CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Team USA bobsledder and Olympic gold medalist Steve Holcomb has died at the age of 37. USA TODAY Sports 
 
 Steven Holcomb won gold in the four-man bobsled at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. (Photo: Jin-man Lee, ASSOCIATED PRESS) 
 
 Pulmonary congestion is a possible cause of Olympic bobsledder Steven Holcomb’s death on Saturday, USA Bobsled & Skeleton announced on Sunday. 
 
 The results of a preliminary report by the Adirondack Medical Center revealed the potential cause, pending toxicology performed by an independent laboratory. The preliminary report was negative for drugs, and USA Bobsled said there is no suspicion of foul play. 
 
 Holcomb, 37, was found to have died in his sleep at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid on Saturday. 
 
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 Holcomb won Olympic gold in 2010, piloting the “Night Train” to win the first U.S. gold medal in the four-man bobsled since 1948. In Sochi, Holcomb won bronze medals in the two-man and four-man bobsled. 
 
 "Our deepest sympathies go out to the family, friends and teammates of our dear friend Steven Holcomb," said USA Bobsled & Skeleton Board of Directors Chairman Pete Piechoski. "Steve was a wonderful man, and a great friend. He was a fearless competitor whose light shone bright and guided us all. You will be sorely missed, Steve. God's peace to you on your next journey." 

 FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2016, file photo, driver Steven Holcomb with Frank Delduca, Carlo Valdes and brakeman Samuel McGuffie, compete in the four-man bobsled World Cup race in Lake Placid, N.Y. Holcomb,... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2016, file photo, driver Steven Holcomb with Frank Delduca, Carlo Valdes and brakeman Samuel McGuffie, compete in the four-man bobsled World Cup race in Lake Placid, N.Y. Holcomb, the longtime U.S. bobsledding star who drove to three Olympic medals after beating a disease that... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2016, file photo, driver Steven Holcomb with Frank Delduca, Carlo Valdes and brakeman Samuel McGuffie, compete in the four-man bobsled World Cup race in Lake Placid, N.Y. Holcomb, the longtime U.S. bobsledding star who drove to three Olympic medals after beating a disease that... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2016, file photo, driver Steven Holcomb with Frank Delduca, Carlo Valdes and brakeman Samuel McGuffie, compete in the four-man bobsled World Cup race in Lake Placid, N.Y. Holcomb,... (Associated Press) 
 
 The cause of U.S. Olympic bobsledder Steven Holcomb's death will remain unclear until more tests are completed. 
 
 An autopsy performed at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake, New York, showed that the 37-year-old Holcomb died with fluid in his lungs, Essex County coroner Francis Whitelaw said Sunday. However, that alone was not enough to draw a conclusion as to why Holcomb died — and no determination will come until toxicology tests are completed. 
 
 That process can typically take several weeks. 
 
 Whitelaw said preliminary toxicology results did not show drugs in Holcomb's system. Whitelaw also said there is "no suspicion of foul play," concurring with what USA Bobsled and Skeleton and the U.S. Olympic Committee said shortly after Holcomb's body was discovered Saturday afternoon in his room at the Olympic Training Center — where many athletes reside when they are training or competing in Lake Placid. 
 
 Holcomb was a three-time Olympian and three-time Olympic medalist, including a four-man gold medal from the 2010 Vancouver Games. 
 
 "The world has lost a true national hero, an example to young and old alike about overcoming diversity and a true gentlemen as well as an all-around great man," former USA Bobsled and Skeleton board member Howard Lowry said in a tribute letter to Holcomb's family and friends. "Steven's shoes will forever be too large to fill by those that come after him." 
 
 Team officials believe Holcomb died in his sleep. 
 
 The grieving process for Holcomb's friends and family was just getting started Sunday. His parents arrived in Lake Placid from their homes in Colorado and Utah, and some bobsledders and team officials are expected to be there in the coming days. 
 
 Funeral arrangements have not yet been revealed. Plans are also underway for memorial services to be held in the coming weeks in both Lake Placid and Holcomb's hometown of Park City, Utah. 
 
 Tributes continued pouring in Sunday from across the Olympic sports world, with American figure skating legend Kristi Yamaguchi, longtime U.S. beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings, British skeleton standout Shelley Rudman and German luge great Felix Loch among those tweeting messages of sorrow and remembrance. 
 
 At Sunday's NASCAR race at Talladega, Alabama someone scrawled "RIP Steven" on the track as a tribute to Holcomb, who was a big racing fan. 
 
 "We've lost a legend," said USA Luge's Erin Hamlin — who, like Holcomb, is a world champion and Olympic medalist. 
 
 Holcomb's success on the sliding tracks across the world was obvious. But he was more revered within the sliding world for his persona off the track; International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation President Ivo Ferriani said he would remember Holcomb for the "politeness and respect" that he showed everyone who was associated with the sport. 
 
 "Very sad to hear the terrible news about Steven Holcomb," International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said. "He was already a sporting legend. He was hugely appreciated by his fellow competitors and everybody in Olympic sport." 
 
 ___ 
 
 AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar contributed to this report. 

 In his autobiography, “But Now I See: My Journey from Blindness to Olympic Gold,” Holcomb disclosed that he had battled depression and had attempted suicide in 2007. He said he believed the depression had stemmed largely from the fight to save his vision. 
 
 He had been scheduled to fly to Minnesota on Sunday to review bobsled gear for the next season, his agent said. In the 2016-17 Bobsled World Cup, which ended six weeks ago, Holcomb finished second in the two-man event and third in the four-man. 
 
 Holcomb had secured his place as a top bobsledder at the Vancouver Games in 2010. The United States team entered those Olympics as the world’s No. 1 squad, but it was up against the perennially dominant Germans and six decades of history. 
 
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 During four runs over two days, Holcomb and the three other Americans in USA-1 made their task look easy. At speeds that reached 95 miles per hour, Holcomb steered his team’s sleek black sled (nicknamed Night Train) calmly through the course’s 16 stomach-turning curves. He and his fellow sledders even glided through the most treacherous turn, Curve 13, which Holcomb had called 50-50 after watching half the bobsleds crash on it the first time he trained there. 
 
 Holcomb’s team completed its four runs in 3 minutes 42.46 seconds, beating Germany for the gold medal by less than half a second and ending the long gold medal drought. 
 
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 “No more 62 years,” Holcomb said after the victory. “We’ll start the clock over. Now it’s going to be four years.” 
 
 Holcomb fell short of repeating at the Sochi Games in 2014, but he drove his teams to bronze medals in the two- and four-man events. 
 
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 Steven Holcomb was born on April 14, 1980, in Park City, Utah, where he grew up and continued to live. He split his time between there and Lake Placid, the two places believed to have the only bobsled tracks in the nation. 
 
 He started competing for the United States in 1998 but did not qualify for an Olympic team until 2006 at the Turin Games. 
 
 He is survived by his father, Steve; his mother, Jean Beethe; and two sisters, Feldman said. 
 
 Holcomb looked out of place among the ranks of chiseled Olympians and sleek bobsledders. His stocky build gave him a look that marketers said was more likely to land him in a beer commercial than on a Wheaties box. 
 
 His rise in the bobsled world coincided with the start of his sight problems, attributed to keratoconus, a degenerative eye disease. He wore contact lenses that corrected his vision to 20/60 from 20/500, a level that qualified him as legally blind. “I was able to drive without being able to see,” he said in an interview with CBS News. “You just learn to drive by feel.” 
 
 But his sight continued to worsen, a fact that Holcomb kept hidden from some friends and relatives. He was told in 2007 there were no other types of contact lenses that could help him. Lasik surgery seven years earlier had made his vision worse. Doctors told him that he needed a cornea transplant and that he would have to retire from sports because an accident or collision could dislodge the transplant. 
 
 Holcomb, who finished first in the two-man event in the 2006-7 World Cup, had hoped to compete in the 2010 Vancouver Games. He felt hopeless, he wrote in his autobiography. 
 
 One night in 2007, after a fourth drink of Jack Daniel’s, he swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills in an attempt at suicide. “Just like my blindness, I chose to battle the demon on my own,” he wrote, “without telling anyone or seeking help from others.” 
 
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 Later in the year, he had a relatively new procedure that placed contacts permanently behind his irises to improve his sight. It worked, and his vision was 20/20. 
 
 Holcomb had every intention of making the United States squad for the Pyeongchang Games, Feldman said. He planned to finish training in Lake Placid this month before traveling to East Tennessee State University to continue training over the summer. 
 
 “He had a great season,” Feldman said, “and he was in really great shape to make it.”
– America's best bobsled pilot was found dead at age 37 on Saturday, and we have an early indication of what may have killed Steven Holcomb. Pulmonary congestion has been listed as a potential cause of death for the 37-year-old, per the Adirondack Medical Center's preliminary report, USA Today reports, though the AP takes a more conservative stance in its reporting. It acknowledges the three-time Olympic medalist and five-time world champ died with fluid in his lungs, but reports "that alone was not enough to draw a conclusion as to why Holcomb died." The formal conclusion will come once toxicology test results are in, which is still several weeks off. But Essex County coroner Francis Whitelaw on Sunday did say preliminary results were negative for drugs. Holcomb was found dead in his room at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY, and is believed to have died in his sleep. Our earlier report delves into what a bobsled powerhouse Holcomb was, a sentiment echoed by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, who said, "He was already a sporting legend." Part of Holcomb's legend included a battle with a degenerative eye disease that nearly robbed him of his sight and spurred a 2007 suicide attempt. The New York Times reports he was told that year—as the 20/60 vision he had thanks to contact lenses degraded further—he required a cornea transplant that would force his retirement from the sport, as any future collision could threaten the transplant. He tried to take his own life using sleeping pills, but later that year underwent a new procedure that inserted contacts behind his irises and restored his vision to 20/20.