Spartan Profiles: Michelle Rzepka

MICHELLE RZEPKA:  SPARTAN OLYMPIAN

            MSU has a glorious history of success in the Olympic Games (see “MSU’s Olympian Heritage,” Summer 2008). 

            The latest Spartan Olympian is Michelle “Mickie” Rzepka, ’05, one of the world’s top bobsledders.  She competed in the Vancouver Winter Games along with fellow Spartan Ryan Miller, goalie of Team USA’s men’s ice hockey team.  Although she took up the sport in 2007, Rezpka, a Big Ten indoors and outdoors pole vault champion, boasted top ten finishes in seven of eight World Cup races. In January, performing as brakewoman for driver Shauna Rohbock, Michelle helped set the track record in Igls, Austria, winning the final bobsled World Cup event of the season. She also won gold in Cesana, Italy, in December, and has won several bronzes—including in February 2009 at Whistler, Canada, site of the 2010 Olympic Games. “It’s been an amazing journey,” says Mickie, who followed the advice of two former MSU assistant track coaches, Randy Huntington and Ty  Sevin, and took up the sport. “When they first suggested bobsledding, I laughed.  I said, ‘I don’t do snow.’” But after a trip to Lake Placid in 2007, she was hooked.  “I’m a push athlete,” explains Mickie.  “In both pole vault and bobsledding, you need explosive power for a few seconds. All my training gave me power, strength and speed.  That’s what you need in bodsledding.” 

            The last step in pole vaulting—a single step off one leg—is similar to the motion of jumping into the sled.  Of course, going at 90 miles per hour presents a different set of risks to vaulting.  A native of Novi, Mickie was a three-sport athlete and chose to attend MSU after visiting the campus.  “Everything felt right,” she recalls. She had five different coaches at MSU. “There was a lot going on,” she says with a chuckle.  “But I learned from all of them.”