BARRHEAD - Barrhead's Melissa Lotholz has had better results, but not in the pilot's seat and not on as large of a stage.
On March 14, in Lake Placid, New York, Lotholz and her brakeman Leah Walkeden (her teammate for most of the season from Ardrossan) slid to an eighth-place finish at the Bobsleigh World Championships.
"I've had better results," she said.
Expressly, Lotholz referred to the two world championship medals she earned with Kaillie Humphries as her brakeman at the 2016 and 2017 World Championships, a seventh-place finish at PyeongChang Olympics, as Christine de Bruin's brakeman, as well as being the first Canadian to podium in the monobob at a World Cup event, a bronze medal in Igls, Austria, in 2019, and most recently a third-place finish and first medal as a pilot in a World Cup race in the two-women event with brakeman Skylar Sieben on Feb. 19 in Lillehammer Norway.
"But this is my best result in the pilot seat at such a high-profile event," she said.
Lotholz is a veteran of the Canadian Bobsleigh team, first joining the squad in 2014 as a brakeman before transitioning to a pilot in both the two-woman and monobob events following the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea.
The Barrhead Leader spoke to Lotholz only hours after she returned home from the World Championships on March 19.
Lotholz added a Top 8 result at the World Championship that, in addition to being her best result at the event as a pilot, had real tangible benefits in terms of funding, guaranteeing she will receive her current monthly stipend as a carded elite athlete for another two years.
Unpacking World Championships
The Canadian contingent arrived in Lake Placid in late February for a week of training before the official start of the two-week event.
Week one, Lotholz said, is the monobob, and week two is devoted to the two-women event.
"It was an up-and-down week for me in the monobob," she said, adding she was looking forward to the World Championships being in Lake Placid, a track she is very familiar with. "It is where I did my initial driving school following the 2018 Olympics."
Unfortunately, Lotholz did not have the result she had hoped for in the monobob, finishing 14th.
Part of the reason for her disappointing finish, she said, was due to equipment issues.
Bobsleigh Canada opted to rent all its sleds to keep costs down this season on the World Cup circuit, which was totally in Europe and Scandinavia.
For the World Cup, the team was again using its equipment, and Lotholz said it took some time and effort to "dial things" in where they needed to be.
"Essentially, some things weren't as tight as they should have been," she said. "Lake Placid is a rough track with many transitions and a lot going on, and you rattle things loose."
Lotholz added the skill set needed to drive a monobob and a two-person sled are noticeably different.
"They are two totally contrasting styles," she said. "It is smoother in the two-man, and you can create pressure. The monobob is like driving a pickup truck on ice without any weight in the back, so you are trying to figure out how to be fast while skidding around the track."
The second week provided an additional challenge for Lotholz and the Canadian contingent.
Unlike the first week, which was crisp and cold and conducive to making good ice, the temperatures warmed considerably. As a result, race organizers redrafted, cancelling some scheduled practice times and moving up the race by two days.
After having two strong practice runs, Lotholz opted to take a day off from the track for some much-needed rest instead of trying to squeeze in three more practice runs.
After the first day of competition, Lotholz and Walkeden found themselves in ninth position in a very competitive field dominated by German and U.S. sleighs, holding the first six positions.
"We were happy with that," she said. "We were consistent, which is always our goal. We pushed well at the start and had some consistent drives."
On day two, Lotholz said, they continued where they left off, with three strong runs.
"I had a small skid at the top on Corner 3, so our top speed wasn't as good, and we ended up falling behind the Romanians by 300th of a second, into 10th position," she said.
For their final run, Lotholz said they "left it all out on the track," having a great push and drive.
They then waited in the "winner's box," watching the rest of the field.
The Romanians were up next, followed by an Austrian sled.
Lotholz said after the first intermediate time; it was apparent that the Romanians would drop back down.
Going into the run, the Austrians were in eighth, with what seemed to be an insurmountable 0.7-second lead.
"In bobsled, that is huge," Lotholz said. "They made a mistake at the top but weren't paying a lot of attention because they were ahead of us by so much time. It was impossible to lose."
However, as the run continued, the Lotholz and Walkeden noticed the Austrians' top speed dropping.
"The Lake Placid course has 20 corners; the last two are uphill, and the deficit dropped dramatically. We were thinking, 'Is this going to happen? Are they going to give us eighth place?'"
Atmosphere in Lake Placid
Despite the tensions between Canada and the U.S. and many Canadians deciding to avoid travel to the United States due to the economic tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump and his continuous statements that Canada should become the 51st state, Lotholz said a large contingent was cheering them on.
"There were a ton of people from Canada, with Lake Placid only a couple hours from Montreal on the course. It still felt like a home World Championships because we had so many friends, family, and fans come out to cheer us on," she said. "I remember going through Corners 8 and 9 and seeing people leaning over the track, and then at the breaking section, there are these grandstands, and you can see and hear people cheering for you. It is a very special experience."
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
