As adults we shape our own lives. Undeniably though, our families also often make lasting impacts on our past, present, and future.

Growing up in a military family, Samuel Martinez was instilled with the drive, focus and passion required to advance to the highest levels in the sport of bobsledding. Yet it was also through family – a family tragedy, in fact – that he first found the sport.

“I’m the youngest of six kids,” says Sam. “They were all born in Texas except me. I’m was the only one born in Minnesota. We lived there until I was about four years old and then moved to Texas. We moved around based on where my dad was stationed.”

A portrait of a smiling Sam Martinez holding an orange life saving device on the deck of a ship in Alaska with a view of a glacier entering the sea behind him.
Sam Martinez on a cruise near a glacier in Alaska.

Sam lived the majority of his youth in the small town of Boerne, Texas, near San Antonio. “I’m a Gold Star brother, which means I lost my older brother while he was serving in the military.” Sam was just six in 2010 when his brother was killed in action in Afghanistan.

Read the entire story here on the Mt Van Hoevenberg website.