Carson Valley personal trainer Kris Landry still looks back to the U.S. National Gymnastics Championships 32 years ago and cringes.
"No doubt about it, that was one of my worst days ever," she said.
She'd been training since she was little to become an Olympic gymnast and the trials for the 1976 Montreal Summer Games were supposed to be the culmination of all that work.
What came instead was nothing short of a nightmare.
Part one came during her routine on the uneven bars.
"I was 15 years old and I took a flying dismount off the bars," she said. "I landed on my neck. It was very painful but somehow, I got up and continued the competition."
The knockout blow came in her next event.
"I was on the beam, I fell and it pushed my hip out of place," she said. "My career was over in a matter of about 20 minutes.
"I didn't want to give up that easily. I got myself put back together and later I became a certified personal trainer and Pilates practioner. I never lost that dream of going to the Olympics."
Strangely enough, she got her shot nearly 25 years later.
After an article about her training business printed in her local paper in 2001, Landry got a phone call from three-time Olympian Bonnie Warner.
Warner had cut her teeth in the luge but was making a run at the 2002 Salt Lake Game for the first appearance of women's bobsledding.
"She said they were training for the Olympics and wanted to see if I would help coach the team," Landry said.
Landry took on the title of flexibility technician and stretching coach for the Eagles bobsled team and spent the next year working with the team in Calgary, Discovery Bay, Calif., and the Park City, Utah bobsled venue.
"We were all over the place," Landry said. "It was really something. Some of my most memorable moments were just watching what these women went through during their training months."
As luck would have it, Warner didn't end up making the cut at the trials, but two other athletes Landry had been working with " Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers " did.
"They were the unknown team," Landry said. "There was a pair of American bobsledders that was drawing a lot of media attention and they were heavily-favored to win the whole thing. But Jill and Vonetta just kind of took a back seat and did their work getting ready for the Games.
"The whole trial process was very strange. There was a lot of controversy, a lot of politics and a lot of position changes that really influenced the outcome of the trials.
"Bonnie just represented herself so well throughout the whole process. I was so proud of how she handled everything.
"Jill was coming in 12th, 13th or 14th all year at the international competitions, but she had an outstanding run at the trials and she ended up making it."
And that wasn't all.
Bakken and Flowers pulled off an enormous upset at the Olympics, defeating their American counterparts and two powerful German teams to take the gold medal.
"That was an incredible moment," Landry said. "I was sitting at the top of the run and all we could do is watch the clock because you can't see the whole track. That final time flashed and you just knew they had won. I still get goosebumps talking about it."
In the time since the 2002 Games, Landry married her husband, David, and moved to Carson Valley. The couple operates The Total Body Solution out of the Montana Health and Fitness Club at the Genoa Lakes Golf Resort Course.
She said she still stays in touch with many of the Olympians she worked with, but remains most thankful to Warner.
"This is a woman that really paved the way for women's bobsledding to be an Olympic sport," Landry said. "Up until her, there were some countries that wouldn't allow women on their bobsledding runs.
"Even after she didn't make the cut to compete, she still trained as hard as she had been and even did some television commentary during the event.
"She is my favorite champion of those games."
