Olympic cycling champion Kelsey Mitchell auditions for Canadian bobsled team

Canada’s bob and skeleton team opens the World Cup season Nov. 21-23 in Cortina, Italy, at the sliding venue for February’s Winter Olympic Games.

Mitchell won cycling gold in the women’s sprint in Tokyo in 2021. She didn’t own a bike when she was recruited into the sport four years earlier.

A fast learner in track cycling, the 31-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta., hopes to also be a quick study in bobsled. Mitchell had tried bobsled at age 21.

“I just didn’t have the leg power, the explosiveness that I have now,” she said after training push starts at the ice house.

“With cycling, we do a lot of training in the gym with our legs and lower body. Coming here, my legs were strong enough. It was more so actually getting a little bit more upper body in and then learning how to properly run because the sprinting technique is so different.

“It’s kind of an ongoing joke that I need to not cycle my legs when I run and actually be more like a sprinter and drive them like pistons. It’s a steep learning curve.”

Mitchell says she intends to eventually return to track cycling with an eye to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Of the 13 athletes who have represented Canada in both Winter and Summer Olympic Games, five were bobsledders.

“I thought about that a lot honestly. It would be so incredible to have that title and be an Olympian in both winter and summer, but I’m just so happy to love sport again and be in this environment and the girls have been amazing, the guys’ team is great,” Mitchell said.

“Whether I’m on the Olympic team and I am contributing on the ice or I’m an alternate and I’m contributing to the environment and helping someone else become a winter Olympian, yeah, I’m grateful for this opportunity.

“Hopefully I can add that Winter Olympian to my name, but the focus is to stay healthy, have fun and contribute to Team Canada being the best.”

Cyclist and speedskater Clara Hughes is the only Canadian athlete to win medals in both Summer and Winter Games.

After finishing eighth in the sprint in last year’s Paris Olympics, Mitchell sought a break from track cycling.

“I burnt myself out,” she stated. “Mentally, I was just broken, and then physically, my body was breaking down too. Being in a new environment, I definitely needed that.”

Mitchell gave speedskating a try for a few months thinking the physical requirements of that sport would transfer well back to track cycling. The hard sprinting in bobsled doesn’t transfer as well, and Mitchell counts staying healthy as her biggest challenge in the sport.

“I’ve been doing a low impact sport, haven’t been running, my feet haven’t touched the ground and so now I’m constantly running on probably the hardest surface ever in shoes that have very little support,” she said.

“Feeling a little different aches and pains. There’s a gap of knowledge that I don’t have yet, but there was the same thing with cycling.”

Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton high-performance director Jesse Lumsden and strength and conditioning coach Quin Sekulich both say Mitchell is coachable and thus adaptable.

“I wouldn’t say she was the best sprinter we’ve had come out, but she’s a quick learner, picks stuff up pretty quickly and you don’t have to be the prettiest sprinter either as long as you can look right behind the sled,” Sekulich said.

“She’s a winner, she’s a champion and she wants to win and you have to be that way to be in this sport. It’s a very aggressive sport. It’s the 100 metres of the Winter Olympics.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2025.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Olympic cycling champion Kelsey Mitchell auditions for Canadian bobsled team

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