PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Courage and resilience are in John Daly’s blood. After all, he’s the son of a retired FDNY medic.
Four years ago at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, American skeleton slider Daly glided across the finish line with his head in his hands. Coming into the fourth heat, the last one of the event, he was in third place. At the start of the final his runners popped out of the track’s grooves, slowing down his speed and dropping him to a 15th-place finish.
A devastated Daly retired from skeleton for three years. While on a date during his hiatus, Daly faced a question he didn’t know how to answer: “What are you passionate about?” That’s when he knew it was time to revive his career — and he did it in time to qualify for the Pyeongchang Olympics in a quest for redemption.