Kelsey Mitchell knew she wasn’t finished being an athlete. What she didn’t know was that her next Olympic chapter would unfold at nearly 140 km/h, folded into a bobsled, trusting a pilot to guide her safely down an ice track.
After winning Olympic gold on the track in Tokyo and competing again in Paris, Mitchell is now headed to the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics as a member of Canada’s bobsleigh team — a rare leap between summer and winter Games, and one that even she didn’t see coming.
“I knew I wasn’t done being an athlete, but I also knew I needed some time away from the bike,” Mitchell said.
Her first idea was speed skating, a sport that shares obvious traits with track cycling — leg power, anaerobic capacity, and an unforgiving technical learning curve. Mitchell leaned into it, training seriously and even racing in March.
“Little did I know how technical and hard it would be to learn,” she said. “I still had a ton of fun learning to ‘skate.’”
Last summer, Mitchell moved from Ontario back to Alberta, planning to continue speed skating until the Edmonton Velodrome reopened in the fall. While training at CSI Alberta in Calgary, another opportunity surfaced — one she’d quietly been curious about for years.
“I was approached by some bobsledders and invited to try a push camp,” she said. “I had actually always wanted to try bobsleigh, so I jumped at the opportunity.”
One camp was enough.
“I had tons of fun, and in that moment decided to go all in and see what could happen.”
Learning to trust the sled
The first full runs were exactly as intimidating as they sound. While Mitchell had trained starts in Calgary’s ice house — which simulates the opening seconds of a bobsleigh track — nothing quite prepares you for the real thing.
“When I finally got to Whistler, I knew what to expect in the first five seconds,” she said. “But once I got in the sled, I just held on for dear life.”
As a brakeman, Mitchell’s role is simple to describe and brutal to execute: push the sled as fast as possible, load cleanly, stay aerodynamic through the run, and brake on command.
“The g-forces were insane, and we hit speeds of almost 140 km/h,” she said. “You’re folded in half, looking down the track, trusting your pilot will take you down safely. It’s a wild experience.”
Mitchell will be sliding with…
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