During this time he was also an athlete in local sports, playing soccer, football, basketball, baseball, and running track.

Shortly following the naming of the American 1998 IBSF Bobsleigh World Cup team, an injury caused the withdrawal of one member.

He then went on to have an above average career as a pusher for drivers Jim Herberich, Mike Dionne, Todd Hays, and Brian Shimer.

Holcomb left the military with an honorable discharge in June 2006, and focused on competition on the World Cup circuit.

As Holcomb rose through the ranks of American bobsledders, the degenerative eye disease Keratoconus, initially diagnosed in 2002, began to affect his daily life and competitive skills, which led to depression.

[4] In 2007, a non-invasive surgical procedure, corneal collagen cross-linking (C3-R), was performed to stabilize the disease,[5] and in 2008 implantable corrective lenses were inserted,[6] providing a measure of correction during the 2007–08 Bobsleigh World Cup season; he led his teams to three gold, three silver, and one bronze medals over that season.

His results in individual Bobsleigh World Cup races, contributing to each season's final standings, include 29 gold, 23 silver and 9 bronze medals.

It was announced on 17 January 2010 that Holcomb made the United States team in both the two-man and four-man events for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

[10] That means Holcomb, who crossed the line third in both of those races, now is a two-time silver winner in addition to the four-man gold he won at Vancouver in 2010.

[19] Holcomb and Uhlaender were featured in The Weight of Gold (2020), an HBO Sports Documentary which "explor(es) the mental health challenges that Olympic athletes often face.