Joseph Michael Almasian (born 8 March 1967) is an American

bobsledder Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsle ...

. He competed in the two man event at the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Hav ...

, representing Armenia. Along with Ken Topalian, they were the first athletes to represent

Armenia at the Olympics Armenia first participated at the Olympic Games as an independent nation in 1994, and has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games since then. Previously, Armenian athletes competed as part of the Soviet Unio ...

Biography

Almasian was born in

Framingham, Massachusetts Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston ...

in 1967. He worked as a mechanical engineer in

Sherborn, Massachusetts Sherborn is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Boston's MetroWest (Massachusetts), MetroWest region, the community is within area code 508 and has the ZIP Code 01770. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

. While he as at the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant coll ...

he was a track athlete and played

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

. Three years after Armenia had gained independence in 1991, Almasian and Ken Topalian formed a team with the aim to compete in the bobsled event at the

representing Armenia. This included getting a second-hand bobsled from American Samoa. They both attended the training centre in Lake Placid to learn how to bobsled, being trained by Jim Hickey who had previously represented the United States at the Olympics in the event. They could train for three hours each day at the weekend, using a sled from the 1960s. To qualify for the Olympics, both of them gained Armenian citizenship and competed in five international races. With less than three weeks before the start of the 1994 Winter Olympics, Almasian and Topalian were given permission by the Armenian government to compete at the games. They were the only athletes to represent

Armenia at the 1994 Winter Olympics Armenia sent a delegation to compete at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the munici ...

. They finished in 36th place in the two-man event, ahead of seven other teams. Neither of them competed in the event since the Olympics, and they had never been to Armenia. Almasian's participation at the Olympics was in honour of his grandparents, who escaped the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

in 1915.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Almasian, Joe 1967 births Living people American male bobsledders Armenian male bobsledders Olympic bobsledders for Armenia Bobsledders at the 1994 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Framingham, Massachusetts American sportspeople of Armenian descent 20th-century American sportsmen