A Gee-Gee in Sochi
Story by Mike Foster, originally for the University of Ottawa's Tabaret Magazine
A former Gee-Gees football linebacker will be helping one of Team Canada's four-man bobsleigh crews achieve maximum momentum at the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
James McNaughton, 26, will be putting every bit of his 103 kilos behind Team Kripps' Canada 3 bobsleigh, sending it down the tubular track at speeds topping 145km an hour.
McNaughton (BHSc '11) played five seasons with the Gee-Gees from 2006 to 2010.
He first got involved in bobsleigh in the run-up to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, when he joined a recruitment camp in Calgary. He tested out the track but was not ready to compete. The next year, he began competing internationally on the World Cup circuit.
In a Skype interview from Austria, McNaughton told us that Canada 3 would be making history: this is the first time that Canada has qualified a third four-man bobsleigh for the Olympic race. Under Olympic qualifying rules, the three nations with the fastest third sleds are allowed to enter them. Other qualifying nations can only enter a maximum of two sleds.
"It is really anyone's game when you get to the Olympics," says McNaughton, adding that the Canada 3 bobsleigh has been finishing in eighth or ninth position in qualifying races.
The campaign to qualify has involved races in Winterberg (Germany), St Moritz , and Lake Placid and Park City (U.S.). Over the summer, each crew member spent over 1100 hours training in the gym and on the track to prepare for the season.
McNaughton says that he was among hundreds of athletes who tried out for a spot on the Olympic bobsleigh team, and that these tryouts were his biggest challenge yet.
"You just have to sink your nails in, hold on, work as hard as you can and get rid of any distractions," says McNaughton. "We need every tiny little advantage on the body. People either make the team, or don't, by hundredths of a second in our push-testing. You can't even see the differences with the naked eye."
McNaughton says the Gee-Gees training program taught him how to work well with teammates and build strength – two crucial skills for bobsleighing.
"I would say playing for the Gee-Gees is one of the single-most important reasons why I am here. When you are fighting for a hundredth of a second on a slope to win a race, you need to know your teammates and work synergistically with them – just like you do on the football field."
So what is it like to hurtle down the ice in a tin-can torpedo?
"Before I did it the first time, I was told it was like being put in a garbage can and rolled down a hill while being hit by a baseball bat. I hopped in the sled and went down. The only thing I was really surprised by was the G-forces. It's like going on a rollercoaster that bends you in half. There is a chance of it flipping over and you get a little banged up," says McNaughton. "It has changed for me now, though. I'm used to the feel and I know what's going on."
The Team Kripps' Canada 3 bobsleigh crew includes sled pilot Justin Kripps, Bryan Barnett, Tim Randall and spare Graeme Rinholm. They are growing out their beards to raise funds for youth soccer teams. Follow the campaign at #beardmode.
Tyler Sawyer, an assistant defensive coach with the Gee-Gees football team, is closely following former teammate McNaughton's Facebook postings, tweets and blogs. Sawyer was a linebacker for the Gee-Gees from 2008 to 2012 and played alongside McNaughton in 2009 and 2010. The two were teammates when the Gee-Gees lost the 2010 Yates Cup playoff to the University of Western Ontario by one point.
"One of James's biggest strengths is his actual physical strength, his base power. He trained his butt off when he was playing for the Gee-Gees and obviously that put him in a good position with the Canadian Olympic team," says Sawyer. "It is pretty awesome to say you have trained with and played alongside someone who is putting in tons and tons of effort for Canada."