Canada names bobsled teams
Groups set after season of musical chairs
PY EONG CH A NG • All season long, bobsled drivers and brakemen were movable pieces in the game of championship chess being played by Canada’s head coach Todd Hays.
He was seeking the most potent pairings and fourman teams, and based his decisions solely on results rather than blending them with intangibles like chemistry. His approach had a larger aim, to take the mental machinations away from the athletes and have them focus instead on the global idea of teamwork.
It paid off handsomely as Canadians won 16 medals on the World Cup circuit.
“Coming in I knew we had some great athletes and if we put the pieces of the puzzle together we’d have great results and fortunately we did that,” Hays said in Calgary at the end of January.
Driver Kaillie Humphries slid with Melissa Lotholz early, then Phylicia George late in the season, once the former hurdler found her bobsled groove. Alysia Rissling had Kristen Bujnowski, Cynthia Appiah and finally Heather Moyse in her sled, while Christine de Bruin slid with Appiah, Bujnowski and Lotholz.
In two-man, Justin Kripps had both Alex Kopacz and Jesse Lumsden in the back seat and drove to the World Cup title. Chris Spring got a push from Kopacz, Lumsden, Neville Wright, Bryan Barnett and Cam Stones at various points in the season. Driver Nick Poloniato slid with Wright and Brown.
“He’s been deciding the teams all season and it’s actually taken a lot of stress off the pilots and it’s actually made the team a lot closer,” Poloniato said in late January.
Hays didn’t want to designate any of their sleds Canada 1, 2 or 3. World Cup results eventually spoke for themselves, and it was obvious who led the way down the track, and who would be together for the Olympics. Those teams were finally named on Tuesday.
Kripps and Kopacz were deadly together in two-man, hitting the podium f our times, and will slide together here. Spring and Brown form a second duo, with Poloniato and Lumsden together.
Hum phriesw on gold medals with both of her brakemen, but the coach went for the duo of Humphries and George, who seem to have something going. That puts Heather Moyse in Alyssia Rissling’s sled and Melissa Lotholz pushing Christine de Bruin.
The Canadian crews for the four- man sleds are Kripps with Lumsden, Kopacz and Seyi Smith; Spring with Brown, Bryan Barnett and Neville Wright; Poloniato with Cam Stones, Josh Kirkpatrick and Ben Coakwell.