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CNN Live At Daybreak

Armenian Bobsledding Team Unlikely Olympians

Aired February 06, 2002 - 05:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well some unlikely Olympians are heading to the Winter Games.

CNN's Rusty Dornin introduces us to the athletes as they prepare to compete.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Dan Janjigian and Yorgo Alexandrou, sweeping the streets is crucial to their Olympic training.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we've had a couple of slips, little penny balls (ph), too, that get stuck under the wheels.

DORNIN: Because when push...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, set (ph).

DORNIN: ... comes to shove...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

DORNIN: ... these two Californians are Armenia's only chance for glory in Olympic bobsledding.

DAN JANJIGIAN, ARMENIAN BOBSLED TEAM: I'm 100 percent American. You know I was born here, I was raised here, but I am -- I am 100 percent Armenian.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Set.

DORNIN: Janjigian has dual citizenship. He only learned the sport four years ago. The next hurdle was how to train when the nearest bobsled run is 700 miles away.

JANJIGIAN: So we got this sled and we fitted it with inline skates. And I mean it's been a huge of interest (ph) to be able to at least come out here on a day-to-day basis.

DORNIN: His first brakeman was injured, the second lives in Armenia and couldn't get a U.S. visa after September 11, so he turned to his buddy, Yorgo Alexandrou, a Greek-American, and got him an Armenian residency card. But Alexandrou didn't really have a clue about the hard knocks of speeding down a bobsled track at 90 miles an hour, sometimes doing 5Gs (ph).

YORGO ALEXANDROU, ARMENIAN BOBSLED TEAM: My first run was a pretty frightening experience, and I didn't want to go down again after that. So Dan was able to convince me to go down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready, one.

DORNIN: They went down dead last in their first competition, then qualified for the games in December. Now it's an hour and a half in the gym, then hit the sled aiming to beat their last push time by the smallest fraction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dude, that's the best -- that's our best time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By 200, that's a huge...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's our best time.

DORNIN (on camera): They call it the five-to-one ratio. If the team can gain one tenth of a second for a push at the top of the run, that could translate into five tenths of a second at the bottom.

(voice-over): Being underdogs and bearing the flag of a nation unknown for bobsledders, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) constantly compared to the Jamaican bobsledding team. They made the 1988 Olympics and inspired the movie "Cool Running."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's bobsled time. Cool running.

DORNIN: Like the Jamaicans, Janjigian and Alexandrou don't have top of the line equipment or big money sponsors. Another pair of unlikely Olympians waging an uphill battle in a downhill sport.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's good. That's all right, dude. It was good -- came out good.

DORNIN: Rusty Dornin, CNN, San Jose, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: You just have to feel kind of sorry for them pushing that thing down the street all those times.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN WEATHER PERSON: Honey, I'm sorry, somebody built like that, I don't feel sorry for them at all. They look great to me.

COSTELLO: Yes. They did.

SIDNEY: I do (ph). They're going to do just fine, thank you very much.

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