Julie Johnson is getting ready for her bobsleigh debut on the World Cup circuit with gold and silver medals already in her pocket.
The Port Moody bobsledder is in Europe, learning new tracks and getting faster. She’ll be competing at the second-tier Europe Cup race in Konigssee this weekend.
If all goes well, Johnson will race her first World Cup event at the same Deutsche Post Eisearena track in early January, after a break over the holidays.
Johnson, who’s been honing her skills as a bobsleigh pilot on the North America and Europe Cup circuits the past two seasons, got this season off to a quick start when she finished first and second at the first international races held recently at the Whistler Sliding Centre.
Johnson piloted her sled with new brakeman Cynthia Serwaah to a gold in the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation’s first North American Cup then followed that up the next day with a silver. The event attracted more than 100 bobsleigh and skeleton athletes from 25 countries, including defending men’s Olympic champion Justin Kripps.
In fact, Johnson’s gold medal performance bested world champion and Olympic medallist Elana Meyers Taylor by .2 seconds. She also set several personal bests.
Johnson said it took awhile for the enormity of her accomplishment to sink in.
“I honestly wasn’t even thinking about my competition,” she said. “But hearing the Canadian national anthem surrounded by some of the top athletes in the sport is something I won’t forget.”
It was also an exciting start to the gruelling four year cycle to the next Winter Olympics in 2022 that will be held in Beijing, China.
Johnson, who took up the sport after a 40-second tourist run down part of the track at Whistler, said she’s on target to get there.
“I want to soak in the entire experience so that in the upcoming seasons I can move up the ranks and ready and confident for the Winter Olympics,” she said.
That climb begins in Germany, where Johnson has been learning some new tracks alongside Canada’s top sledders. She’ll be competing on the World Cup circuit to the end of the season, which culminates with the world championships at Whistler in March.
After Johnson and her then brakeman Kori Hol finished ninth at the world junior championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, she embarked upon a busy off-season that included rigorous sport-specific training at the Fortius Centre in Burnaby.
“The staff there helped me get into the best shape I’ve ever been in,” she said, adding she also worked with a sports psychologist so she could more easily cope with the rolling challenges of being a top athlete.
“Each season I do teaches me something new,” she said.
One of those rolls was a decision by Johnson’s coach, Todd Hayes, to partner her with a new brakeman as Hol moved on to pilot her own sled.
Johnson said she was able to do a day of training with Serwaah before they climbed into their sled to race.
“She is one of the strongest girls on the team,” Johnson said. “My confidence in us as a team was high.”
To get to the top of her sport, Johnson said she’ll have to work on her consistency, making incremental improvements every time she steers her craft into a high bank curve or through a high-speed chute.
“I’m always working on something,” she said. “There’s no such thing as a perfect run.”
And while Johnson’s longterm goal is the 2022 Olympics, her distant dream of competing in her own country in the 2026 Winter Games suffered a fatal blow when Calgary’s city council rejected a bid following a plebicite by voters not to support another Olympic Games.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t bummed,” Johnson said of the vote.
But it’s nothing screaming along an icy track down a mountainside at 150 km/h won’t make her quickly forget.
