“She’s brought back the joy in my career:” The special bond between skeleton athletes Jane Channell and Hallie Clarke
Jane Channell was watching the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Games on TV when she saw skeleton racing for the first time. As the sleds zipped by on the screen, her grandfather looked over at her and said, “They’re crazy!”
“That’s when I knew I needed to try skeleton,” said Channell with a laugh.
She grew up in North Vancouver as a multisport athlete, eventually running track at Simon Fraser University. After graduation, she knew she wasn’t yet done with sport and moved to Whistler, where the sliding track constructed for Vancouver 2010 is located. Channell threw herself head first, literally and figuratively, into her new sport of skeleton.
Channell had a breakout year in 2015, finishing fourth at the IBSF World Championships. The next season she ranked third overall on the IBSF World Cup circuit and now has four career World Cup podiums to her name. She has represented Canada at two Olympic Games—PyeongChang 2018 (where she finished 10th) and Beijing 2022 (17th).
“I thought Beijing was going to be my last Games,” said the 37-year-old. “But it just didn’t feel right to end it there.”
Not only were the Beijing 2022 Games a different experience due to COVID-related restrictions, but the Canadian sliding community and development system were also reeling from the impacts of the pandemic.
“It really impacted us immensely, because we weren’t able to do as much recruitment,” explained Channell. Much of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton’s recruitment is done through programs like RBC Training Ground, with most bobsleigh and skeleton athletes coming from other sport backgrounds.
“I didn’t want to leave the sport because we didn’t have that base of athletes in order for the sport to actually survive.”
But things are looking much more positive for Canadian skeleton now. This past year had the largest recruitment class in Channell’s memory.
“Our nationals were the biggest we’ve had this past year, with I don’t know how many of these new sliders bombing it off the top just fearlessly,” said Channell. “I think being able to be there and be present for them through my last couple of years, to be an open resource and bank of knowledge for them, is something I didn’t really have when I started sliding.”
A special teammate bond
One of the up-and-coming sliders that Channell has spent the most time with is Hallie Clarke. At 21-years-old, Clarke wasn’t even born when Channell first saw skeleton on TV.
But she shocked the sliding world with her 2024 IBSF World Championship victory at just 19-years-old, which made her the youngest skeleton world champion ever.
“She’s the athlete that I’ve been waiting for to have as a teammate,” Channell said of Clarke. “And to be a small part of her journey is just so cool for me.”
It has been equally special for Clarke to have Channell as a mentor.
“I’ve learned so much from her. From the time I started, she was one of the athletes that would go out of her way—and still does—to help all of the newbies,” said Clarke.
“This year I’ll lean a bit more on her experience for sure,” Clarke said. “I have a lot of excitement for it being my first Olympics, and she’s going into her third, so I’m hoping to at least bring the energy!”
Channell has certainly appreciated Clarke’s enthusiasm.
“She’s brought back the joy in my career,” she said of her younger teammate.
But Clarke has had to put in a lot of work to maintain her positive energy. Her sudden success at such an early stage in her career brought with it a lot of perceived pressure.
“The world champs win wasn’t expected by anyone, including myself,” said Clarke. “It felt like it changed my perspective on things, and it wasn’t necessarily a healthy motivator. It was a lot of pressure internally.”
Suddenly Clarke felt like she had to be on the podium all the time, or else it was a failure.
“I had this high of all highs, and then it just kind of kept coming down from that.”
To protect her mental health, Clarke took a break midway through last season’s World Cup circuit to regroup at home for about a month and half.
“That reset, and connecting with a mental performance coach and sports psychologist, all of that was a really big turnaround for me,” said Clarke. “I had to learn more about what I needed both as a person and an athlete in order to have continued success, because it felt like it came all of a sudden and I was thrown off the deep end with it.”
When Clarke returned to her sled, she won the 2025 IBSF World Junior title in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Her experiences throughout the season made her really reflect on what success is to her, and what it means to be brave.
“Bravery to me is continuing to push through fear. Going down the track, it is scary—it’s a dangerous sport. But what I learned this year is that bravery can be asking for help,” said Clarke.
Sliding towards Milano Cortina 2026
With the skeleton season officially starting, Clarke and Channell are sliding towards big goals in an Olympic season.
The two spent some time training in a wind tunnel last season, which provided an opportunity to hone the aerodynamics of their positioning on the sled.
“Even moving as little as half an inch forward or back on the sled impacted the readings,” Channell said. “Our coaches harp on us about form and technique, but to actually see how something so minor can have such a big impact was really cool.”
They’ll be putting their off-season training to the test at a special first stop on the IBSF World Cup calendar—at the Eugenio Monti Sliding Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the sliding venue for Milano Cortina 2026.
A brand new track brings everyone back to the basics of the sport, and provides an unusually level playing field amongst nations, as “home track advantage” is eliminated.
Skeleton athletes will be able to take advantage of an International Training Period to learn the new Olympic venue from November 7 to 16. The first IBSF World Cup for skeleton and bobsleigh will take place November 17-23.
But more than anything, Channell hopes that she and Clarke will find a lot of joy in this season.
“Hallie really brings me back to why I’m still sliding—it’s because it’s fun.”
