- - Track Will Always ‘Have a Special Place’ in Mystique Ro’s Heart, but Skeleton Led the U.S. Star to Her ‘Olympic Dream’ (Exclusive)

Sean NeumannFebruary 1, 2026 at 6:30 PM

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Mystique Ro

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Mystique Ro kept it secret for weeks, but then her mother started to notice the strange bruises on her arms.

“Where did these come from?” Ro’s mother, Tamara, asked.

“Don't worry about it, it’s fine!” the future Olympian snapped back.

But soon, Tamara found out what her daughter had been keeping from her: She was quitting track and field, and giving a new winter sport — one she had never seen before — a try.

Weeks earlier, decorated U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor sent out an email blast to college coaches across the country letting them know Team USA was looking to recruit new athletes for winter sports such as bobsledding, skeleton, and more.

Ro, a track and field hurdler at Queens University of Charlotte, figured: “Why not?”

“I heard of bobsled from the famous Cool Runnings and I had watched Vancouver 2010,” Ro, now 31, tells PEOPLE with a laugh, saying she thought, “Let’s see what happens."

Mystique Ro

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Ro did the Team USA combine and did well enough to get an invite to join the team. But after considering Ro’s 5-foot-4 frame, the U.S. coaches thought the former track and field star might be too small for bobsledding and encouraged her to try skeleton — a similar sport that instead sees an individual rider fly down the track on their own personal sled, rather than as part of a four person team (that Cool Runnings reference).

The transition was tough, Ro recalled to PEOPLE ahead of her Olympics debut. It was especially challenging to mentally overcome the fear of flying down a hill around 80 miles per hour with nothing but a heavy metal sled separating her body from the ice.

“I was kind of hesitant because skeleton's is a crazy sport,” Ro says. “Who wants to go head first like that? I was like, ‘Not me.’ And so they kind of got me to come back to driving school. We went down about the halfway mark and I said, ‘No, thank you! We're going way too fast. I can't see anything. I don't know what's happening. I'm hitting everything, and it hurts.’ But over time it starts to grow on you, and obviously you have to go from the next run to the next one. You kind of have to trick yourself into saying, ‘It's a game. It's more fun as you get better because you're not hitting stuff!’ So over time, I realized it is actually fun. And I found I had an aptitude for the start, which is very advantageous, so I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Mystique Ro

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Ro has done much more than simply getting the hang of skeleton, however: She’s become one of the top sledders in the world in the matter of eight years.

The Nokesville, Va., native took home an individual gold at the Pan American Games in 2024. The next year, Ro took home an individual silver at the World Championships and was also part of the gold medal-winning U.S. team.

And soon, Ro will be competing for the biggest prize in the sport: an Olympic medal.

Mystique Ro

Mike Coppola/Getty

Ro’s mom will be looking on with family and friends at a watch party being hosted at a local bar, half a world away, as her daughter launches herself again and again down an icy hill as fast as she possibly can.

“It's been a challenge with trying to explain to her why I want to throw myself down a mountain at 80 miles an hour, because there's no logic for a parent about why you keep doing it on repeat when things go awry,” Ro laughs. “So over time when they start to understand it, they get comfortable and they can support you a little bit less hesitantly.”

As for Ro, that hesitation left her body long ago. Now, it’s all about gunning for the gold and taking in the moments she’s dreamt about since she was young.

“This is something that kids dream about,” Ro smiles. “I’m like, ‘Oh, cool, we're here.’ This is something to be really excited about.”

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Sports”