It's not every day you see a 400-pound bobsled outfitted with in-line skates being pushed down a quiet, flat San Jose street by two guys worried about sideswiping parked cars.

This must seem, Dan Janjigian concedes, a little nutty.

So he understands the quizzical looks from people who see him and Yorgo Alexandrou practicing their starts.

``Are you guys like the Jamaicans?'' a passing jogger asks one recent afternoon.

For the record, Janjigian and Alexandrou are 29-year-old San Jose residents who make up the less famous Armenian bobsleigh team. Their goal of qualifying for the Salt Lake City Olympic Games this winter, despite their makeshift training methods and shoestring budget, is no joke. But they do have a sense of humor.

``You mean they don't have this on every street in America?'' Janjigian asks.

Part of the Olympic Games' charm is that every few years we're introduced to unlikely athletes and quirky characters. Bobsledding has had more than its fair share.

The Jamaican bobsled team's improbable appearance in the 1988 Calgary Games was the basis for the film ``Cool Runnings.'' Also, His Serene Highness Prince Albert of Monaco straps on a helmet for his country.

The United States has recruited celebrity athletes such as NFL players Herschel Walker and Willie Gault as bobsledders in the past.

Along come Janjigian and Alexandrou. They are Americans who hope to represent Armenia in the Olympic two-man bobsled, even though Alexandrou isn't Armenian.

Their best chance of reaching Salt Lake City rests with three races in the America's Cup series Sunday and Monday in Lake Placid, N.Y. If they don't earn enough points to qualify, it won't be for lack of effort -- especially for Janjigian, the sled's driver who has spent four years and thousands of dollars trying to become competitive.

It has been an uphill battle in a downhill sport.

Janjigian, who owns a Web site design company, long has had a fascination with speed -- evidenced by his Porsche Boxster. On a lark, he attended a bobsledding school in Calgary and got hooked on hurtling down an ice track at 90 mph.

``There's really no other reason to do this unless you love it,'' Janjigian says.

And you want to compete. He began exploring the possibility of representing Armenia -- a former Soviet republic that allows Armenians around the world to wear their uniforms in competitions.

He was born in Chicago and grew up in San Jose, but Janjigian takes his Armenian heritage seriously. He was raised speaking the language and holds dual citizenship. His dad owns an Armenian restaurant in Sunnyvale.

``I'm proud to be an American,'' he says. ``But in a lot of ways, I'm an Armenian with deep American roots.''

There was a catch. He would have to finance himself. Even with sponsors, Janjigian estimates each of the past four seasons has cost him $50,000 to $60,000, primarily in travel and shipping costs. That excludes equipment, and a pair of bobsled runners alone can cost $10,000.

``I was never a dot-com millionaire who had $2 million in a bank,'' he says. ``If it wasn't for the fact that my
house has gone up in value, I wouldn't be able to do this. There's no such thing as a rich bobsledder, except for Prince Albert.''

Janjigian and Ara Bezdjian, a 31-year-old Bay Area native, gradually became more competitive. Bezdjian, a 240-pound rock of a man, served as brakeman -- providing muscle to push the sled at the all-important start and the speed-inducing weight for the trip down the track.

Breaking in a brakeman

But when Bezdjian's back slipped a disk, Janjigian needed an emergency replacement last February. He turned to his friend, Alexandrou, a former high school football player.

``I trained with Dan about three weeks, and suddenly I'm in a World Cup event,'' Alexandrou says. ``It was bizarre.''

It descended into scary.

On his first practice run at Calgary's Canada Olympic Park, he barely got into the sled because the acceleration was so much faster than he expected. Then came the sensation of experiencing 5 G's -- five times the force of gravity -- on sharp turns that pulled his body toward the sled floor, sucked the air from his lungs and left him hyperventilating.

``I was in shock for about two hours,'' Alexandrou says. ``Finally I went to him and said, `Dan, I don't know if I can do this.' ''

Janjigian coaxed him back into the sled, and by the end of the competition, Alexandrou decided he was crazy enough to actually enjoy it.

Even so, with Bezdjian still hurt, Janjigian tried to recruit a 19-year-old weightlifting champion from Armenia as his brakeman. But after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the United States was not allowing people into the country on visas.

Alexandrou, who juggles two small businesses, agreed to stay on. Of course, there was the small matter of his Greek ethnicity.

``We were caught between a rock and a hard place,'' says Paul Varadian, a Boston-area resident who will headthe Armenian Olympic delegation in Salt Lake City. ``We'll have to get him Armenian citizenship. That is doable, though it's not something I'm fond of doing.''

But first they must qualify.

Money drives sled

Bobsledding is much like motor sports. The well-funded teams succeed because they have the best equipment. On the other hand, Janjigian and Alexandrou have a used sled bought off a U.S. driver for $12,500, about half the cost of a new model.

Because they live 600 miles from the closest of the three North American bobsled runs, Janjigian used ``Armenian ingenuity'' to create his own ``push track'' on the street in front of his house in West San Jose. He had in-line skates welded onto an old sled and uses a pair of 2-by-4s as a starter block.
``Yeah, we made it,'' Janjigian says. ``But it works just as well as anything else, and in some cases even better.''

But their have-not status can hurt them.

Lack of equipment cost them valuable Olympic qualifying points when they finished 14th out of 16 sleds in two late November events in Calgary. Alexandrou weighs 60 pounds less than Bezdjian, and the Armenians didn't have any of the metal bars that they are allowed to attach to their sled to make up weight differences.

Now they must race well in Lake Placid. If they don't, they plan to fly to Italy next month in hopes of securing the needed points.

``This is the way it should be,'' Janjigian says. ``Getting to the Olympics shouldn't be easy.''

A curious sight

Janjigian appreciates the curiosity. In fact, he says wearing their shirts in nightclubs provides a good conversation starter.

While their quest might sound strange, he says it's no more outlandish than locales such as the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico fielding bobsled teams. At least, he says, Armenia is a winter country.
San Jose, though, is not a winter city. Janjigian jokes about how his practice site reminds of him of the street-hockey scene in ``Wayne's World,'' in which Garth and Wayne get out of the way each time a car is coming.

``When it passes, we're like `Game on!' '' he says.

Sometimes, kids watch them work on their push starts, sprinting about 30 yards between sensors to time their speed. But on this afternoon, the only spectator is Janjigian's 94-year-old grandmother, Nevart Karagosian.
Across the street, a passer-by stops and asks, ``Should I have heard of you?''
Janjigian grins.

``Hopefully you will soon.''

Contact Mark Emmons at memmons@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5745.