“I had a strange path into bobsledding. Most people get recruited from testing camps or from University football/sprinting or things like that. For me, I was living in Calgary, was bored one day, went to the bobsled track because there was a race going on. I’ve never seen a bobsled race before so I thought I’d go check it out. When I was there I was talking to a guy that was also watching a race and he asked me if I wanted to jump in his bobsled because he had just learned just how to drive a bobsled, so I thought ‘yeah sure let’s give it a go’ and that was in 2007 so quite a long time ago.
I didn’t enjoy it the first time I went down the track, it’s not very enjoyable especially if you go down with a rookie pilot. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into but I was intrigued and wanted to learn a bit more about it and at the time Vancouver was ramping up here for the 2010 Olympics, I didn’t know a lot about the sport but wanted to definitely know more so I started asking questions and getting involved a bit more in the sport. Soon, I was in a driving school to learn how to drive a sled. I was an Australia Citizen at the time and not able to compete for Canada, I thought maybe Australia would have a team. So I looked into the federation in Australia, and there was a team, no one on it but they had a team and they were all excited about me learning how to drive and getting a team together, it went from there.
I learnt how to drive a sled, put a team together, and within 3 years qualified for the 2010 Olympics as an Australian bobsledder. We finished 22nd out of 30 competitors which was where I thought we’d finish competing for Australia with no coach, no funding, and no support. I thought I could be successful at the sport and the only way I thought I could be successful is to compete for a country like Canada that had support and structure to their national sport organization. At the time I was a permanent resident which allowed me to compete for Canada so I switched countries and became a Canadian citizen and now competed at 2 Olympics for Canada so it’s been a good journey for sure but not one that’s easy. From the outside looking in, people look at my career and see that I’ve been to 3 Olympics now, handful of World Championships and finished 5th at one Olympic games as my best result and people think it’s a pretty good career but I feel like I still have a lot left to give and hopefully a chance at one more Olympics from here.
The day in, day out grind of training full time, it sounds pretty glamorous for people who want to be athletes but it’s difficult, difficult to try and be successful, and be successful year in and year out. Some of the things that are difficult that most people wouldn’t understand is the commitment that it takes to be part of the Canadian National Bobsled Team. It’s a lot of days and months on the road, especially in the winter. Maybe as 20 year old that sounds pretty sweet, you get to go to all these great countries, and don’t get me wrong, it’s been amazing but it has taken it’s toll on friendships, relationships and things like that. It’s pushed me growing up back a little bit because I don’t want to be the father that’s on the road all the time, perhaps that’s the reason why I don’t have kids right now. And I see how difficult it is for the athletes/teammates that already do have a family and do have children. It’s not uncommon for us to be on the road or out of North America for 8 weeks, up to 14 weeks in a row, that’s a long time to be gone. And in a different time zone from your family and friends, that’s one of the biggest challenges it can take on a relationship, or friendships, I think that’s something people don’t realize when they first get into the sport.
I was in East Germany at a track called Altenberg. I crashed on one of my training runs, the sled went through the roof of the track and it was an extremely severe accident where there was a lot of injuries to myself and the athletes in the sled. 1 of my teammates broke his leg, punctured lungs, cracked ribs, bleeding in the brain, I broke my nose, everyone was concussed and I got impaled by a piece of wood through my right glute muscle and into my back. We were all rushed to the hospital, they weren’t sure if we were going to survive or ever sled again. Unfortunately 1 of my teammates never could slide again because of the problems he had with his concussion symptoms and brain injuries. Coming back from that was very difficult. I don’t have 100% of my glute muscle anymore, I have about 60% of it left, so physically it’s difficult to be as good as I once was or to train and be healthy and all the problems that come with not having a fully functioning glute muscle. Overall the most difficult part of coming back from that crash is being confident in myself and having the ability to be confident in my own ability as a pilot to drive down the track knowing that the people behind me lives are at risk. The thing that helped the most is my teammates and their want and desire to still sled with me, and still want to be my teammate and have confidence in my ability. And for them to say to me that they believe I’m successful or have the ability to be winning World and Olympic medals, I think if they believe that much in me then why shouldn’t I right?
That’s probably the biggest hurdle I’ve had to overcome and it hasn’t been easy. I worked with multiple different people in order to keep my brain working and functioning in the right direction. What I mean by that is every time I’m at a bobsled track there’s a risk of me crashing right. I have a lot of dark thoughts about what could happen if I did crash. I was conscious for that whole crash, not only for what I saw or heard and the feelings I had are still very real to me so I think that I struggle sometimes with rational thoughts when it comes to training days or competition days at the Bobsled track. I start thinking about the ‘what if’s.’ But I put some plans in place where I can overcome that and put down some of my best results and I’m happy to say since that crash I’ve competed at 2 Olympic games for Canada and a couple of World cup victories. I wouldn’t say that I put the crash behind me, it’s a part of me and it always will be, it’s definitely help me evolve into a better bobsled pilot.
Don’t be afraid to seek out helps from others. For me I didn’t believe in my own abilities at the time, I didn’t believe in myself but I definitely wasn’t afraid to ask for help and I think that was really important in my recovery mentally. I was surprised, not only were people (family, friends, everyone) not just willing to help but wanting to help as well. I think surrounding yourself with good people is something we can all learn something from.” – Chris Spring, Olympic Bobsledder.