A Day in the Life of a Bobsleigh Athlete

A bobsleigh athlete’s day, while on season, can be incredibly hard, long, and tiring. Athletes must maintain a strict level of physical training and gym work, whilst also sliding and pushing in the same day. Almost all athletes will be training twice a day, every day, with little to no days off.

Morning – Sliding practice is often in the mornings, or late in the evening. This is because it is when the ice is at its coldest. However, for a sliding session that starts at 9am, athletes will need to be in the garage preparing the sled to move at about 6:00am. So breakfast must be eaten before then. A morning session wake-up call will often be around 5:00am. This is to ensure that the sled is at the track with ample time to perform any work that needs to be done on the sled, as well as getting a full warm up before the session starts.

Lunch – A morning sliding session will often be completed by around midday, so my 1pm athletes will hope to be back at their accommodation preparing their lunch.

Afternoon – After lunch and perhaps a quick rest it is time to train. This can take anywhere between one and three hours, depending on the session.

Late Afternoon – This is when the athletes will perform the necessary sled work. This might include polishing the runners, aligning the sled, changing the weight, or any manner of other tasks. Before a race this can easily be several hours of work

Evening – Athletes will make and have their dinner. Provided all of the sled work is complete, the day is now over. However, with another 5am start, most athletes will be asleep not long after their dinner, completing a full and intense day from start to finish

Sliding practice

This is the main event, and the most important part of a bobsleigh athletes day, however it is also by far the most taxing.

1. At the start of the session the sled (Weighing 170-240kg) must be loaded onto the back of the team truck. This must then be unloaded at the track and taken to the teams allocated space
2. The sled is flipped, and the runners are put on the sled.
3. Athletes will then warm up, and prepare themselves for their push and/or drive
4. The sled is lifted to the start line, and flipped back over onto its runners
5. Athletes take off their warm-up gear at the line, ready to compete.
6. Load. Drive
7. At the bottom of the track the sled must then be loaded onto a “camion” which is a truck provided by the track to take sleds back up to the top.
8. Steps 1-7 are then repeated for however many runs the team is taken. Most commonly 2-3 per day.

Athlete training

Though the constant moving of the sled, again weighing as much as 240kg, as well as warming up, competing and repeating, is a lot of work, the athletes too must complete their regular training. It takes a huge amount of effort to be a bobsleigh athlete at the cutting edge of the sport, so just practicing pushing is not enough. All athletes will complete a mixture of weightlifting, and sprinting as part of their regular training.

Nutrition

Long days of physical exercise in bobsleigh mean that a male athlete will need to consume around 5,000 calories per day just to maintain their body weight. Otherwise they are at risk of losing weight, which is not something you want to do for bobsleigh! Consuming this many calories of nutritious food can be a big task all of its own. But given that a lot of athletes are required to make their own food, it often serves as a chore, rather than a pleasurable experience.

Days off

Days off are few and far between in the thick of a bobsleigh season. The average week will consist of sliding practice from Tuesday until Friday, with a 2-man race on Saturday, and a 4-man race on Sunday. Though Monday is allocated as a “day off” this is needed to travel between the different locations. Sometimes this can be as much as a 10-12hr drive away, or a long flight. Therefore there aren’t really any conventional days off. Any that are, are usually a gap in training, and are a welcome relief!