CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The first time Frank Del Duca rode in a bobsled, he prepared for one of the most intense experiences of his life, gripping the frame and bracing his feet against the sled because “I thought we were gonna be doing barrel rolls down the ice.”
He took a similar worst-case-scenario approach when prepping for Army basic training. Friends told him an infantryman lives off the land, so he’d better be ready to kill and eat snakes and squirrels. Before arriving, he wiped his phone back to factory settings, worried that a higher-ranking officer might find something innocuous and use it to break him psychologically.
Neither of these experiences, he admitted sheepishly, was actually that terrifying. In hindsight, he actually feels a little ridiculous.
And yet, Del Duca’s level of preparation in all facets of his life has endeared him to his American teammates. It’s why he’s a good pilot, they say, and his dedication to going “all in” is part of why they selected him as one of two Team USA flag bearers during the opening ceremony for the Milan Cortina Olympics. It was a special honor for Del Duca, whose family hails from Italy. And as a member of the military, it carried a little extra oomph.
Del Duca, who’s appearing in his second Olympics and starts 2-man competition Monday, is one of six Team USA competitors who are part of the World Class Athlete Program (WCAP), which allows Army soldier athletes — active, reserved and those in the National Guard — to compete nationally and internationally in their chosen Olympic sport while maintaining a professional military career. WCAP is its own Army unit; the Air Force also has a WCAP unit.
In Del Duca’s current role, the Army Sgt. is stationed at Lake Placid, N.Y., the training headquarters of USA Bobsled and Skeleton. His mission: Win gold medals for the United States.
Seriously.
Del Duca did not grow up thinking he’d be in the military someday, though a handful of relatives also have service backgrounds. His parents run restaurants, and getting into the family business seemed obvious.
He didn’t think he’d ever pilot a bobsled, either, but flying down an icy track in a fiberglass tube at 85 to 90 miles per hour is the perfect job for the self-described adrenaline addict.
“I’ve given so much of my life to this (my country), but it’s given so much more to me,” said Del Duca, who will also pilot a 4-man U.S. sled, and is looking to improve on his 13th-place finish in both races at the 2022 Beijing Games.
“When I put on my military uniform, it’s so important to me. And when I put on my Team USA uniform, it’s amazing to me. I never dreamed I could do both.”
From BMX to bobsled
Del Duca played every sport imaginable as a kid, drawn especially to action sports: Skateboarding, mountain biking, surfing, rollerblading, BMX, skiing. He worshiped the X Games and daredevils such as Travis Pastrana, Brian Deegan, Ken Block and, of course, Tony Hawk. He couldn’t wait to be an adult, because he imagined living in Venice Beach, surfing every day, then going home to a huge yard with his own excavator and building a custom motocross course.
From an early age, he loved to push limits. How far apart could he set the ramps? What could he put in between them to jump over?
“That feeling is hard to explain,” he said. “Sometimes it feels like butterflies in your stomach, but then adrenaline takes over, and it’s a euphoric rush.”
Frank Del Duca at the 2025 bobsled world championships in Lake Placid, N.Y. He says he loved a good adrenaline rush, even at a young age. (Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)
When he was 10, he joined some teenage neighbors at a local skate park who were demonstrating tricks for a newspaper photographer. Del Duca refused to be left out. “I have to prove myself,” he remembers thinking. “I have to go big if I’m going to hang out with the big kids.”
It didn’t go well.
He hit a jump going too fast, lost control in the air and found himself lurching parallel to the ground for a brief second with a shocked look on his face — the local photographer snapped a photo, which Del Duca still has — before smashing to the ground. He snapped his tibia, fibula and ankle bones, and knocked himself out upon landing. He wore a toe-to-hip cast for a month and lay up on the couch, aching in pain.
He didn’t think for a second about taking fewer risks.
Like many bobsled athletes, Del Duca came to the sport after a college track career. At the University of Maine, he went from walk-on to American East conference champ in the long jump and runner-up in the 100. But his body was never quite right for a sprinter. At the starting line, he’d often stand out because he was “four inches shorter and 40 pounds heavier than every other runner,” he laughed, poking fun at his 5-foot-10, 195-pound frame at the time. At the recommendation of a track coach, he attended a bobsled combine. He expected chaos.
“The veterans enjoy trying to shock the rookies,” he said, shaking his head at the memory. “A lot of us were asking, ‘What’s it like? How do we prepare?’ And they’d say, ‘Have you ever been thrown in a giant tire and tossed down a hill?’ They made it out to be this crazy thing. I remember holding onto the frame so tight and pressing into my foot peg so hard. … When I got to the bottom, I was almost disappointed. I was expecting so much more.”
But he was hooked. Competing in bobsled combines many of Del Duca’s favorite things: racing, speed, teamwork, travel, pushing himself mentally and physically, tinkering with equipment (in bobsled, each athlete has their own toolbox to work on the sled). It’s a little reckless, too, which perfectly fits his personality.
“I love the adrenaline component,” he said. “That respect for the danger of the sport makes you feel alive.”
From push athlete to pilot, and civilian to sergeant
After missing out on the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, Del Duca transitioned from push athlete to pilot. Around the same time, he joined the Army. Out of high school, he’d thought briefly about serving but decided to focus on college sports instead.
Multiple bobsled and skeleton athletes and coaches are part of WCAP, led by bobsled coach Army Lt. Col. Chris Fogt.
Though nearly 700 soldiers have competed in the Olympics since 1948, WCAP wasn’t established until 1997. There are currently 55 soldier athletes enrolled in the program, representing both the Winter and Summer Olympics. Six of them are competing in the Milan Cortina Games: Private 1st Class Spencer Howe (pairs figure skating), SPC Azaria Hill (2-woman bobsled), Sgt. Ben Loomis (Nordic combined), staff sergeant Deedra Irwin (biathlon), SPC Sean Doherty (biathlon) and Del Duca. In Paris at the 2024 Games, Capt. Samantha Sullivan helped the rugby women’s sevens team bring home a bronze medal.
“Bobsled is aggressive, it’s loud, it’s violent, there is so much necessary attention to detail and equipment,” said Fogt, who competed in three Olympics, winning a silver medal in 4-man at the 2014 Sochi Games. “Those things go hand in hand with being in the military.”
Frank Del Duca pilots the sled during a training run at the Milan Cortina Olympics. The 2-man competition begins Monday. (Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)
Bobsledding in minus-25 degrees isn’t for the faint of heart. Neither is a 2 a.m. wake-up call to complete a training mission. Excelling in either of these scenarios makes you mentally tough for the other, Fogt reasons.
Del Duca found himself drawn to soldier athletes, inspired that “these people, they make such a positive impact every day.” He signed up and survived basic training, no squirrel or snake BBQs required. He’s adamant the Army makes him a better bobsled pilot.
“I’ve learned so much from the military — leadership, time management, accountability,” he said. “I want to be a pillar for people around me. I want them to know they can count on me. In a sport with inherent risk, the level of preparation and commitment that it takes to be great, I’m up for it.”
Fogt loves recruiting for WCAP. He talks up the perks constantly, including that soldier athletes earn a living wage — rare for people competing in more niche Olympic sports — have terrific health insurance and get a pension. The military benefits directly from WCAP, too, he said, especially given the dwindling enrollment numbers over the last two decades. Del Duca, who is married with two young children, said the regular paychecks make a huge difference.
Frank Del Duca, whose family has Italian heritage, was chosen to be the U.S. flag bearer for the satellite opening ceremony in Cortina. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
Fogt said it’s rare a fellow soldier is sour about a soldier athlete’s assignment, but it can happen. (Del Duca said he’s never personally experienced this.) After the 2010 Vancouver Games, where Fogt’s Olympic debut was cut short after a crash during the 4-man competition, he deployed to Iraq for a year.
“In my entire 18 years, I’ve had only two or three instances where I tell someone my mission and they say, ‘That’s stupid’ or ‘That’s not fair,’” Fogt said. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, they’re so proud to see someone who wears the same (military) uniform as them represent our country on the Olympic stage. People say it’s really cool to see someone they were in a foxhole with compete with the top athletes in the world.”
When Del Duca first got into bobsled, he struggled to explain it to his family, particularly his grandfather, an Army veteran.
“There was a little bit of, ‘Why aren’t you learning a trade? Why aren’t you in the family business? You’re selling your car to do what?’” Del Duca said. “I don’t think he always understood it. But when I joined the military, he understood that … and that made me really happy.”
For a brief time, they even held the same name, rank and job … kind of. Frank Joseph Del Duca Sr. drove tanks in the Korean War. This Frank drives “something very different,” he laughed, but he knows his commitment to his country, as both a soldier and an athlete, is one that made his grandfather proud.
Del Duca and Fogt are bullish in their mission to get on the podium at these Games, knowing it could go a long way in helping the sport gain traction before a home Olympics (Salt Lake City, 2034) in eight years. The men haven’t brought home a bobsled medal since 2014, and Del Duca wonders if he’d feel more joy, or more pride, if he could do that for his country.
He’s hoping to find out.