Jamie Moriarty
Jamie Moriarty
Push athlete Jamie Moriarty didn't exactly plan to be a bobsledder. The Illinois native, who played safety at Cornell, where he graduated with a hotel and restaurant management degree in 2003, was slated to participate in an arena football training camp when an injury landed him on the couch during the 2006 Winter Games. The sport of bobsled caught his eye, and it was enough for him to seek out information on how other athletes got involved. Noticing that several U.S. competitors were also former college football players, Moriarty decided to give bobsled a shot.
Moriarty burst on to the U.S. national team in 2007, finishing sixth with John Napier during the Junior World Championships in Altenberg, Germany. Over the next two seasons, he dominated the America's Cup with Napier and Mike Kohn for a total of four four-man gold medals. A respectable fifth followed at the 2009 United States National Bobsled Push Championship. In his Olympic debut in Vancouver, he'll help push Kohn's four-man sled.
Football lines run deep in the Moriarty family. His father Tom played in the NFL for five years as a defensive back with the Atlanta Falcons, the Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. His uncle Pat who also played for the Browns, is the Baltimore Ravens' vice president of football administration. His uncle Larry played running back for the Houston Oilers and Kansas City Chiefs for seven seasons, while his uncle Frank is a former member of the Denver Broncos.
Moriarty is part owner of a dispensing company called the Uber Dispensing Company, which distributes a product called Ubertap. Moriarty and two friends from Cornell—Jamie Murray and Douglas Murray, and another friend from Vanderbilt, Austin Hartley-Leonard—have created an improvement to the traditional keg tap. As described via their company's web site, this beer-friendly gadget "offers a hands free filling experience—consistent flow of beer is obtained by pressure being applied to the foot pump... Multiple faucets create a rapid, easy, transition for partygoers - 5x quicker than the common keg tap..." Douglas Murray is a defenseman for the San Jose Sharks and a member of the 2010 Olympic hockey team for Sweden, while Jamie Murray was a cast member on MTV's "Real World: New Orleans," and Hartley-Leonard is a Los Angeles-based musician.