Bobsleigh

Sport Overview

Bobsleigh at Milano Cortina 2026

Venue: Cortina Sliding Centre

Competition Dates: February 15-17, 20-22 (Days 9-11, 14-16)

Events: 4 (2 men, 2 women)

Bobsleds are built to hold one, two or four athletes. Beginning with a running start, crews push their sleds approximately 50 metres before jumping in and speeding more than 1000 metres down an ice track.

There are two-man and two-woman events in which each sled includes a pilot and a brakeman. Men also compete in four-man, in which the pilot drives with three crew members behind him. Women got a second medal event with the addition of the women’s monobob, in which the pilot is the only crew member.

All four events consist of four heats held over two days. The crews with the lowest cumulative times, measured to the hundredth of a second (0.01), are the winners.

A four-man sled has an approximate length of 3.8m with a total maximum weight (including athletes and equipment) of 631kg. Two-person sleds are approximately 3.2 long. Two-man sleds can have a total maximum weight of 390.5kg while two-woman sleds can have a maximum total weight of 330.5kg. A women’s monobob will have a maximum weight of 248.5kg and length of approximately 2.8m.

Canadian Olympic Bobsleigh History (pre-Milano Cortina 2026)

Canada had its most successful Olympic bobsleigh performance at Vancouver 2010, winning three medals. The highlight was the gold and silver won in the two-woman event by Kaillie Humphries with Heather Moyse and Helen Upperton with Shelley-Ann Brown, respectively. Lyndon Rush also piloted his four-man sled with Chris Le Bihan, David Bissett and Lascelles Brown to bronze.

Humphries and Moyse successfully defended their two-woman gold medal at Sochi 2014. That came 50 years after Canada’s first Olympic bobsleigh gold was won by the four-man crew of Vic Emery, Doug Anakin, Peter Kirby and John Emery at Innsbruck 1964. It was a shock to the sports world at the time because Canada did not have a home ice track or any kind of bobsleigh training program.

There have only ever been two ties for gold in Olympic bobsleigh history and Canada was involved both times. At Nagano 1998, Pierre Lueders and Dave MacEachern shared the top step of the two-man podium with an Italian team. Two decades later, Justin Kripps and Alex Kopacz finished with the exact same time as a German two-man sled at PyeongChang 2018.

It was also in PyeongChang that Humphries became Canada’s most decorated Olympic bobsledder when she won bronze with brakeman Phylicia George, who made her own history by becoming the first Black Canadian woman to compete at the summer and winter Olympic Games.

Kripps became the first Canadian pilot to win Olympic medals in both men’s bobsleigh events when he won four-man bronze at Beijing 2022 with his crew of Ryan Sommer, Cam Stones, and Ben Coakwell. Canada’s only other multi-medallists in men’s bobsleigh  are Lueders and Brown who won two-man silver together at Turin 2006.

In the Olympic debut of women’s monobob at Beijing 2022, Christine de Bruin won the bronze medal.

Olympic Bobsleigh History

Bobsleigh has been included at every Olympic Winter Games except Squaw Valley 1960 when organizers decided not to build an ice track after only nine countries indicated they would enter the competition.

At both Chamonix 1924 and St. Moritz 1928, the lone event was for sleds that could hold four or five men. At Lake Placid 1932, the four-man event was fully established and a two-man event was added.

There were no changes to the Olympic bobsleigh program until Salt Lake City 2002 where the two-woman event was featured for the first time. A second event for women, the monobob, was added at Beijing 2022.