Neville Wright

Biography

Neville Wright first tried his hand at bobsleigh in the summer of 2009 and less than a year later was a member of the four-man sled piloted by Pierre Lueders at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Wright’s athletic career began in track and field. A sprinter, he competed at the 2007 IAAF World Championships as a member of 4x100m relay team and won bronze in the 100m at the 2007 World University Games. But after coming up short in his attempt to qualify for Beijing 2008 he sought out a new sport.

After pushing the four-man sled to a fifth-place finish at Vancouver 2010, Wright continued to be a mainstay on the Canadian bobsleigh team, competing at the 2011, 2012 and 2013 World Championships, primarily in the Canada-1 sled piloted by Lyndon Rush. At Sochi 2014 he was in Rush’s crew that finished ninth in the four-man event. After those Games, Wright took an extended break from bobsleigh before returning for the 2016-17 season. He pushed Nick Poloniato to an impressive fifth-place finish in the two-man at the 2017 World Championships. Wright stood on four World Cup podiums during the 2017-18 season, highlighted by a two-man gold with Christopher Spring in Whistler in November. He finished 16th as a member of Spring’s four-man crew at PyeongChang 2018.

A little more about Neville

Getting into the Sport: Got his start in track and field at age seven… Competed at the 2007 IAAF World Championships and the 2005 and 2007 World University Games in athletics… First tried bobsleigh in the summer of 2009… Outside Interests: Earned his Bachelor of Physical Education (Activity and Nutrition) from the University of Alberta in 2007… Completed studies in Remedial Massage Therapy in 2017… Has a job as a Manual and Rehabilitative Therapist… Enjoys listening to music, playing bass guitar, watching movies, playing Scrabble and Words with Friends… Odds and Ends: First had his Olympic dream sparked while watching the 4x100m relay team win gold at Atlanta 1996… Creates his competition music playlist the day before a race… Nicknamed Wolverine, but says he’s now more like Old Man Logan…  Favourite Olympic memory is the fan support while competing at the Games… Favourite motto: I can, I do, I will… Favourite quotes: “If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm” – African proverb and “If there is no struggle, there is no progress” – Frederick Douglass…