It’s been seven years since heavy equipment started picking apart Calgary’s prized bobsled track at WinSport’s Canada Olympic Park.
It’s a move once again being debated and criticized in the days after the curtain came down on the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Games — without Canada’s bobsled, luge or skeleton athletes winning a medal for the first time in 24 years.
The sharpest critique came from silver medallist bobsledder Helen Upperton, who was in the broadcast booth for the four-man bobsled final on the last day of competition in Italy.
“There’s a direct correlation,” Upperton said.
“The closure of that track in Calgary at WinSport is impacting all three sliding sports.
“Not having that facility in Calgary, there’s decreased run volume, just decreased ability to recruit and develop athletes.”
And now, not one single podium finish for a country that once considered itself a powerhouse in sliding sports.
Justin Kripps, who won bronze in Beijing four years ago in the four-man event, is now among the last bobsled athletes to win a medal for Canada. He said Upperton is right.
“I think we’re starting to see the slow death of the sliding sports in Canada,” he said.
Kripps said it’s a shame to see it happen to a country once considered a sliding powerhouse.
Including Kripps, there were other top-ranked, medal-winning athletes, such as Christine de Bruin, Kaillie Humphries, Pierre Lueders and Heather Moyse, who collectively won 10 medals over the years.
Kripps said while the sliding track remains in place in Whistler, B.C., a legacy from the 2010 Winter Games, it’s an expensive location for athletes to get to and to find accommodation and work.
It’s not just the loss of a training venue that may be impacting today’s results.
Kripps pointed to stability issues around the sport’s leadership group, along with serious financial concerns. He said with cuts to funding from Sport Canada, athletes were told to pay $25,000 in team fees, making work a priority for some athletes.
“The single biggest factor is that athletes can’t train full-time anymore in this sport. It’s just not possible. You have to have another good job to generate enough income to be able to pay the team fees and all the expenses that get passed down to the athlete,” he said.
Kripps said the loss of the Calgary track makes it more difficult to recruit athletes and limits the number of training and practice opportunities.
He said bringing the Calgary track back would ease many of the financial pressures that athletes face. But it’s not going to happen, according to Barry Heck, the CEO of WinSport.
Heck said Upperton is best equipped to speak to the issue of the loss of the track and the impact it has had on the development of bobsled, luge and skeleton athletes.
But he takes exception to the claim that it was WinSport’s decision to demolish the track.
The CEO said the decision was made for them because of a funding shortfall.
“The fact is, the track was end of life. It was done. And it needed a substantial renovation or refurbishment that we simply didn’t have funding for,” he said.
“It wasn’t really a WinSport decision. We had no choice.”
Heck said the project at the time would have cost $25 million. But after grants from the federal and provincial governments, there was still an $8-million funding shortfall.
And he said operational costs amounted to $750,000 a year to operate.
“Do I regret that we had to close the track? I mean, I’m not sure regret’s the right word. But, it kills us to have to do it, but we really had no choice,” he said.
Heck said he regrets that Calgary didn’t get the 2026 Winter Games, which he said would have restored many of the 1988 legacy assets — including the Olympic Oval, which needs $65 million in upgrades.
Heck said the province allowed WinSport to use grant money to help fund a new $40 million day lodge at Canada Olympic Park, which is nearing completion.
He said the Ice House, which is used by sledding athletes to practice their running starts, is part of their long-term plans and will soon receive nearly $500,000 in upgrades.
Taylor Austin, who just competed at the 2026 Winter Games as a bobsled pilot and finished 14th in the four-man, learned the sport on the track at Canada Olympic Park.
He estimated he’s gone down the Calgary track more than 800 times.
“It’s tough to be part of the group that didn’t keep the medal streak going,” he said.
Austin said it’s sad that the track was partially demolished in 2019 while other Olympic cities committed to maintaining their facilities.
“I think we’re getting further and further away from that legacy of the ’88 games,” he said.
As a Calgary-based athlete, the loss of the track has been a financial blow. He has to pay those extra costs to train elsewhere.
He worries that after the results from Milano-Cortina, finding sponsors might be even more of a challenge.
Melissa Lotholz is another Alberta-based athlete who completed in Italy. She had the highest finish among Canadians with a sixth-place finish in monobob.
She was a rookie driver in 2019 but did get some runs in on the Calgary track before it closed.
She said costs have gone up since then, with athletes having to travel to other venues. She also said it’s been more difficult to recruit new athletes into the sport because of extra costs.
Lotholz said athletes need to be more creative and savvy with their finances.
“We’re trying to go farther with less, and so we literally need to be overseas in order to develop our craft and to be world class in what we do.”
Kripps, who is a technical skills coach with Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, is trying to stay positive despite all of the hurdles his team has faced that make it seem like they’re “fighting this uphill battle.”
He said a “really good” leadership team is in place and there are a lot of great athletes in the program.
“We’re committed to making it work no matter what.”
