Bobsledder Melissa Lotholz keeps on learning at the Olympic Winter Games

A self-professed student of the sport, bobsledder Melissa Lotholz raced to her best-ever Olympic result on Day 10.

The 33-year-old, in her third Olympic Winter Games, finished sixth in the women’s monobob on Monday. It was a great turnaround after she struggled through training with an illness, then posted the 14th best time in the first run on Sunday.

Her second-run time of 59.84 seconds was third fastest among all competitors. Then, with two more solid runs on Monday, she solidified her place with an overall time of 3:59.24.

“Throughout the race I learned the track more and more,” said Lotholz. “I actually said coming up after the third round, I was like, ‘wow, I have a way better understanding of the track now than I did three runs ago.’

“So I mean, I wish I went into the race with that experience or that knowledge. But I mean, you’re always a student of the sport, and I’m happy. I think there were wins on every single run.”

Lotholz competed in the two-woman bobsleigh event at PyeongChang 2018 as brakewoman for Christine de Bruin, finishing seventh. At Beijing 2022, de Bruin would take bronze in the first-ever women’s monobob event. Meanwhile, Lotholz competed as a pilot in the two-woman event, finishing 12th alongside Sara Villani.

But while Lotholz has lots of experience under her belt, she’s still in awe of some of her fellow competitors at the Cortina Sliding Centre. She was particularly excited for the USA’s Elana Meyers Taylor, who claimed the gold medal.

“She’s an amazing person, like as a bobsled athlete, as a mom,” said Lotholz, of Meyers Taylor. “She’s like also kind of like this bobsled mom in this space, and she just has such a big heart.

“She’s been at the top of the game for decades, but for her to finally get the win is really cool.”

Meyers Taylor’s margin of victory was just four hundredths of a second over Laura Nolte of Germany who took silver. It’s a negligible difference to the human eye, but all part of the agony and ecstasy of competing in bobsleigh.

READ: Being a great bobsleigh pilot takes much more than just a need for speed

“Oh yeah, it’s hundredths of a second. It’s anything and everything, right?” said Lotholz with a laugh. “So that’s our sport. We love it and we hate it.”

Fellow Canadian Cynthia Appiah may have been closer to the “hating it” end of that spectrum on Monday.

She was sitting in 10th place after the first two runs. But a mistake on the third run sent her tumbling out of contention.

“I was really feeling like I had what it took to climb up the leaderboard,” said the 35-year-old. “So just really, really frustrated with how Run 3 went.

“I’m glad that I was able to kind of showcase what I can do with Run 4. But on the other side of it, it’s even more frustrating because I know what I’m capable of.”

Hopes had been especially high given her top-10 finish in the monobob at Beijing 2022. She finished eighth in that event, and also finished eighth in the two-woman event alongside Dawn Richardson Wilson.

But all is not lost. Up next for both Lotholz and Appiah, along with fellow Canadian Bianci Ribi, is this year’s two-woman event. Training runs begin on Tuesday, with the competitive heats on Friday and Saturday.

READ: Cynthia Appiah: A desire to be not just the best, but also the best representation

“I’m using [the monobob result] as like a launch pad to go into the next couple of days of training the two-woman and hopefully have four solid runs in the two-woman,” said Appiah.

While Appiah might be seeking some redemption, Lotholz is considering it a chance to keep doing what she does—learn more about this sport she loves.

“Every single run [in the monobob], there was like a new win, which was exciting,” she said. “I’m excited to see how it can come together in two-woman.”