So far the 2015/16 Bobsleigh World Cup season has been very good for Melissa Lotholz.
In the first three races of the young International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Cup season Lotholz, a Barrhead native, along with her teammate Kaillie Humphries found themselves at the top of the world cup rankings with two first and one third place finishes.
Lotholz joined Humphries, who is the reigning two time Olympic gold medalist in the women’s two-person bobsleigh event, winning both in Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi, Russia in 2014, last season after deciding to change athletic disciplines, from track and field where she was a short distance and relay runner for the University of Alberta.
Last year, in her rookie season as brakeman on Humphries team, the pair finished second in the World Cup standings in the two-person event.
“We are really happy with how we have started the season,” she said during a visit to the Barrhead Leader office on Dec. 21.
Lotholz is back in Barrhead for a few days for a short Christmas break, before getting back to work on Dec. 29 when she will join the rest of the Canadian National Bobsleigh team for a week-long training and push camp in Calgary.
“Going into the season and the first few World Cup races, we really didn’t know what to expect,” she said, adding although the pair had high hopes going into the season they really didn’t know where they stood in terms of World Cup calibre competition.
Lotholz said that even though they knew they had done everything they could do to prepare for the World Cup season and they had performed well in the preseason, there were still a few unknowns going into the season.
The first being how their new sled, nicknamed O’ Holy Night, would perform in real competition.
“I knew Kaillie and I were doing really well in the preseason with our pushing and Kaillie was driving and adjusting well to the new sled, but we just didn’t know where the whole package stacked up against other world calibre competition,” she said. “As much as we knew the sled was supposed to be really fast and it did well compared to the other Canadian sleds, until we stepped foot on the World Cup circuit we didn’t know if it would be as good as advertised.”
In addition to having a new sled, Lotholz said she wasn’t sure how the new World Cup rules would impact the team.
The maximum weight allowed for the both the sled and the athletes in the women’s two-person event was reduced by 15 kilograms, five of which could be taken from the sled’s weight, while the rest had to come from the athletes.
“Not many of the female athletes were competing close to the maximum, but not many teams had minimum weight sleds, so there were a number of athletes who had to lose weight,” she said.
Including Lotholz, however, she said in her case that wasn’t too difficult.
Last season the national team coaches asked Lotholz to bulk up and put on an extra 15 to 20 pounds.
“It was a little frustrating to have to put on the weight and then have to basically take it off again,” she said, adding she understood why the coaches asked her to put on weight.
Since bobsleigh is a gravity sport, Lotholz said the extra mass does make a difference.
“If you and the sled are heavier, you will be faster and have greater momentum,” she said, adding she believes being lighter will actually be a benefit to her. “I think for my body type, I actually perform better when I am at my more natural weight 10 to 15 pounds lighter.”
Lotholz said although she is now competing at her more natural weight, she and teams do have to be mindful of the maximum allowable weight, adding it is a little bit different from wrestling and boxing.
In those sports, athletes are typically weighed-in the day before the event. This allows the athlete to either lose weight by dehydrating himself or herself or gain weight by going on a feeding frenzy.
In bobsled, the athletes are weighed in the middle of the event, forcing athletes to be at a more stable weight.
And so far it looks like the new sled, the rule changes and the pair’s preparations are working.
The first World Cup race of the season was on Nov. 27, in Altenberg, Germany. Team Humphries finished in first place in convincing fashion, setting a new course record in their first run. The old course record had been set six years earlier by Humphries and her then brakeman, Heather Moyse.
The pair followed up their first run with a strong second run to capture their first victory as a pair.
“We actually won that race by seven tenths of a second, which in bobsled where everything is measured to a hundredth of a second, is massive,” Lotholz said.
Previously the best result as a duo had been a year ago, once again in Altenberg, when they captured the bronze medal.
After winning their second run, the pair were whisked away to the flower ceremony, where for the first time as an athlete, Lotholz had the opportunity to hear Canada’s national anthem.
“I told Kaillie after the flower ceremony I’m probably going to cry during the national anthem,” she said, adding she was right. “I definitely shed a couple of tears of joy, pride and happiness. To be able to represent your country and feel that you are part of something so much bigger is really a cool and surreal experience.”
Lotholz said she and Kaillie didn’t have a lot of time to celebrate. Usually the bobsleigh events are held in the morning to afternoon, but Altenberg was in the evening so she said the pair were anxious to get the sled packed away and have something to eat, something that was delayed even longer due to the fact that they were subjected to a random drug test.
Lotholz said one of the funny aspects of life, on the World Cup circuit is unlike sports such as NASCAR where athletes have a support crew to handle details such as set up and take down of their equipment, bobsleigh athletes have to do everything themselves.
“In Altenburg, after the race we were actually in the one of the hotel’s unused ballrooms taking apart our sled. We literally had to haul the sleds through the lobby to the ballroom,” she said, adding in some locations the national team has to use a parking lot to do their preparation work.
A week later, team Lotholz and Humphries competed in the next World Cup event in Winterberg, Germany, where they found themselves once again on the podium, finishing in third place, improving on their seventh place finish a year ago.
“It’s not one of our favourite tracks,” she said, adding Humphries tends to favour the more technical tracks on the tour and has gone as far as to refer to the Winterberg track as her nemesis.
Despite having a couple of timing issues on the push start where Humphries and Lotholz weren’t quite in sync, Lotholz said they were pleased with their performance.
The last race before the Christmas break took place in Königssee, Germany.
“I was really excited going into Königssee,” she said, adding last year she didn’t have a chance to compete.
Periodically throughout the season the national team has what is called a push-off where the brakemen compete to see who will slide with the pilot. Last year, just before Königssee there was a push-off, one, which Lotholz lost.
However, this year Lotholz won the push-off, earning the right to compete once again with Humphries.
“Going into the race I knew we were going to have a good race,” she said. “We put down our two fastest start times of the season and we ended up once again winning the race by a fairly wide margin.”
This is despite Lotholz suffering a leg cramp just before their second run.
“I got to the line literally a minute to 30 seconds before the race and my calf cramped up on me,” she said, adding the only thing she could do was to try to quickly massage the cramp out of my leg and do the best I could.”
As for what’s next for Lotholz, after the push camp in Calgary, the Canadian bobsleigh contingent will begin the North American part of the World Cup circuit before returning to Europe in February for the last three races.
To follow Lotholz on her journey or for information on sponsorship, visit her website at www.melissalotholz.ca.
