Cynthia Appiah is driving towards big bobsleigh results this season

Over the past few years, Canada has honed its reputation as a “big throws nation” with its success in hammer throw and shot put. While you may associate that reputation with the likes of reigning Olympic and world champion hammer throwers Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers, or indoor world champion shot putter Sarah Mitton, the throws have also provided a foundation for the success of a few winter athletes—including bobsleigh pilot Cynthia Appiah.

Appiah describes her first exposure to bobsleigh as a fluke—there happened to be a bobsleigh dry land camp happening at York University while she was a hammer thrower and shot putter at the school. She gave it a try, and it was love at first push. She made her World Cup debut as a brakewoman in 2016 before deciding to become a pilot in 2018. 

Appiah made her Olympic debut at Beijing 2022, where she finished eighth in both the monobob and two-woman events. She has six career IBSF World Cup monobob podiums to her name. The 2022-23 season saw Appiah finish third overall on the IBSF World Cup circuit for the monobob.

Olympic.ca caught up with Appiah in the early part of the season to check in on how things were going with the next Olympic Games just over a year away.

Give us an update! How are things going?

The season’s been pretty good so far! I’ve got a new brakewoman, her name’s Skylar [Sieben]. She’s super keen and super eager…We were a little disappointed [at the first World Cup in Altenberg] with the push, but I think those are first race jitters. I know what we’re capable of, and I’m really excited to see how this season pans out. We’re less than 16 months away from the Milano Cortina Games, so now’s the time to kind of really start putting the pieces together as to how I hope to see my team going into the Olympic season and into the Olympic Games. It starts now.

What does that process look like, of building that chemistry as a team? 

Team chemistry is such a huge component. A lot of people don’t realize it, because it doesn’t look like a team sport, but there is a team sport aspect to it, despite how small it is. There’s a lot of time that we hang out with each other, so there’s a lot of time to really get to know each other, figure out what our quirks are, what makes us tick, and you just build on that over the season. It can develop that chemistry that really helps to create a solid medal-winning team. 

There are instances of people who are just strictly business, who think, “We come together, we push and then kind of go our separate ways outside of the sporting world.” I really want to create a bond with every person that slides with me in my sled. Dawn [Richardson Wilson], who was my brakewoman in Beijing, she and I are really, really close. And you know, once sport is done, what you take with you are the memories and the friends that you’ve made. So I see the importance in trying to have that chemistry with the person that you’re sliding with.

What are your goals for this season?

I’ve got multiple goals for the season. So the big one for me is world championships, which are finally back in North America for the first time in about five years now. They’ll be held in Lake Placid in New York, which has a special place in my heart. It’s where I learned how to be a bobsledder, both as a brake and as a pilot, and it’s the track that I think I feel the most comfortable driving on. So I’m really excited to see how well I do there. Last season, it was the only track that I medalled on. 

Then the other goal is to win another Crystal Globe. I won a monobob Crystal Globe two years ago, and last year was a bit of an upsetting season. So I’m really hoping to bounce back and get as many medals as I can in both disciplines. I feel like I’m a little more eager to get it in the two-woman sled than in the monobob, just because that’s the event that I’ve not had as much success with. But I think we’ve got the right pieces in place to help me get medals in the two-woman this season.

Is there anything that you really feel like you learned from last season?

I think last season, I really learned to focus on my driving ability. In the past, especially with the monobob, I’d kind of gotten away with my starts and how fast I am with my push, and that kind of has, not padded my results, but given me a bit of a cushion where I could just push fast and hope for the best, and I’d win a battle. 

The sport has elevated itself in more ways than one. The women are super competitive in the monobob, just as much as they are in the two-woman. And so it’s forced me to really be on top of everything, cross my t’s, dot my i’s, not leave any stone unturned. So I think we’re seeing that now, especially with this past Altenberg race, where, yeah, we didn’t have the start we wanted, but I went from having the 15th-fastest start to the 10th-fastest time downtime, and that’s just a testament to some of the lessons that I learned last season, where you can outdrive a start. The fact that we didn’t have the greatest start, but we still finished top 10 in our first race together is the end result of lessons learned from last season.

Do you have a preference towards certain types of track design?

There are certain people that just really jive well with flowy tracks. And a flowy track is something like a Whistler or a Park City—something that’s not necessarily technically challenging. And I think I count myself in this second group, we tend to do better on more technical tracks. So that’s your Altenbergs, your Lake Placids, your Siguldas. Those tracks are built in a way where there’s not a lot of time before you’re off one corner and then on to the next one. And that can be challenging for a lot of people who’ve been used to getting on a corner and there’s a bit of a straight, and then onto the next corner and a bit of a straight, that whipping action throws a lot of people for a loop, and they don’t like it as much. But I take on that challenge, and have been pretty successful in the past because of it.

Did you like bobsleigh right away when you first tried it? Was it a weird shake up from the sports you’d been doing?

I immediately took to it. I went with another girl and we basically took turns switching back and forth. One would drive, one would brake. And I remember the first run I was on brake, and I was so nervous, I questioned every single decision that brought me to that point. I was like, “What the hell did I get myself into?” 

But once I did that first run as a brakewoman, I was like, “Okay, I can kind of get behind this!” And then on the next run, it was my turn to drive, and it was like, immediately—this is what I want to do. I can’t wait till I’m done track and field, because I want to get into bobsleigh. 

What do you feel you’ve learned thus far about yourself as an athlete or just as a person throughout your career?

I would say the biggest lesson I’ve learned was how to be an advocate for myself. When I first started bobsledding, I was quite timid. I was very introverted. To a big extent, I’m still quite introverted, but I’ve learned to use my voice to speak up for myself and speak up for many, many organizations and many initiatives that I’m very passionate about. I don’t think I would have been able to do that had I not done bobsleigh, just because you really learn to grow a thick skin in this sport. 

At some point, I think I just got really sick and tired of having people talk over me or speak for me without knowing what I was actually feeling or what I was actually thinking. I think if you were to compare me to 10 years ago or 12 years ago, when I first was getting started in the sport, you’d be seeing two different Cynthias. 

I know you were involved with Team Canada FanFest a little bit. And given that you have a background in some summer sports as well, I’m assuming that you probably watched some of Paris 2024. Did you have a favorite moment as a Team Canada fan?

I watched a lot of Team Canada at the Olympics! I’m not even going to tell you that I’m not biased. I am 100% super biased to the throws. So watching Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers win the gold medal in the hammer was like the peak highlight of my Olympic Games viewing experience. It was just like, finally, the throwers are like the popular kids at the Olympics! Watching the best throws was just like… “chef’s kiss.” 

Rapid fire with Cynthia Appiah

An athlete you look up to?

I would say Serena Williams. So cliché, but I’ll say her!

Favorite place to race

Lake Placid. I used to hate Lake Placid, and now I can’t wait to get back.

Any pre-race rituals or routines?

I’m not really a big superstitious person, but I can’t race in high socks. Even though I train in high socks, I can only race in ankle socks. I don’t know if that’s like a pre-race tradition or something, but I, for some reason, can’t get my mind around wearing high socks on race day. 

Best advice for young athletes?

Best advice for young athletes, I would say is—go after it. Even if it’s not going to yield an Olympics or it’s not going to take you to world championships, just do sport for fun at the end of the day. The benefits of sport are just so innumerous. It’s more than just trying to go to the Olympics and calling yourself an Olympian. It’s the friendships, the lessons learned, the personal growth that you get out of it. I think those are the things that you can get from sport, regardless of what level you’re at.