Melissa Lotholz Charges to Career-Best Sixth in Olympic Monobob

CORTINA, Italy — Canada’s Melissa Lotholz delivered the performance of her Olympic career on Monday, charging to a sixth-place finish in the women’s monobob competition at the Cortina Sliding Centre.
 
The 33-year-old, who is making her third trip to the Olympic Games but competing in her first monobob race, steadily climbed the leaderboard across four demanding runs on the 1,445-metre track carved into the Italian Dolomites, stopping the clock at a combined time of 3:59.24.
 
After opening in 14th place on the twisting 16-corner chute, Lotholz built momentum with each run, finding both speed and rhythm on the demanding track. Requiring precision and consistency, the race began to turn in her favour as the farmgirl from Barrhead, Alta. surged up the leaderboard with the third-fastest time in the second heat.
 
“Throughout the race, I learned the track more and more,” said Lotholz, who was seventh at the midway point. “I wish I had gone into the race with that knowledge, but you’re always a student of the sport.”
 
Lotholz was a quick learner. She moved up one more position into sixth after the third run and held her ground in the final heat to secure the best Olympic finish of her career in any discipline.
 
“Of course, every athlete dreams of an Olympic medal, but for me it is all about the process. I think there were wins in every single run. I really struggled in training, so each run felt like a new victory,” added Lotholz.
 
Germany’s Laura Nolte led after the first three runs but made a costly error at the top of the track in the final heat. The mistake opened the door for American veteran Elana Meyers Taylor, who captured gold with a time of 3:57.93. Nolte settled for silver in 3:57.97, while Kaillie Humphries of the United States claimed bronze in 3:58.05.
 
“Elana is an amazing athlete, an amazing person and an amazing mom – she’s really everyone’s bobsleigh mom out here. She has such a big heart and has been at the top of the game for decades, so for her to finally get the win is pretty cool to see,” said Lotholz. “Experience pays off and we saw that with the women on the podium tonight. They are the ones with the most experience.”
 
Lotholz is competing in her third Olympic Winter Games and second as a driver. She represented Canada as a brakeman at the 2018 Olympics before transitioning to the pilot’s seat.
 
She has been Canada’s most consistent monobob athlete this season, recording six top six finishes in seven World Cup races. She blasted into the Olympic year with a sixth-place monobob finish at the Olympic test event in Cortina.
 
“I believe monobob is the hardest discipline to drive,” she added. “I was sixth overall on the World Cup this year, I’ve had five sixth place finishes, so I feel like I have to be happy with sixth here at the Olympics. I’m excited to see how it may all come together for me now in the two-woman.”
 
Toronto’s Cynthia Appiah, who drove to a silver medal in the World Cup monobob race last month in Winterberg, Germany, battled to find the clean lines down the technically demanding track in Cortina.
 
Disappointed with her opening three runs, the 35-year-old posted the fifth-fastest final run to finish 13th overall in 4:01.13.
 
“I was really feeling like I had what it took to climb up the leaderboard, but that mistake out of corner two (in the third run) bit me hard. I was frustrated with how run three went,” said Appiah. “I’m glad I was able to showcase what I can do in run four but on the other side, it’s even more frustrating, because I know what I’m capable of and to see it only happen in one of the four runs is also frustrating.”
 
Appiah, Lotholz and Bianca Ribi will team up with Dawn Richardson-Wilson, Kelsey Mitchell and Skylar Sieben for two-woman action, February 20-21.
 
“I’m going to use that fourth run today as a launchpad to go into the next couple of days of the two-woman training and hopefully have four solid runs in the two-woman race,” added Appiah.
 
The final two heats of the men’s two-man bobsleigh race are slated for Tuesday evening at the Cortina Sliding Centre.
 
Complete Monobob Results: