Senate Bill sb2638

    Florida Senate - 2002        (Corrected Copy)          SR 2638

    By Senator Saunders





    25-2134A-02

  1                    Senate Resolution No. ____

  2         A resolution recognizing Brian Shimer, resident

  3         of Naples, Florida, and member of the four-man

  4         United States Olympic bobsled team that

  5         captured the bronze medal at the 19th Olympic

  6         Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

  7

  8         WHEREAS, as a resident of warm and sunny Naples, Brian

  9  Shimer persevered and excelled in an unusual sport in this

10  state which involves piloting a sled through 15 twists and

11  turns as it rockets down a steep, one-mile tunnel of ice, and

12         WHEREAS, as the premier bobsled driver in the United

13  States since 1990 and a winner of the World Cup championship

14  in 1987 in the four-man sled, 39-year-old Brian Shimer

15  participated in his fifth and final Winter Olympic Games as

16  the driver of USA-2, a bobsled team consisting of Brian and

17  Mike Kohn, Doug Sharp, and brakeman Dan Steele, and

18         WHEREAS, after missing the bronze medal by

19  two-hundredths of a second at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in

20  Nagano, Japan, Brian Shimer was able to hold off former World

21  Cup champion, Martin Annen of Switzerland, on the final run in

22  Park City, Utah, to clinch the bronze medal and join silver

23  medalist Todd Hays and the team that piloted USA-1 on the

24  medals podium in Salt Lake City, ending a 46-year medal

25  drought for the United States in a sport typically dominated

26  by Europeans, and

27         WHEREAS, as a tribute to his years of dedication and

28  training as an accomplished athlete who defined the sport of

29  bobsledding in the United States for 15 years, Brian Shimer

30  was chosen by the other Winter Olympic athletes from the

31

                                  1

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 2002        (Corrected Copy)          SR 2638
    25-2134A-02




  1  United States to carry the American flag during the closing

  2  ceremony at the Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium, NOW, THEREFORE,

  3

  4  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:

  5

  6         That the Florida Senate commends Brian Shimer for his

  7  outstanding dedication to his sport and to the Olympic dream.

  8         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution,

  9  with the Seal of the Senate affixed, be presented to Brian

10  Shimer as a tangible token of the sentiments of the Florida

11  Senate.

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

                                  2

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.