Melissa Lotholz

Biography

Melissa Lotholz is set to make her third Olympic appearance at Milano Cortina 2026. In her Olympic debut at PyeongChang 2018 she was the brakewoman with Christine De Bruin. They finished seventh overall in the two-woman event, highlighted by posting the fourth-fastest time in the second run. In her first Olympic appearance as a pilot at Beijing 2022, Lotholz drove to a 12th-place finish in the two-woman event with Sara Villani.

Lotholz always had an appetite for bobsleigh. As a three-year-old, she dragged a metal toboggan to the top of a two-metre high slide made by her father and slid down some packed snow into the garden. But it wasn’t a sport she could pursue right away, instead becoming a varsity track and field athlete at the University of Alberta.

After the 2013-14 season, she began training specifically for bobsleigh, having impressed recruiters with her dryland testing at a talent identification camp the year prior. She moved to Calgary and within a few months earned a spot as the brakeman for Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries. She made her international debut in a North American Cup race in November 2014 before making her IBSF World Cup debut in Lake Placid just a month later. As a rookie, Lotholz stood on three World Cup podiums.

In 2015-16 she and Humphries reached the podium in all eight World Cup races, winning gold at four of them to claim the Crystal Globe for the overall World Cup title. They also captured silver together at the IBSF World Championships in Igls, Austria. Lotholz began the 2016-17 season pushing for Alysia Rissling but returned to Humphries’ sled in January and won three more World Cup medals before claiming a second straight world championship silver. That season Lotholz was also part of the historic first ever four-women competition at a World Cup.

Lotholz stood on the podium with Humphries at the first three World Cups of 2017-18, winning two of them. Ahead of the next season, Lotholz decided to take more control of her career by transitioning to the pilot seat. She spent most of her time in 2018-19 and 2019-20 driving on the developmental North American Cup circuit. At the start of her second full season as pilot, Lotholz won three straight bronze medals in North American Cup races with brakewoman Sara Villani. She ended the season as the fourth-ranked pilot on the circuit. 

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian bobsleigh team only competed in the second half of the 2020-21 World Cup season. Lotholz made history in January when she became the first Canadian pilot to win a women’s monobob medal at the World Cup level, taking bronze in Innsbruck. At that same stop, she finished fifth in two-woman with Villani.

At the start of the 2021-22 season, Lotholz finished sixth in two-woman at the Olympic test event of the Yanqing Sliding Centre with brakewoman Erica Voss. Her top World Cup result of the season was seventh place with Villani in Altenberg in December.

Lotholz stepped back from bobsleigh following Beijing 2022 to finish her undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta. She returned to the track for the 2023-24 season, winning eight races on the North American Cup circuit and competing at the 2024 IBSF World Championships.

In February 2025, Lotholz stood on her first World Cup podium as a pilot. She and brakewoman Skylar Sieben won two-woman bronze in Lillehammer. She went on to finish eighth in two-woman at the 2025 World Championships with brakewoman Leah Walkeden.

Lotholz had a very consistent start to her 2025-26 season, finishing in the top six in six of seven World Cup monobob events.

A Little More About Melissa

Getting into the Sport: Introduced to bobsleigh by track and field teammate Christine de Bruin, who had decided to try it in 2011 at the suggestion of their varsity coach… Attended her first bobsleigh talent identification camp in January 2013 while in her second year at the University of Alberta… Outside Interests: Earned a certificate in music and worship studies at Vanguard Bible College in Edmonton before studying Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Alberta; completed that Bachelor of Science degree in 2023… Involved with the Athletes in Action campus ministry…Always travels with a journal, water colour paints, pens, and pencils for creative journaling and reflection… Enjoys playing pianos in hotel lobbies… Spends the off-season outdoors (hiking, biking, kayaking, camping)… Technical director of the Alberta Bobsleigh Association… Odds and Ends: Grew up on a family farm that her great-grandfather homesteaded more than 80 years ago; during the pandemic worked part-time as a general labourer doing everything from picking rocks to operating equipment…