Olympic bobsledder Melissa Lotholz was honoured by the County of Barrhead with a commemorative plaque at the council meeting April 17. In addition, Lotholz was invited to share her experiences on her second place finish at the 2018 Winter Games, in PyeongChang, South Korea.
“It was exciting to be able to compete on that level and to be able to represent my country and my community,” Lolthoz said, adding she was humbled by the amount of hometown support that she received during the Olympics.
Lolthoz recounted how both Barrhead Composite High School and her local church, Bethel Penecostal, organized themed group photographs to show their support, in addition to the uncountable number of individual photos she received.
“Being able to see and to feel that support while I was competing was a very special gift,” she said, adding it was a privilege to be able to represent Barrhead in Korea.
She said she liked the CBC’s features of her hometown.
“The ones that I was able to see were very well done. I haven’t seen them all however, largely because the material is only available in Canada and I couldn’t view it all overseas. Now that I’m back, I have to dive into their archives and see what all I missed.”
Lolthoz said in speaking to various media outlets in Korea, the one overlying compliment that she heard was how excited everyone was to see the Barrhead features.
When asked what she plans to do next, Lolthoz said she hasn’t decided yet.
“At this point, I have to find out what my coaches plans are for me and figure out what I want to do. I participated in a driving school [for bobsleigh] and I really enjoyed it, so I may choose to dabble in that and see where it takes me.
“We went to Lake Placid, one of the harder tracks in the sport and had a chance to use mono-sleds, the type of sled used by para-athletes. Every single day we’d walk down the track and discuss what you would do at each point along the course.”
Lolthoz said instructors started her and other participants off near the bottom of the track but as the school’s program progressed, they moved closer and closer to the top,” she said, noting that each person in a mono-sled started by pushing off like a brakeman would and then climbed over the seat to get in.
“While other groups decided to start using two-person sleds at that point, we [Canadians] decided to stick with the mono-sleds. At Lake Placid, you can reach speeds in the mid-130s but we were probably going around 120 ourselves,” she added.
Lolthoz said she believed she was the only person in her group that didn’t crash a sled.
“I think it was more luck than anything. I was on two runners half the time,” she added.
