Olympics, they said: 'Ah, too bad.? Then I had the miscarriage at 18 weeks, and many tears were shed. But if I hadn't gone through every single one of those things I could not be here today. And this is right where I want to be, and to have my family here, the love and support, it's just beyond words -- just beyond words."

During another post-race interview, she expressed her silver-stricken sentiments with rearranged words.

"It is so surreal," Pikus-Pace said. "This is everything I could have imagined and more, just to have my family here with me and all of the love and support and cheers we've had, and all of the trials we've had to overcome to come to this moment. This is as good as gold."

The proud gleam in Latour's eyes seemed to say it all during the flower ceremony.

"It's just incredible," Latour said while riding a van down the mountain from the skeleton start to the finish. "We've been working hard all season for the last two years with Noelle through a lot of ups and downs, and ever since we got here, she just hasn't felt well. It was kind of a battle for her to just even get here to these races. For her to come out and finish second was as good as gold to her.

"She wanted to come out and win a medal at the Olympic Games, and we got her there," he explained. "It was little disappointing that we couldn't get Katie up on the medal stand, as well."

U.S. Olympic men's skeleton athletes also praised Latour.

"Tuffy has been the best coach I've ever had in my life," said John Daly, who finished 15th in the Olympic men's skeleton event Feb. 15. "The one thing he's kind of drilled into us is: 'It's a process, it's not about results. You focus on the process. You focus on curves one, then two, and on down.' That's a really hard thing to do, but he's always had confidence in us. He's always kind of believed in us. We look to him when we don't believe in ourselves and we see what he sees, and that's kind of how it goes, and that's kind of why we do well."

Antoine claimed Olympic medal No. 6 for Latour's athletes when he struck bronze in men's skeleton Feb. 15.

"He started with us in 2010, and he's taken the team to new heights," Daly said. "He's taken us all to a medal in each world championships, so you couldn't really ask for a better coach."

"It's great to be in [the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program]," Latour said. "Any time you can serve your country and represent it at the same time, it's very, very special. The Russians have put on a great Olympics. The Sochi Games are awesome. The facilities are first class. This is probably one of the best sliding facilities in the world. They have all these gondolas bringing people to these different facilities. It's spectacular."

(Editor's note: Gary Shetick of Army News Service and Amanda Bird of USA Skeleton contributed to this article.)

 

 

Related Articles
U.S. Soldiers with the Army National Guard speak with D.C. locals while patrolling Metro Center Aug 26, 2025. About 2,000 National Guard members are supporting the D.C. Safe and Beautiful mission providing critical support to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in ensuring the safety of all who live, work, and visit the District.
Guard Members From Six States, D.C. on Duty in Washington in Support of Local, Fed Authorities
By Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy, | Aug. 29, 2025
WASHINGTON – More than 2,000 National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from six states and the District of Columbia are on duty in Washington as part of Joint Task Force – District of Columbia in support of local and federal...

Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, Maj. Gen. Russel Honore, Task Force Katrina commander, and Brig. Gen. John Basilica, 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team commander, talk to news media during the aftermath of Hurricane Rita on Sep. 29, 2005. Basilica was appointed commander of Task Force Pelican, responsible for coordinating National Guard hurricane response efforts across the State. The task force included tens of thousands of National Guard Soldiers from Louisiana and other states.
Louisiana Guard’s Tiger Brigade Marks 20th Anniversary of Redeployment and Hurricane Response
By Rhett Breerwood, | Aug. 29, 2025
NEW ORLEANS – This fall, the Louisiana National Guard’s 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, known as the Tiger Brigade, commemorates the 20th anniversary of its redeployment from Iraq in September 2005, coinciding with the...

Alaska Air National Guard HH-60G Pave Hawk aviators and Guardian Angels, assigned to the 210th and 212th Rescue Squadrons, respectively, conduct a hoist rescue demonstration while participating in a multi-agency hoist symposium at Bryant Army Airfield on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, July 22, 2025. The symposium, hosted by Alaska Army National Guard aviators assigned to Golf Company, 2-211th General Support Aviation Battalion, included U.S. Coast Guard crews assigned to Sector Western Alaska and U.S. Arctic out of Air Stations Kodiak and Sitka, Alaska Air National Guardsmen with the 176th Wing rescue squadrons, U.S. Army aviators from Fort Wainwright’s 1-52nd General Support Aviation Battalion, Alaska State Troopers, and civilian search and rescue professional volunteers from the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group. The collaborative training drew on the participants’ varied backgrounds, experiences, and practices, to enhance hoist proficiency and collective readiness when conducting life-saving search and rescue missions in Alaska’s vast and austere terrain. (Alaska Army National Guard photo by Alejandro Peña)
Alaska Air Guard Conducts Multiple Hoist Rescues of Stranded Rafters on Kichatna River
By Staff Sgt. Seth LaCount, | Aug. 29, 2025
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska — Alaska Air National Guard members with the 176th Wing rescued three rafters Aug. 28 after their raft flipped over on the Kichatna River.The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center opened...