Skylar Sieben solely stepped away from NCAA monitor and discipline in 2023; by 2024, she was pushing a bobsleigh. Now, the 25-year-old from Cochrane, Alta., is ready to make her Olympic debut at Milano Cortina 2026 as a bobsleigh brakewoman for Staff Canada.
Attending the College of Arizona, Sieben competed on the NCAA Division I stage within the heptathlon for 5 years. In 2019, she represented Canada on the FISU World College Video games in Naples, Italy, the place she positioned twelfth. She additionally competed on the 2021 NCAA Out of doors Monitor & Subject Championships.
After Sieben retired, one in every of her coaches advised she strive bobsleigh. In early fall of 2024, she started coaching for the winter sport, and shortly started competing alongside Beijing 2022 Olympian Cynthia Appiah of Toronto. Appiah additionally comes from an athletics background; she was a shot put and hammer thrower for York College, and, lately, has returned to competing in each.
Sieben takes on the position of brakewoman within the two-woman bobsled. The place requires the athlete to push the sled as powerfully as attainable for roughly 5 seconds, time their bounce into the sled, observe the run and pull the brake on the end to carry the sled to a cease. Very similar to bobsleigh, the heptathlon–which includes sprints, hurdles, jumps, throws, and endurance–calls for explosive energy, velocity, and agility, qualities which have positioned Sieben as a powerful candidate for the game.
In her first 12 months of bobsleigh, Sieben earned bronze on the World Cup in Norway with Melissa Lotholzand competed in her first World Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y.
The trail from sprints to bobsleigh
Seven follows a well-established Canadian pathway from monitor to bobsleigh. A number of Canadian athletes have efficiently competed as dual-sport Olympians in sprinting and bobsleigh, together with Phylicia Georgewho represented Canada within the 100-metre hurdles on the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Video games earlier than successful bronze within the two-woman bobsleigh at Pyeongchang 2018.
On the lads’s aspect, Canada has seen related transitions from the monitor in five-time Olympian Glenroy Gilbertthree-time Olympian Bryan Barnett, and two-time Olympians Olusei Smith and Lloyd Guss.
Staff Canada’s roster
The Milano Cortina 2026 Staff Canada bobsleigh roster options a number of different athletes with backgrounds in athletics. Lotholz, a two-time Olympic bobsledder from Barrhead, Alta., transitioned to the winter sport after competing as a sprinter for the College of Alberta. Edmonton’s Daybreak Richardson Wilson made her Olympic debut in bobsleigh at Beijing 2022, then returned to the College of Calgary from 2023 to 2025 to finish her training. Throughout that point, she competed for the Dinos, successful three consecutive Canada West 60-metre titles and setting a number of program data. In Might, Richardson Wilson introduced she would as soon as once more pursue a spot on Canada’s Olympic bobsleigh crew.
Toronto’s Luka Stoikos additionally brings a multi-sport background to this system. He performed soccer for the College of Toronto–one other frequent feeder sport for bobsleigh–and competed in shot put and weight throw.
