Ed Rimkus probably had one of the shortest careers of any American Olympic bobsledder. He slid for only two years – 1947 and 1948 – but during that time he managed to place second at the 1947 AAU and North American 4-man championships, which served as the trials for the 1948 Olympic team. A year later, his sled had improved sufficiently to take the gold medal. Rimkus went to St. Lawrence College where he played football and ran track. He graduated in 1938 with a physics major, and later went to work in field engineering for General Electric.