{"id":210479,"date":"2025-10-13T15:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T15:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/210479\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T15:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T15:22:08","slug":"they-said-i-had-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/210479\/","title":{"rendered":"‘They said I had potential"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tokyo 2020<\/a> Olympic track cycling<\/a> champion Kelsey Mitchell<\/a> has taken on a new challenge, swapping her bicycle cleats for spikes as she auditions for a spot on Canada\u2019s national bobsleigh<\/a> team for Milano Cortina 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old, who famously didn\u2019t own a bike when she was recruited into track cycling, has found a similarly unconventional path into another sport. At a bobsleigh tryout camp, she heard one word that sealed her decision to give it a real shot: \u201cThey said I had potential,\u201d Mitchell told the Canadian Press<\/a>. \u201cThat’s my favourite word ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transitioning from track cycling to bobsleigh means learning an entirely new skill set. Thankfully, Mitchell\u2019s explosive leg power gives her a strong base, but sprinting technique presents a challenge. \u201cThere’s a gap of knowledge that I don’t have yet, but there was the same thing with cycling. It’s kind of an ongoing joke that I need to not cycle my legs when I run and actually be more like a sprinter and drive them like pistons,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She previously tried the sport at 21, but says her power is on a different level now, thanks to years of elite cycling training. She also intends to return to track cycling with an eye on the Olympic Games LA 28<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mitchell placed eighth in the women\u2019s sprint event at Paris 2024<\/a> but admitted to feeling burnt out after the event. She briefly dabbled with speed skating<\/a> before deciding that bobsleigh would be the new environment and breath of fresh air that she needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought about that a lot, honestly. It would be so incredible to have that title and be an Olympian in both winter and summer,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cWhether I’m on the Olympic team and I am contributing on the ice or I’m an alternate and I’m contributing to the environment and helping someone else become a winter Olympian, yeah, I’m grateful for this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell will join the team for a training camp in Whistler before the World Cup season opener in November at the Cortina Sliding Centre.<\/p>\n

As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Winter Games, athletes’ participation at Milano Cortina 2026 depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tokyo 2020 Olympic track cycling champion Kelsey Mitchell has taken on a new challenge, swapping her bicycle cleats…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-210479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}