Kelsey Mitchell knew after the Paris Olympics that she needed a break from her bike.
Mitchell entered the 2024 Summer Games as the defending gold medalist in sprint track cycling, but it did not go how she wanted in Paris as she finished in eighth place.
While many athletes respond to burnout by walking away, the Sherwood Park, Alta., native took a different approach, redirecting her effort into new sports.
Living and training in Milton, Ont., during her cycling career, Mitchell decided to move back to Alberta in November of 2024 to give speed skating a try. By July, she decided it wasn’t for her and switched to bobsleigh.
Since then, she has been training at the Ice House at WinSport in Calgary ahead of the Olympics, earning a spot on the Canadian team for the 2025-26 World Cup. As the brakeman, Mitchell and pilot Melissa Lotholz finished eighth at the World Cup tour stop in Switzerland on Jan. 11.
She will be competing at Milano Cortina 2026 in two-woman bobsled with Lotholz, who is heading to her third Olympics.
“I love being an athlete and I knew I wasn’t done yet,” Mitchell told TSN.ca in an interview on Jan. 29. “I just knew my time in the environment that I was in was done.
“And so, navigating that was really tough. Leaving Ontario, which has been everything I’ve known for the last seven years, my support system. I have a lot of people in Alberta, but I built something up in Ontario. I knew what the training was like, I knew my coach, environment. Leaving that was very scary.”
Bobsleigh was a sport Mitchell has had her eyes on going back as far as 10 years ago and it feels like a full-circle moment for her.
“I always wanted [to do] bobsleigh,” said Mitchell. “I initially tried out, and I just wasn’t fast enough or strong enough. So, I went to RBC Training Ground and cycling was interested, so obviously went with cycling.”
Launched in 2016, RBC Training Ground acts as a combine to give athletes the opportunity to try out in front of Olympic talent scouts from sports they’ve never tried before.
Of the 14 athletes currently on Canada’s Olympic bobsleigh team, seven were discovered through the program, including Mitchell, Mike Evelyn, Mark Zanette, Luka Stoikos (a 2025 CFL draft pick), Skylar Sieben, Niamh Haughey, and Chris Holmstead.
Mitchell, 32, has a shot at history in Milan. Only six athletes have medaled in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, including fellow Canadian Clara Hughes, who won two bronze medals in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta in road cycling and bronze and gold medals in speed skating across three Winter Olympics. Hughes is the only athlete to win multiple medals in both the Summer and Winter Games.
The past year has been eye-opening for Mitchell as she learns a new sport. She says training her body for bobsleigh has been one of the biggest challenges.
“It’s been hard on the body,” said Mitchell. “Cycling was hard on the body in different ways. I went from a low-impact sport where my feet are strapped into this bike doing the same rotation all the time, to running with a higher-impact sport on ice with no support in the shoe and learning to full transfer power from my legs through my upper body into this sled, where in cycling, my upper body was always fixed.
“I didn’t realize how much of a grunt work sport bobsleigh is. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes, whether you’re polishing runners for two to four hours before racing or you’re doing mechanical work on the sled. You have to make sure all the bolts are tight and everything’s moving properly before you actually go down at 140 kilometres an hour.”
She admits it’s been tough to build a relationship with Lotholz because of lack of time together and that the weeks leading up to the event will be crucial. The two-woman bobsleigh heats start on Feb. 20.
“We were trying different brakemen with different pilots throughout the whole season, so I’ve actually only slid with her from the top of the hill maybe 10 times. So, over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to have to build up that relationship,” said Mitchell.
“I trust her. She’s a phenomenal driver. She’s very consistent. But just kind of figuring out what she needs from me on race day and to make sure she’s at her best, and obviously vice versa, is going to be the challenge.”
Being part of a team was something Mitchell missed as a cyclist. While she had her team (coach, nutritionist, and physiotherapist) and other cyclists she trained alongside, Mitchell, who grew up playing team sports, has loved being part of a team again.
“I didn’t think I missed it as much as I did until I’ve gotten it back again,” said Mitchell. “Cycling [is very individual, I have some incredible teammates that I love but it’s still you’re out there by yourself doing your own thing.
“And so, to now have a teammate who I basically have to put all my trust into and she’s going to take us down this hill, it’s a new experience that I’ve never actually experienced even in past team sports.”
Even though this is her third Olympics, Mitchell says it feels totally different and feels there are fewer expectations heading into Milan compared to Paris. She adds this is the first time she will get to be a part of the opening ceremonies and getting to stay in the Olympic village.
Though she plans on competing in cycling again at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she’s fully focused on embracing this experience.
“Finding bobsleigh and the people involved in it make me love what I do and have fun again in sport,” said Mitchell. “And that’s what I was missing. I think physically and mentally I’m still there, but emotionally I needed to find the joy in sport again.”
