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Barrhead native heading to her second Olympic games

Melissa Lotholz officially named to Canada’s Olympic squad as a pilot in the two-woman bobsleigh event
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Barrhead's Melissa Lotholz will be heading to Bejing and the 2022 Winter Olympics on Jan. 26 after being named to the Canadian Olympic team.

BARRHEAD – Sometimes people have to reach out beyond their comfort level and take a chance. 

If they do, she said, good things could happen. 

That is what 29-year Barrhead native Melissa Lotholz told the Barrhead Leader Jan. 22 from her hotel room in Königssee, Germany, where she and the rest of the Canadian Bobsleigh Team are preparing to go to the 2022 Beijing China Winter Olympics. 

Close to four years ago, after she competed in the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic, where she finished seventh as a brakeman for Christine de Bruin in the two-woman bobsleigh, Lotholz took a leap of faith and enrolled in a bobsleigh pilot school. 

"When I signed up for that driving school, I had no idea where this road was going to take me, but it was worth the risk," she said. "I've learned a lot over the last four years, to be able to return to and compete at such an elite level after such a short period." 

Lotholz’s appearance will also mark the first time a female Canadian athlete has competed as at two separate Olympics as both a bobsleigh brakeman and pilot. 

"Because I continued to embrace challenge and continued to push myself and chose to learn something new, this happened for me," she said. "I hope as people watch me at the games, they are inspired to try something new or give something another chance because often the risk is worth it." 

Lotholz learned that she made the Olympic team for the second time in the two-woman event during an internal team announcement on Jan. 19. 

A public announcement introducing the 21 bobsleigh and skeleton athletes was made a day later during a virtual ceremony, including the Canadian Royal Canadian Navy and the HMCS Moncton (which the design of the Canadian sleighs are patterned after). 

Unfortunately, Lotholz will not compete in the monobob. Who mans the sleighs are based on an athlete’s World Cup rankings and although she finished eighth in world the monobob rankings, it wasn’t quite good enough to displace another pilot. 

Even though the athletes had a fair idea of who was going to make the Olympic squad, she said being part of the internal and official announcement is always special. 

Based on World Cup rankings, Canada qualified the maximum sleighs in the two-woman and the monobob events, at three and two respectively.  

"It is such an honour to be named to an Olympic team and be able to represent your country, but it was also fun to see the reaction of those who will be going to their first Olympics," she said, specifically referring to her brakeman Sara Villani and that of Dawn Richardson Wilson (brakeman for Cynthia Appiah). "For me, when I set the goal to become a pilot, there were no guarantees that I would go to another Olympics. It has been a really long journey, filled with a lot of hard work ... and right now, it hasn't sunk in, but when we are on the ground and going through the ropes, it might start to settle in." 

Lotholz added when Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton made the official announcement all three were in their hotel rooms. 

"(I called Sara and Dawn) and told them to go out to their balconies and then we all congratulated each other," she said. 

Later in the evening, the team would celebrate the selectees with a champagne toast followed by a small contingent, including Lotholz, taking a polar bear dip in a nearby lake. 

Lotholz is a veteran of the Canadian Bobsleigh team, having joined in the fall of 2014. For the first four years, she would compete as a breakman, mostly for Canadian pilot Kaillie Humphries, accumulating 18 World Cup medals, including two World Championship silver medals in the process.  

Lotholz also thanked everyone who played a role in her achieving goals, including her local sponsors Barrhead's Fountain Tire, Stephani Motors, Onoway Veterinary Clinic, Comfort Corner, Martin Deerline and W5 Bar and Restaurant, and of course, all her teammates and coaches.  

"It takes a community, that's for sure," she said. 

The 2022 Winter Olympics take place from Feb. 4-20. Lotholz will compete in two women bobsleigh on Feb. 18-19. 



Barry Kerton

About the Author: Barry Kerton

Barry Kerton is the managing editor of the Barrhead Leader, joining the paper in 2014. He covers news, municipal politics and sports.
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