Team Canada bobsleigh team ready to ride at Milano Cortina 2026

A team of 14 bobsledders has been nominated to compete at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

Canada will have three sleds in the two-woman event and two sleds in the women’s monobob event. There will be two Canadian sleds in both the two-man and four-man events. 

Melissa Lotholz is the veteran of the team, heading to her third Olympic Games and her second straight as a pilot. Also driving in both women’s events on the new ice track at the Cortina Sliding Centre will be Cynthia Appiah, who will compete in her second straight Games. Making her Olympic debut is Bianca Ribi, who will pilot a two-woman sled. 

The men’s team is led by pilots Taylor Austin and Jay Dearborn, both named to their second straight Olympic team. Austin drove in both the two-man and four-man events at Beijing 2022. Dearborn was in the back of Austin’s 4-man sled as a brakeman in Beijing but has spent the last four years developing his driving skills. 

Lotholz has been Canada’s most consistent pilot throughout the current IBSF World Cup season, posting top-six finishes in seven monobob races. 

“At the age of 12, I wrote in my journal asking God to make my ‘silly’ dream of competing at the Olympic Games come true. Even then that dream was tinged with grown-up realism and the belief the prestigious Olympic Games were pretty much impossible for someone like me from a small, humbling farming community,” said Lotholz. 

“Now 20 years later, I’m gearing up for my third Olympic Games. I’m completely blown away, in awe, and deeply humbled. What a privilege this is to represent our incredible country and so many people who have all contributed to this journey in some way. Like a farmer bringing their seeds to market to help feed the world, I’m celebrating a dream that I’ve seen multiplied. That is reflected in communities across Canada and seeing my teammates realizing their own dreams by putting on their Olympic jackets.” 

Appiah won a silver medal in a World Cup monobob race in early January in Winterberg, Germany. It was her first time on a World Cup podium in almost a year, since she won monobob silver in Lillehammer, Norway last February. Appiah achieved a lifelong dream of a different kind in the fall when she competed on the game show Jeopardy!. 

Ribi, who works as a fire fighter in Calgary, burst onto the international scene in November 2022 when she won gold in her very first monobob World Cup race at the Whistler Sliding Centre. She has since bounced between the World Cup and developmental circuits, dominating the latter over the last three years. She flew to Europe for the last World Cup stop before the close of the Olympic qualification period; her pair of 10th-place finishes in Altenberg secured Canada’s third sled in the two-woman event. 

The pool of three brakewomen that will push them includes Dawn Richardson Wilson, Kelsey Mitchell, and Skylar Sieben. 

Richardson Wilson made her Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 and returned to the national bobsleigh team this season after a few seasons away to focus on school. Mitchell memorably won Olympic gold in track cycling at Tokyo 2020. After competing in that sport again at Paris 2024, she found a new challenge in bobsleigh. Sieben is a former heptathlete who is in her second season on the World Cup circuit. 

Austin is coming off a season-best sixth-place finish in the four-man event at the World Cup in Altenberg. That was his third top-10 performance of the season, all in four-man. Dearborn, a former CFL defensive back, dominated the North American Cup circuit this season, reaching the podium in six of seven two-man events and six of seven four-man events.

The pool of six brakemen includes one athlete with Olympic experience: Mike Evelyn O’Higgins. He and Shaq Murray-Lawrence will be pushing two-man and four-man sleds. Joining them the four-man sleds will be a talented group of athletes who have all transitioned from other sports: Keaton Bruggeling (Hamilton Tiger-Cats wide receiver), Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson (former diver who narrowly missed qualifying for Paris 2024), Luka Stoikos (drafted by the BC Lions), and Mark Zanette (former varsity baseball player). 

Team Canada has won 10 Olympic bobsleigh medals since 1964 including five golds, two silver, and three bronze.

The women’s monobob race will take place February 15-16, while the two-man bobsleigh competition will be contested February 16-17. The two-woman bobsleigh race will be held February 20-21, while the four-man sleds will hit the start line at the Cortina Sliding Centre, February 21-22 to close out the Olympic Winter Games schedule.

Team Canada Bobsledders at Milano Cortina 2026: 

Women’s Team
Cynthia Appiah (Toronto, Ont.) – Women’s Pilot
Melissa Lotholz (Barrhead, Alta.) – Women’s Pilot
Bianca Ribi (Calgary, Alta.) – Women’s Pilot

Kelsey Mitchell (Sherwood Park, Alta.) – Women’s Crew
Dawn Richardson Wilson (Edmonton, Alta.) – Women’s Crew
Skylar Sieben (Cochrane, Alta.) – Women’s Crew

Niamh Haughey (Toronto, Ont.) – Women’s Alternate
Eden Wilson (Calgary, Alta.) – Women’s Alternate

Men’s Team 
Taylor Austin (Lethbridge, Alta.) – Men’s Pilot
Jay Dearborn (Yarker, Ont.) – Men’s Pilot

Keaton Bruggeling (St. Catharines, Ont.) – Men’s Crew
Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson (Calgary, Alta.) – Men’s Crew
Mike Evelyn O’Higgins (Ottawa, Ont.) – Men’s Crew
Shaq Murray-Lawrence (Scarborough, Ont.) – Men’s Crew
Luka Stoikos (Stouffville, Ont.) – Men’s Crew
Mark Zanette (Woodbridge, Ont.) – Men’s Crew

Chris Holmstead (Burlington, Ont.) – Men’s Alternate