A lesson in bobsled appreciation

In case you didn't receive the memo, the U.S. won its first men's bobsled gold since 1948 on Saturday. It was also the 36th medal for Team USA in Vancouver, which ties Germany's single-Games record from 2002 (and guarantees that the U.S. will break the record after the men's hockey team receives either a gold or silver on Sunday).

Beyond its medal-collecting achievements, here are five other reasons to appreciate the American four-man team of Steve Holcomb, Steve Mesler, Curt Tomasevicz and Justin Olsen:

1) They're making bad dancing cool again. While standing on the podium at the flower ceremony shortly after the event, Holcomb and his teammates broke into a minimalist series of kicks and modest arm movements that has come to be known as "The Holcy Dance." And as not-very-good dancing goes, it's rather entertaining.

2) They appreciate the importance of fun. If Exhibit A of this statement is The Holcy Dance, then Exhibit B is labeled: Mustache-growing Contest.

3) The driver (Holcomb) used to be blind. And we do mean that literally. Once legally blind with 20-500 vision, Holcomb was considering retirement in 2008 before an experimental procedure to implant lenses behind each iris improved his vision to 20-20.

4) They just toppled a German giant. Beyond the fact that Holcomb & Co.'s medal broke a 62-year U.S. men's bobsled gold medal drought and tied Germany's Winter Games record of 36 medals, it also represented a shift in power on the men's bobsled landscape. Prior to Holcomb's victory, four-time gold medalist Andre Lange of Germany had never been defeated in any event at the Olympics.

5) In addition to dancing, having mustache contests, once being blind and defeating German juggernauts, Holcomb and friends also happen to cut the ice on a sled called the "Night Train." And that, quite simply, is just about as slick a moniker for an Olympic bobsled as we can imagine.

-Matt Stroup