It is not official yet, but it is looking good. Barrhead native Melissa Lotholz is one step closer to becoming part of Kallie Humphries two-person Bobsleigh team.
Currently Lotholz is in Calgary training with Canada’s National Sleigh team hoping to secure the position as brakeman Humphries Canada 1 sled.
Lotholz said she is honoured to be considered for the position as brakeman on Humphries Canada 1 sled.
“Kallie is an amazing athlete and driver, it would just be amazing to be paired with her for the season,” Lotholz said.
Humphries, besides being the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the women’s two-person bobsleigh event, winning both in Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi, Russia in 2014, is also hoping to qualify as the first woman driver in the four-man bobsleigh event. In September, the world governing body of the sport, the FIBT, declared the four man event to be gender neutral.
To help decide which person would be with what driver, the national team, held a competition in Calgary, in a facility called the Ice House.
Basically, Lotholz said the Ice House is a facility which allows bobsleighers to work on their push start.
As a brakeman in two-person bobsleigh event, a large part of Lotholz’s job is to help the team get off to the quickest start time by helping the driver push off and then after the sled passes the finish line, applying the break.
“They teamed us up based on push times,” Lotholz said. “The best driver is teamed up with the person with the quickest push times and I had, to my surprise the quickest time.”
Although, perhaps Lotholz should not have been so surprised.
Lotholz, who was born at the Barrhead Health Care Centre, said she was always a gifted athlete who played a number of sports throughout junior high and high school.
After graduating from Barrhead Composite High School Composite High School in 2010, Lotholz continued her interest in sports, joining the University of Alberta’s club track team, while she attended Bible college for a year.
In 2011, she joined the University of Alberta (U of A) track and field team, while she attended the university, pursuing her education in nutrition and food science.
“Basically nothing changed,” Lotholz said. “I had the same coaches, trained with the same people, but I just competed under a different name.”
Lotholz’s specialty while she was on the U of A’s track and field team was the 60 and 100 metre sprint, depending on whether she was competing on an indoor or outdoor track. She also competed as part of the school’s 4x100 metre relay team.
“I was pretty successful in my track career,” Lotholz said. “Last year, we (U of A track and field team) went to Canada West, the conference championship, with the relay team and won.”
The relay team then went on to compete at the Canadian University National Championships, eventually finishing in fourth place.
However, it wasn’t until Lotholz saw one of her training partners try out for the bobsleigh program that she decided it was a real possibility.
“I thought wow, maybe I can do this too,” she said. “I mean we were both built similarly and the best part of my race was always the first 30 metres, so I knew I had the explosive power needed for bobsleigh.”
In January of 2013, Lotholz took her first step towards changing sports when she went to a dryland bobsleigh skill identification camp. She said during the camp she put up some really good times and impressed a lot of the coaches on the national team.
Yet, it was not until this summer, when Lotholz finally decided to commit to bobsleigh. In July, Lotholz moved to Calgary in an effort to make the Canadian National Bobsleigh team.
“So far it is looking really good. Since August, I have been sliding with Kallie Humphries,” Lotholz said. “Earlier this month (Nov. 1) we won the Canadian Championships.”
Although, the official announcement has not been made, Lotholz said she believes she will team with Humphries as part of Canada 1 for the season.
“Right now we are in our preseason, but we all know whose with who and who is doing world cup,” Lotholz said, adding that until the official announcement is made anything can happen.
In the meanwhile, Lotholz said she is busy preparing for the upcoming World Cup Bobsleigh season. After a days of training in Calgary, this week, Lotholz will be leaving with the rest of the Canadian National Bobsleigh team for France, although she said she was unsure if Canada 1 would be competing officially.
“I know we, Kallie and I will be sliding, but we may not enter the competition,” Lotholz said. “Kallie might just use the two-man to get a feel of the track for the four person competition later on.”
The pair, shortly after Humphries competes in the four-person bobsleigh competition in France, will be heading to Lake Placid, New York, where Lotholz said her season will begin in earnest.
No matter what happens, Lotholz said, she knows she has made the National team.
“I am in the process of getting my development card now,” she said.
As an amateur athlete on a Canadian national team, Lotholz will receive a monthly allowance. The amount athletes receive depend on whether they have their development or senior card. Athletes in their first year on a national team are automatically receive their development team card.
Either way, she said she will not get a large amount every month and that is why she is looking for sponsors to help her train.
“It has been a little crazy right now so I have not had a chance to look that hard for sponsors, but I am definitely looking for people to partner with me going forward,” Lotholz said, adding there are a few sponsorship conditions.
For example, Lotholz said any sponsor she gets can not be in direct competition with any of the sponsors for the national team.
Anyone wanting to sponsor can email her at [email protected] for details. Lotholz is also in the process of launching her own website www.melissalotholz.ca.
“A lot of people back home have made all of this possible and I want them to be able to feel that they are part of it,” she said.
