Sask. student to make history as first woman bobsledder to represent Trinidad and Tobago
Akenke Oliver to step inside a bobsled — and compete — for the first time next week
Regina student and athlete Akenke Oliver says the high speeds won't be what she's worried about when she hops into a bobsled for the first time next week.
"I'm just really nervous about making my country proud and putting us on the map and giving us that opportunity to really showcase all the incredible talents we have in Trinidad and Tobago," she told CBC's the Morning Edition on Thursday.
"I'm really a person who seeks out adrenaline and really strives on it, so I'm not nervous at all to really head down the track."
Oliver, 26, is set to make history as the first woman to compete for Trinidad and Tobago in the fastest sport on ice at the Bobsleigh and Skeleton European Championship later this month.
The Saskatchewan Polytechnic student has competed internationally in gymnastics, track and netball, but her first foray into bobsled and winter sports in general will happen at around 120 kilometres per hour.
Oliver has entered the female monobob event, which means she'll be piloting the bobsled down the track solo.
She leaves for Igls, Austria, on Friday to begin a week-long crash course in bobsled racing before the competition begins in Sigulda, Latvia, on Feb 2.
"I have never set foot inside a bobsled, so my experience would really come from being conditioned on the track and having that strength and conditioning from all the other sports I've done," Oliver said.
She was thrilled when she found out she made the team this past June, and hopes competing will encourage other women from warm-weather countries to compete in winter sports like bobsled.
"It was really an exhilarating experience for me," Oliver said. "It's also a tremendous responsibility as well to really pave the way for future female athletes in winter sports."
Winter sports growing in warmer countries
Trinidad and Tobago is among several warmer countries that have built winter sports programs in the wake of Jamaica's unlikely success qualifying for and competing in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alta.
Jamaica's accomplishments — and 1993 film retelling Cool Runnings — showed the world you don't need cold weather to compete in Winter Sports, Oliver said.
Now, three decades after her home country's Winter Olympics debut with a two-man bobsledding team in 1994, Oliver will be the first woman bobsledder for Trinidad and Tobago.
"I'm just really proud of Trinidad and Tobago for making that step and for giving us the opportunity to really excel in something that is probably not common for most Caribbean islands," she said.
Chris Le Bihan, an Olympic bronze-medallist and director of high performance at Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, said the introduction of monobob at the World Cup in 2021 and the 2022 Beijing Olympics has made the sport more accessible.
"It has certainly provided the opportunity for more nations to be competitive in the sport," Le Bihan said in an interview Thursday, noting most bobsledders started out in other sports.
He said steering a monobob can be harder than a two-person bobsled because it's lighter, but the event is so new it's difficult to know whether it's truly more or less dangerous than team races.
"It's more challenging to be really fast in it," Le Bihan said. "You can still tip them, but do they tip less? That's hard to say."
Oliver said she hopes she can add to her intense preparation on solid ground by training at Calgary Olympic Park's bobsled run, alongside athletes from several other countries including Jamaica, once it reopens.
"I'm just hoping for the greatest outcome as I enter this sport," she said.
With files from Bonnie Allen and Moira Wyton