updated 5:50 a.m. ET Feb. 26, 2006

TURIN, Italy - Vonetta Flowers will have a little extra boost when she takes to the track to defend her bobsled gold medal.

Not only is her 3-year-old deaf son beginning to hear for the first time in his life following implant surgery last month, but she’s now teamed with one of the best pilots in the world.

It’s a partnership that got off to an awkward start — and is part of a saga that has taken more twists and turns than an Olympic bobsled run. This year, there’s little of the turmoil that wracked the Salt Lake City women’s team.

Flowers became the first black athlete to win a Winter Olympics gold medal in 2002, as an underdog when teamed with Jill Bakken. The favorite was U.S. teammate Jean Racine, who had dumped a longtime brakewoman for another — only to have the replacement get injured.

That’s when Racine — who became known as the “Mean Girl” at the Salt Lake City Games — tried to woo Flowers away from Bakken.

Flowers chose loyalty instead.

Bakken stepped away from the sport for a couple of years after Salt Lake City and failed to qualify for the U.S. team in Turin. Flowers is now teamed with Racine — of all people — who is now known as Jean Prahm after getting married.

Flowers said Tuesday it was difficult to say goodbye to Bakken, and she “teared up” when Bakken congratulated her on making the Olympic team.

“Well, you can say I’m a defending champion, but my partner now is Jean Prahm,” Flowers said. “I feel like the underdog going into this race. That feels good, because we were the underdogs in 2002 and we surprised the world. I just hope Jean and I surprise everybody on Feb. 21.”

For her part, Prahm is pleased to be free of all the controversy this time around.

“I have to admit,” she said, “I’m quite comfortable kind of flying under the radar and maybe being a bit of the underdog at this Olympics.”

VONETTA FLOWERS (Bobsled) PRN Country: United States Hometown: Birmingham, Ala. Age: 32 Best Olympic finish: Gold MORE ON VONETTA FLOWERS

Flowers said she and Prahm are “really close.” Prahm visited Flowers’ home in Helena, Ala., three times last summer for training.

“My kids love her. She’s just like a part of the family,” she said.

When away from the bobsled run, Flowers is focused on her son, Jorden, who along with twin brother Jaden was born three months premature on Aug. 30, 2002.

While Jaden can hear normally, the nerve that connects Jorden’s ears to the hearing part of his brain didn’t develop fully, causing his deafness. He had an auditory brain stem implant — which is not approved for children in the U.S. — on Dec. 20 in Italy. Electrodes were implanted in the hearing area of his brain.

And last week, Jorden responded to sound for the first time in his life — a development that “really made us feel good.”

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Although she and her husband, Johnny, are encouraged, the process is slow, and the family is communicating with Jorden with sign language.

“He’s hearing like a 2-week-old baby. He has to learn what he’s hearing. We’re excited that he is responding,” she said.

“He is more vocal now. We get very emotional just because he’s trying to talk to us because he hears us talking to him, and it’s very exciting,” she said. “We’re going to start therapy and work toward him talking soon.”

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