STEVE MESLER
Olympic Bobsled Gold Medalist
Steve Mesler was born and raised in Buffalo, NY where he was a two sport athlete at City Honors. An All-Western New York soccer player, Steve truly excelled on the track and field team and was an Indoor National Scholastic High School Champion in the pentathlon. He led City Honors to four consecutive city championships, setting eight school records while being rewarded with All-City, All-State and All-American honors.
An All-SEC and All-SEC Academic Award winner while on the track & field team at the University of Florida, Mesler decided to pursue bobsled after injuries hampered his track career.
As a member of the United States bobsled team and three-time Olympian in the four-man bobsled, Mesler became the most dominant push athlete in American history. Steve has earned 39 World Cup medals in his career, the most by a U.S. push athlete, and has won both the four-man and combined World Cup championships. He medaled in 31 of the 47 four-man World Cup events he entered and won gold on all but one of the world’s bobsled tracks.
Mesler’s “Team Night Train” won bronze at the 2004 World Championships and gold at the 2009 World Championships, the first world championship for the U.S. in five decades. At the Winter Olympics in 2010, Mesler and his teammates captured gold in the four-man bobsled in convincing style, setting two course records in the process. It was the first gold medal for a U.S. four-man bobsled team since 1948.
Mesler and his team have been named the United States Olympic Committee team of the month seven times and the USOC team of the year in 2009 and 2010. Since his gold medal win in Vancouver, Mesler has been selected by the USOC to be the U.S. Delegate at the International Olympic Medalists Summit in Greece.
Mesler has been featured in Sports Illustrated three times, was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the new fitness center at City Honors High School bears his name.
Since retiring from bobsled, Mesler now focuses on Classroom Champions, the non-profit organization that he started with his sister. It aims to directly connect Olympic athletes to classrooms across the country utilizing technology to teach lessons of hard work, perseverance, goal setting and healthy living.
