‘Those guys are crazy, man’: Canada’s Winter Olympians reveal the sports that secretly terrify them
Christopher Spring has been clocked at 154.5 km/h, driving straight downhill on glare ice.
Not in his van, you understand. In a bobsled.
It’s his job, and the combination of ice and speed scares the Canadian Olympian just enough to make him one of the best pilots in the world.
And there are other winter sports that scare him a lot more.
“I have tried luge, and I would tell the lugers this: it is ridiculously hard to drive those things and it scares the crap out of me,” Spring said. “I’ve tried skeleton and luge — there is no way I would be on a luge sled. Those guys are insane.”
In this Feb. 17, 2014 file photo, Christopher Spring pilots a Canadian bobsled at the Sochi Olympics.
The 33-year-old is also wary of alpine skiing.
“I’m an OK skier, a bit better snowboarder,” he said. “Those guys are ripping over 150 km/h on glass. It’s not even snow anymore. It’s just ice, you know.
“They’re in the air for 100 and some feet, doing 100 and something kilometres an hour. That is scary.
“I go into the park, I hit these extra small jumps and I think I’m in the air for awhile. My buddy got his GoPro on and he’s doing video and I’m, like, two feet in the air for six feet. I feel like I’m flying through the air, and these guys are doing literally 20 times the distance of that and at a speed that is insane. Those guys are crazy, man.”
We checked in with several other Canadian winter sport athletes to see which one scares them too much to try.
Natasha Bodnarchuk – Ski jumping
“I kind of think ski racing is scarier than ski jumping, just because they’re going so fast. One mistake and you’re done. I probably wouldn’t do that.”
Kim Boutin – Short track
“The sport that I dread the most is skeleton. Since this is a fast-paced sport, I do not feel that I would have the confidence to go so fast if I control everything.”
Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes – Ski jumping
“I think ski racing is probably the scariest for me as far as winter sports go. The speed skiing stuff is very extreme to me. My sport doesn’t seem that extreme because I haven’t had too many serious injuries that were not my fault.”
In this Feb. 7, 2014 file photo, Canadian ski jumper Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes trains for the Sochi Olympics.
Jane Channell – Skeleton
“I think skiing and snowboarding (are) crazy. I think it’s so scary. I had a season’s pass growing up, for a couple years. I think I went up maybe all of two times. It’s the outside factor that gets me. In skeleton, it’s me and the track and the clock, that’s it. But with skiing and snowboarding, at least when I was learning, it’s me and the hill but with everybody else out there. I find that to be scary.”
Samuel Edney — Luge
“Oh, downhill alpine skiing. Those guys are nuts. I have a lot of respect for the Erik Guays and Manny Osborne-Paradis and Dustin Cooks of the world. I love skiing. I grew up ski racing and wanted to be a racer. I think I found something that was comparable but not as exposed. Those guys are nuts. I tip my hat to them.”
Samuel Girard – Short track
“The sport I think is too scary to try is for sure the ski jumping, because first you need a lot of practice to be able to fly in the air like that, and the jump is so high, I can’t imagine doing it. It’s just crazy!”
Dave Greszczyszyn — Skeleton
“We talk about this all the time. It’s interesting that certain athletes think our sport is crazy, because our face is a couple inches off the ice and we’re going at speeds in Whistler over 140 km/h.
“I think alpine skiing is pretty crazy. I don’t know what their speeds are, but on TV I know I’ve seen 120, sometimes 140, and they’re standing up, and they’re not on a frozen water slide. They’re on the side of a mountain. That’s pretty crazy to me.
“Ski jumping, I don’t think I would try that. Not aerials and moguls, either.
“That’s the interesting thing about winter sports. They’re exciting. There’s that factor of seeing the skill and what these athletes can do. And there’s always that chance that something could go wrong.”
Canadian skeleton racer Dave Greszczyszyn comes to a stop at a World Cup race in Whistler, B.C., on Nov. 25.
Taylor Henrich – Ski jumping
“I will try everything. I surf when I’m not jumping. I wakeboard. I water ski. I’ve even tried skydiving.”
Marsha Hudey – Speed skating
“I think it would have to be luge or skeleton. Going down a slippery slope on a sled by myself … I would never! To me, that would be my worst fear.”
Nathaniel Mah – Nordic combined
“Obviously, hockey is dangerous as all heck. I would never play competitive hockey at any point. Especially with my experience with concussions and me being 59 kilograms and those guys being more like 90. No chance. That’s something I would never do.
“Ski jumping is not a dangerous sport. We’re three metres off the ground at the most. We’re not going very fast. We’re going 90 to 100 km/h.”
Denny Morrison – Speed skating
“I don’t think that any Olympic sport is too scary to try. I think everyone should try each sport once and see what they fall in love with.”
Marie-Philip Poulin — Hockey
“I think skeleton would be mine. It’s pretty scary. I can’t believe they go head first at 120 km/h. Pretty fast.”
Cassie Sharpe – Freestyle skiing
“Skeleton. One hundred per cent. Going face down on the icy race course scares the bejeebers out of me. I would never try skeleton. I would try bobsled because you’re a little bit protected. Skeleton would be my final answer.”
• Email: dbarnes@postmedia.com | Twitter: @sportsdanbarnes