SOCHI, Russia - The first time Aja Evans took a run down the bobsled track — a sensation she likens to being stuffed in a garbage can and pushed off a cliff — she wasn't sure she wanted to do it again.

Her mother insisted: Do not give up.

"She told me to fight through it. She told me I was in this for bigger reasons than that one run," said Evans, a former Illinois track star and the sister of Vikings defensive tackle Fred Evans. "And I'm so glad I listened to her."

Two years later, Evans and pilot Jamie Greubel earned a bronze medal Wednesday in the women's bobsled.

American teammates Elana Meyers and Lauryn Williams joined them on the podium after taking silver, marking the first time the United States has won multiple medals in the event.

"This has been the most exciting experience of my life; I am so happy to have fallen into bobsled," said Williams, a former Olympic sprinter who took up the sport seven months ago.

Canadian pilot Kaillie Humphries, who won the event in Vancouver, took gold again with four clean runs during the two-day competition at the Sanki Sliding Center, finishing a tenth of a second ahead of her top American rivals.

Greubel and Evans finished a full second behind the two leaders, but no one could have guessed it from the way they hugged and grinned on the podium.

"There's no other feeling like it," said Evans, a brakeman for two seasons.

"It's overwhelming. It's just bliss. This is what you work so hard and sacrifice so much for."

After her team's final run, Evans sprinted to the stands and high-fived older brother Fred.

Her cheering section included 10 relatives, most of whom wore knit hats with her name sewn in.

A former Big Ten shot put champion, Evans, a Chicago native, plans to take a break from bobsledding and return to track to compete in heptathlon.

But first things first.

"I just can't wait to take my medal home and show everybody," she said. "I have had so much support and that has been my driving force. It's why I have a medal."