Joe Almasian

Career
Joe Almasian
Full name	Joseph Michael Almasian
nation	Armenia Armenia
birthday	March 8, 1967
place of birth	Framingham , United States
size	183 cm
Weight	85 kg
discipline	Two-man bobsleigh
status	resigned

Joseph Michael "Joe" Almasian (born March 8, 1967 in Framingham ) is a former Armenian bobsleigh athlete . At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer , he started as the first bobsledder for Armenia together with Ken Topalian .

Career

Born in the United States , Almasian was a mechanical engineer who was still active as a football player and track and field athlete at the University of New Hampshire . With the independence of Armenia , he and his friend Ken Topalian planned to set up a two-man bobsleigh team for Armenia at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer and to be the first Armenian ever to compete in the Olympics . They were inspired by the former professional Paul Varadian , whom Topalian knew from the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF). From the end of 1992 Topalian and Almasian trained weekly on the Olympic track in Lake Placid under the former US bobsleigh driver Jim Hickey . Two weeks before the Games, the Armenian government gave both of them their starting authorization. As the only Olympic bobsleigh driver in Armenia so far (as of 2018), the duo achieved 36th place in the two-man bobsleigh. But it remained the only international start for both of them.

Web links

Joe Almasian in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
Joe Almasian on Olympic.org - The Official website of the Olympic movement (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Tom Vartabedian: Olympic Flame Still Burns with Almasian. In: armenianweekly.com. February 18, 2014, accessed April 8, 2019 .
↑ Tom Vartabedian: Joe Almasian Remembered as Renaissance Man. In: armenianweekly.com. July 26, 2011, accessed April 8, 2019 .
↑ Ira Berkow: Winter Olympics; Even With Defeat, Armenian-American Bobsled Is a Success. In: The New York Times . February 21, 1994, accessed April 8, 2019 .

personal data
SURNAME	Topalian, Ken
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Almasian, Joseph Michael (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Armenian bobsledder
DATE OF BIRTH	March 8, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH	Framingham , Massachusetts , United States

[armenian-140218-1] Tom Vartabedian: Olympic Flame Still Burns with Almasian. In: armenianweekly.com. February 18, 2014, accessed April 8, 2019 .

[armenian-110726-2] Tom Vartabedian: Joe Almasian Remembered as Renaissance Man. In: armenianweekly.com. July 26, 2011, accessed April 8, 2019 .

[3] Ira Berkow: Winter Olympics; Even With Defeat, Armenian-American Bobsled Is a Success. In: The New York Times . February 21, 1994, accessed April 8, 2019 .