Ken Topalian had been a hurdler in high school, who stopped competing while a student at the University of Rhode Island, but in the early 1990s was working at an auto repair shop in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. In 1994, when Armenia had become an independent nation, he joined with Joe Almasian, a friend of his from Providence, Rhode Island, to form a bobsled team for Armenia at the Lillehammer Olympics. They were inspired to do so by an older friend, Paul Varadian, a former competitive sledder who knew them through the Providence Chapter of the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF). In late 1992, Topalian and Almasian began driving to the Olympic Training Centre in Lake Placid (a 6-hour trip) every Friday and spent the weekends there learning to bobsled, trained by former US Olympian Jim Hickey. Topalian and Almasian received permission to compete from the Armenian government only 2½ weeks before the 1994 Winter Olympics began. Neither has been on a bobsled since the 1994 Olympics, and neither has ever set foot in Armenia (through 2014). Topalian later settled into business running several car dealerships and auto repair shops in Rhode Island.
Armenia