PARK CITY, Utah (Ticker) -- While Jean Racine and Gea Johnson received the headlines, Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers won the gold.

Bakken and Flowers won the first-ever women's Olympic bobsled competition Tuesday, recording the two best times of the one-day event to end the United States' 46-year medal drought in the sport -- and one of another kind.

Riding the country's second sled, Baaken and Flowers posted a combined time of 1 minute, 37.76 seconds, including a track-record first run of 48.81 seconds.

"This is an amazing feeling," said Bakken, who has won six World Cup medals as a bobsled pilot. "We had a lot of fun today. We had a lot of tough competitors."

"What can I say? This is a dream come true for me," added Flowers, a former collegiate track and field star who joined Bakken last year. "To win a gold medal for your country is awesome."

The United States has not medaled in a men's Olympic bobsled event since 1956, when the team of Arthur Tyler, William Dodge, Charles Butler and James Lamy claimed bronze.

More notably, no black athlete had won a gold medal in the Winter Olympics before Flowers.

"Hopefully, this will encourage other African-American boys and girls to give winter sports a try because you don't see too many of them out there," Flowers said.

Germans Sandra Prokoff and Ulrike Holzner won the silver medal in 1:38.06 and were followed by compatriots Susi-Lisa Erdmann and Nicole Herschmann at 1:38.29.

As pilots, Prokoff and Erdmann had won all eight World Cup races this winter and finished 1-2 on the tour.

Racine and Johnson ended up fifth Tuesday in 1:38.73.

The World Cup champion two of the past three seasons, Racine dumped long-time brakeman and friend Jen Davidson two months ago, blaming her for bad times.

"It had nothing to do with friendship," the 23-year-old Racine said. "It never did. I think Jen knows that. I know she does and hopefully we'll be able to mend the friendship."

In order to revert to the form that allowed her to win 23 straight events from the 1999-2000 to 2000-01 seasons, Racine turned to Johnson, a former track and field star who has been slowed by a bad hamstring.

As a result of Johnson's injury, which nearly forced her out of the event, the two were unable to train on Monday and finished nearly a full second behind their fellow Americans.

"I'm sad and disappointed that I let her down, and I feel like I let my country down," Johnson said. "But I couldn't perform today. I didn't have two legs, I had one."

Johnson pulled her hamstring on the first day of training in Salt Lake, but Racine never wanted a replacement made available by the United States Olympic Committee.

"The way I look at it, I knew if Gea could pull through her injury, she would push harder than anyone out there," Racine said.

But no one pushed better than Flowers, who avoided the attention drawn by Racine and Johnson in order to focus on the event.

"Jill and I tried to stay out of the soap opera and stay focused on our goal, which was to come in here and win a medal," Flowers said. "A lot of people saw us as the `other' team, and we wanted to prove them wrong."

"I am sure that both teams could have been on the podium if it wasn't for the unfortunate situation," Bakken added.