Before he was an Olympian, he served his country. Steve Holcomb, a, gold medal winning American bobsledder, served in the Utah Army National Guard for seven years, from 1999-2006, when he received an honorable discharge. While he was in the Army he was awarded several medals, including the Army Achievement Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, the Army Presidential Unit Citation, the Army Superior Unit Award, and the Army Service Ribbon.

In the 2010 Winter Olympics he led the four-man US bobsled team on the sled "Night Train" to winning the gold medal.The win broke a sixty-two year record for a U.S. win.

Like so many other Olympic athletes, Holcomb grew up on skis and involved in a variety of winter sports. When asked if he felt responsible for the outcome of each race, since he heads up the team, Holcolmb responded, "Technically, yes, it is my team, but we all work together and each member has specific responsibilities." Even as a child he says he was a "thrill seeker," and recalls once breaking his arm jumping on a trampoline, but the day his cast was removed he immediately broke it again when he fell off of a mailbox.

He is a native of Park City, Utah. He started out focusing on alpine ski racing, but after ten years he decided to try out for the national bobsled team. Within a year he was competing in his first World Cup event. He attended high school at the Winter Sports School in Park City, graduating in 1997. A self-described "computer geek," Holcomb holds A+ and Network+ certifications from Microsoft and is currently working on a bachelor's degree in computer science from Phoenix University. He expects to graduate in 2011.

Holcomb suffers from a degenerative eye condition, which almost cost him his career in bobsledding, but in 2008 he underwent surgery to correct the problem and now enjoys 20-20 vision. The procedure took only about twenty minutes."It’s amazing to live life with 20/20 vision, it’s like life in high definition,” Holcomb said. He has stated that others who are similarly afflicted have heard his story and were inspired to have the surgery themselves.

Holcomb's career involves considerable travel. He recently commented that he was going to spend the first night at his home in more than seven months, but that the stay would be very brief. He will return to athletic, business, and charitable aspects of his stellar career. One aspect that is new and different, according to Holcomb, is his celebrity status. He and the other members of the bobsled team describe being feted and honored almost everywhere they go. "I could get used to this," he remarked on his Twitter account.