CHICO >> Emily Azevedo had dreams of one day being an Olympic athlete. She and her sisters would put on socks and slide across their parents’ hardwood floors pretending to be ice skaters.

Little did Azevedo know that she would walk alongside her Team USA teammates on February 12, 2010 during the Winter Olympics opening ceremony at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, Canada.

Azevedo, a Chico High School alumna, was a member of the 2010 United States Olympic bobsled team, where she and teammate Bree Schaaf placed fifth.

Now, Azevedo joins another special class, as she along with three others will be inducted the Chico Sports Hall of Fame at the 50th Chico Sports Hall of Fame and Senior Athletes Banquet on Tuesday, May 13 at Manzanita Place at the Chico Elks Lodge.

“It’s an incredible honor,” Azevedo said. “The town of Chico supported me throughout my entire athletic career, starting from being a high school athlete and a gymnast when I was younger, all the way through when I competed in Davis, and then through bobsled and rugby as well.

“Our family has moved away, but Chico still holds a place in my heart and always will. The community is pretty amazing … I think calling Chico my home is something that’s always been important to me. Growing up in a smaller town, it’s a different level of support from people around you. I’ve always found that to be a huge value, and community is super important.”

Azevedo is joined by Olympic gold medalist and former Chico High School teacher Jack Yerman, NFL Hall of Famer and former Butte College football player Larry Allen, and a pioneer in the female athletic training space, Fran Babich.

Doors for the banquet open at 6 p.m., and dinner will be served at 7 p.m. Tickets are available through Friday, May 9, and can be purchased at the Chico Enterprise-Record office located at 3881 Benatar Way, Suite G. Ticket sale hours are Monday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets are $65 and are open seating. Tables of eight may be reserved if purchased together.

When Azevedo is inducted, she will join her father, Dr. Alan Azevedo (class of 2015) as the first father-daughter duo to be inducted into the Chico Sports Hall of Fame. There have been mother-son duos and father-son duos, but the Azevedos will be the first father-daughter duo to join the Hall.

“To be in the Hall of Fame it’s a major honor, and to be alongside another Olympian and an Olympic gold medalist at that along with the other two inductees is pretty amazing,” Emily Azevedo said. “It is fun to think about being with my dad, and in that same vein. My father is an incredible person, so I obviously look up a lot to him. To be considered in the same position, whether it’s from an athletic standpoint or who you are, is something that is very memorable.”

Azevedo’s sister Amber Azevedo Carrion is excited for her sister, saying she’s worked hard and done everything through determination.

“I think probably any coach that has ever been with her would tell you she’s one of the most determined athletes that you’ll ever meet,” Azevedo Carrion said. “The community of Chico was such a big part of our journey and life. Whether it was academically, or athletically, we definitely were connected to a lot of people through my dad and through Chico State, and those people helped us in a lot of ways to be able to support us and succeed out of Chico.”

Establishing a base

Azevedo’s journey to becoming an Olympic athlete began at an early age, and several sports contributed to her journey to bobsled. She began with gymnastics at an early age, and ran hurdles and played soccer in high school.

Azevedo credits her start in gymnastics as a key component to it all, and coach Cindy Ferranti at Athletic Horizons. Her favorite events were floor and the vault — the power events — because she could sprint down the runway and fly through the air. The bars and beam were more challenging.

“As a bobsledder you’re the power athlete, so I struggled a bit when there was a little more need for grace,” Azevedo said with a laugh. “Gymnastics I think really helped me really throughout my entire athletic career just having that base, because it teaches you so much about body awareness and just coaching and understanding how you move. I was able to translate a lot of that into different sports, being able to pick up on things, understanding what a coach meant from how to maneuver my body in certain places, so I really do credit that base for being able to transition into multiple different sports throughout my career.”

From gymnastics, Chico Sports Hall of Famer Dale Edson worked with Azevedo at Chico High to succeed in the hurdles, where she followed in the footsteps of her sister.

“You get swayed by your sibling, but I think I had the gymnastics background I didn’t have any fear of getting over the hurdles,” Azevedo said. ” I knew that was very familiar to me with how we grew up as gymnasts. I was decently fast, but not fast enough to be a sprinter, so it gave me an opportunity to be successful where I don’t think there was a lot of hurdlers for our high school at the time.”

Azevedo went on to run hurdles at UC Davis. She tried out for the soccer team at Davis but got cut, which she called devastating. She made the track and field team at Davis, running the 100-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles, and made the NCAA Division II National Championships her sophomore season before UC Davis became a D-I school.

Azevedo wasn’t fast enough to go beyond D-II track, but still had the athlete mindset upon graduation. She felt like she had more to give. What that meant she wasn’t sure, but she would later find out.

Expect unexpected

Azevedo’s first experience with bobsled was like that of so many others: at home, watching the Olympics with her family, and family members asking each other what sport they thought they would participate in if they were in the Olympics.

Women’s bobsled came on. Azevedo watched two women win medals, and one was a former track athlete from UC Santa Barbara.

“She had a record similar to me in track, and she started this sport three or four years before that, and I thought that’s really interesting,” Azevedo said. “I did what any person does back then and googled how to become an Olympic bobsledder. I did some research, joked around with my roommates, ran around with the house pretending to push a sled, and ended up finding a way how to submit an Olympic resume.”

She told her family, and they didn’t think she was serious.

“We were all shocked. We actually thought she was joking at first,” Azevedo Carrion said. “We like like, ‘Oh funny.’ When we realized she was serious we were like oh you’re actually going to do this. It wasn’t one of those things you think she couldn’t do this, but it’s one of those things that came from left field, but as soon as she said no I’m doing this we were like oh that totally makes sense. Of course you would just go commit yourself to this.”

Azevedo filled out a resume, got a call to go to a camp, and booked a one-way ticket to Lake Placid.

It was a rocky start, but good timing. Her skills were raw, the Olympics had just concluded, and she had three years to learn and transition her base to yet another sport. She credits strength and conditioning coach Steve Henderson at Chico State for giving her a strong base in weight training, which then led to weight training with Jon Carlock at the Olympics.

“Getting strong was very important,” Azevedo said. “It took about two years to really sort of baseline, and start getting some strength and understanding of what I’m doing and not being terrified sliding down the track, and trying to recognize your role and what you do. So it took some time.”

Schaaf, Azevedo’s driver in the two-man Olympic bobsled team, said what makes Azevedo different from other athletes is her tenacity.

“With Emily she has a level of tenacity that you don’t see in a lot of athletes and grit, and bobsled is a brutal sport, especially as a brakeman,” Schaaf said. “Coming from hurdles, to be able to get as strong as she got and maintain her speed as a track athlete was pretty phenomenal. All people can get strong. Strength is something that most people can dedicate time to and get stronger, but we always say speed is something that can’t be taught.

“Sure you can get faster with proper sprint mechanics, but to get as strong as Emily got and increase her speed, there’s that recipe … I feel very very lucky to have my time run parallel with Emily and compete with her and alongside her in our careers. She’s a very special person, a very special personality, and an incredible friend.”

Olympic memories

The memories at the Olympics were fond for Azevedo, beginning at the opening ceremonies. She called it an out-of-body experience, and somewhere she never thought she’d be growing up as a child watching the Olympics every four years.

“It’s this moment where you realize it’s so much bigger than you, not just about you at that moment,” Azevedo said. “People from the college and all over the world and were part of my path to get there, and you kind of realize it’s not about you. You’re walking in this for everyone who was supporting you.

“Starting from a foundation of a gymnast and going into track, and each coach and each person who pushes you, each thing you choose to do, getting cut from the soccer team was devastating that is all part of your path. It all leads to a particular end goal and the place you’re supposed to be. I think that was the most incredible thing.”

However not everything was easy, fun and go-lucky. Azevedo said the most challenging part was being home or even having much of a place to call home. It’s exciting because athletes have the ability to travel the world, but Azevedo never felt in her comfort zone. You’re constantly pushing yourself to be better, and the financial stability is slim.

“I didn’t have a location that necessarily was my home except for my parents’ home in Chico, which I would come to, but those things are challenging when you’re on tour,” Azevedo said.

When Azevedo got to the Olympics she was joined by cousins, friends from college, a friend from high school on her soccer team, and of course her sisters and parents. Her cousins shaved their chests with messages in support, braving the frigid temperatures of Vancouver in the winter.

Azevedo’s family gave her space before her races, knowing her personality and that she was hyper-focused.

“We know Emily well enough that when she is focused, you do not get into the way of the focus,” Azevedo Carrion said. “We were intentional about not seeing her, but man we were on the sideline incredibly nervous for her to compete. We were awestruck. It was a very emotional journey, an experience you wouldn’t forget because it was something we were able to experience with her, not just getting to watch her. It was an experience we were able to do all together.”

When Azevedo did see her family after her first trial run, she was all smiles.

“I pop up to this crowd that’s screaming,” Azevedo said. “My teammate Bree is from the Seattle area so she had a ton of people there too. We had more Americans than Canadians there, and I pop up and there’s my cousins and my parents and family just sitting right in front of me waving and tapping me, and so that was really cool. I’m like, ‘Hi! You made it, you’re here, right at the bottom of the track.’ It was great to see them all.”

Post-Olympics

Azevedo’s career post-Olympics is nearly as impressive as her one that led her to the games. She went to train with the United States rugby team beginning in 2014, yet another new sport she learned. She was an alternate for the team and traveled for several years before being forced to stop due to injury. She broke her collarbone twice going into the Olympics, and felt fresher knowing she was going out on her own terms. She tried, but her body told her that it was time to move on.

So what does someone who’s been an athlete her whole life do next?

Azevedo decided to go to law school. She always felt as an athlete she could be better supported throughout her journey, so when she retired she wanted to put herself in a position to better help athletes of the future. Whether that was a legal standpoint, a mentorship standpoint, a mental standpoint or an ambassador standpoint, she did not know. She and Schaaf were both athlete representatives, Schaaf with USA bobsled and Azevedo with USA rugby.

Azevedo went to law school and is now on the US Olympic Athlete Ombuds Team. As its website states, “The primary role of the Athlete Ombuds Team is to provide cost-free, independent and confidential advice to elite athletes on all sport-related rules, policies and processes, and to assist in the resolution of athlete concerns and disputes. The Athlete Ombuds Team carries out this role with particular attention to the independence and confidentiality of our advice and our availability to assist all athletes without judgement or bias.”

“For Emily I believe it’s wanting to leave things better than she found them,” Schaaf said. ” For her I think it was a matter of finding ways to give back. Watching her take that experience in law school and using it to help athletes and trying to make things better is special … It’s an integral role, Olympic and paralympic sports are tricky in that sense, so it’s an office that’s there to mediate and I think it’s a really difficult role that it doesn’t surprise me she’d take on.”

Azevedo Carrion left one final message to her sister ahead of her induction as part of the 50th Chico Sports Hall of Fame class.

“I think I’m just really proud of the journey she’s gone through and the woman she’s become, and the people she represents,” Azevedo Carrion said. “I think when she’s up there receiving this award you’ll hear that, that she is doing it for everyone else in her life. I’m glad to see that she gets an opportunity to get recognized that she is that person that is so selfless and gracious and has really represented Chico well.”