Team Canada got off to a flying start at the North American Cup's (NAC) 2024 return to Whistler with five out of six medallists representing the Maple Leaf.
Bianca Ribi's winning monobob time was one minute and 53.10 seconds, just barely ahead of compatriot Erica Voss (+0.01). Mackenzie Stewart rounded out the Canadian sweep (+0.95).
"My performance was good enough for the day. I am always striving to do better, so I think there's a lot of room for me to improve," said Ribi. "My fellow Canadians are incredibly talented, and on any given day anyone can win. I feel fortunate that today was my day, but I know there's a few things I need to clean up."
Meanwhile, Taylor Austin and Mark Zanette proved to be the class of the two-man field (1:46.18). Geoffrey Gadbois and Collin Storms of the United States earned silver (+0.29), relegating Pat Norton and Keaton Bruggeling to bronze (+0.56).
Despite the colour of his medal, Austin sees room for improvement. "Today was an interesting day," he remarked. "There was a lot of snow and a lot of people struggling with the weather conditions, but there's still a race and we tried to perform to the best of our abilities. I didn't quite hit that mark today, but it's another thing to learn from."
'It's motivating to know that your work is paying off'
Immediately after Ribi's sled crossed the finish line into gold medal position, Voss pointed at the scoreboard and exclaimed: "One one-hundredth? That's just mean!"
Rest assured the duo are on good terms with each other, but tight margins of victory are a part of any sliding sport. Voss had a relatively slow push on her first of two runs and might have bested her more experienced teammate if that were different. Still, she keeps the big picture in perspective.
"My motto for this season is: 'how fast can I go?'" Voss revealed. "There were lots of things in my run that I could clean up [which would] quickly erase that one one-hundredth [of a second]. Ribi's a fantastic driver. She's won a World Cup in Whistler, so I'm happy being anywhere near her."
The respect is mutual. "[Voss has] been doing amazing—she's been very consistent," said Ribi. "I'm really happy for her, and it's always nice to have a challenge especially when it's your fellow Canadians. You're always trying to sweep the podium at home."
A few of Canada's developmental pilots have recently begun to assert themselves. Voss grabbed monobob silver and two-woman bronze at National Championships last week, with Stewart prevailing in two-woman. It's an encouraging sign for them and for the program.
"[Nationals] were pretty good for my confidence," Voss said. "It was my first time head to head against our World Cup girls as a pilot, and I wasn't expecting [to win two medals]. The confidence comes less from the result, and more from having a sick series of runs.
"It's motivating to know that your work is paying off. The Canadian program has gone through a huge rebuild, and on the women's side we have six very competitive drivers. That has us set up really well for not just the 2026 Olympics, but the 2030 Games too."
Short notice
Zanette wasn't originally supposed to race today, but a lower-body injury to his fellow brakeman Shane Ohrt during warm-ups pressed him into action.
A native of Woodridge, Ont., Zanette is a newcomer to Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) with no real experience outside of the aforementioned Nationals. He had only 10 to 15 minutes to prepare himself once the call came in.
"It was definitely weird," admitted Zanette. "I had to switch my mindset on the fly, from helping and cheering to race mode. Just tried to do the best I could with the time I had. It was good to get one under my belt against some international competition."
Fortunately, Austin is the most experienced men's pilot in BCS. He kept poised in the face of the unexpected personnel change while mentoring his greener teammate.
"Mark did good on short notice," Austin said. "We'll take today as a learning day and try to move forward. We do a lot of work together, and we try to make sure that it's the same routine no matter who's in. Obviously, there's a little bit of a difference between Shane and Mark weight-wise, but we couldn't change that.
"We just made the best of an interesting situation. Good to see [Norton and Bruggeling] on the podium again. Those guys have been putting in work, it's a great day for Canada and we've just got to keep this momentum going."
Whistler hosts another round of monobob and two-man bobsled races tomorrow on Nov. 23 from 10 a.m. to noon.
