Personal information | |
---|---|
Nationality | Canadian |
Born | Naalehu, Hawaii, U.S. | January 6, 1987
Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) |
Weight | 100 kg (220 lb) |
Sport | |
Country | Canada |
Sport | Bobsleigh |
Event(s) | Two-man |
Turned pro | 2007 |
Medal record |
Justin Kripps (born January 6, 1987) is a Canadian bobsledder and an Olympic champion in two-man bobsleigh following his gold medal win at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Kripps won a silver medal in the two-man event at the 2017 World Championships and a bronze in the mixed team event at the 2012 World Championships. He has competed in the sport since 2006 and has many World Cup podiums. During the 2017–18 Bobsleigh World Cup, he finished the season first in the two-man and overall, to win the Crystal Globe as overall champion.
Kripps entered the sport of bobsledding in 2006 at the age of 19 when he participated in a testing camp. [1] He had competed in athletics at Simon Fraser University where Kripps led the 4 × 100 m team (Justin Kripps, Neal Hurtubise, Rob Drapala, Brett Robinson) to All-American honors and a school record at the 2005 NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Louisville, Kentucky (SFU Athletics, 2009 & NAIA 2005). Kripps entered bobsleigh as he saw it as a mix of track and field and race car driving. [1]
During his initial years in Canada, he competed as a brakeman; Kripps won his first Bobsleigh World Cup race in the men's four-man in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, in January 2008 alongside Pierre Lueders, Ken Kotyk and David Bissett. Kripps and Lueders were the first people to slide down the Whistler Sliding Centre in British Columbia in 2007. The two competed again years late in the four-man event at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Following the 2010 Olympics, Kripps decided he wanted to become a driver and attended pilot school in the summer of 2010. [1] He spent the 2010–11 season on the developmental North American circuit. [1] Kripps competed at the 2011 World Junior Championships, where he placed fifth in the two-man and eighth in the four-man competitions. [1] The next season he competed on the Europa Cup circuit for 2011–12 before starting his first Bobsleigh World Cup event at Whistler in February 2012. [1] His first FIBT World Championships as a pilot took place in 2012 when he participated in the mixed team event and won bronze. [1]
Kripps' first podium as a driver on the World Cup was in 2014 when he won gold at Königssee. While attending the 2014 Winter Olympics, Kripps learned that his website had been restricted from access in Russia. Kripps said in response on his Twitter account, "Looks like my website is censored in Russia, classic #SochiProblems I wonder if there's a camera in my room". [2] In the Olympics, pushed by Bryan Barnett in the Canada-3 sled he was the top Canadian finisher in sixth place. Due to his great result, he was moved to the top sled in the four-man event; eighth after the first run, he overturned in the second run and failed to qualify for the final. [1]
Through the 2016–17 Bobsleigh World Cup season, Kripps found the podium three more times. At the 2017 World Championships, he finished in the silver medal position, pushed by Jesse Lumsden. [1] Pushed together by Lumsden and new push partner Alexander Kopacz he finished the season in the top position in both the two-man and overall standings for the 2017–18 Bobsleigh World Cup season, taking the Crystal Globe in both categories. [3]
At the 2018 Winter Olympics, Kripps and brakeman Kopacz tied with the German team of Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis for the gold medal, Canada's sixth of the games. [4] Leading after three runs, Kripps came around the final corner and finished in exactly the same time as Friedrich. After the race, Kripps said, "I stayed calm throughout the whole thing and focused on my runs. I've been working on my mental game since I started driving, and coincidentally Pierre Lueders taught me how to drive, which is interesting because he tied for a gold medal 20 years ago. It was just an amazing race." [4]
In January 2022, Kripps was named to Canada's 2022 Olympic team. [5] [6] [7] Kripps would go onto win the bronze medal in the Four-man event. [8] [9] On August 25, 2022, Kripps announced his retirement from the sport. [10]
Pierre Fritz Lueders is a Canadian Olympic, world and World Cup champion bobsledder who competed from 1990 to 2010. He piloted both two-man and four-man bobsleigh, retiring after the 2010 Winter Olympics. He was named to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
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Jesse Lumsden is a Canadian Olympic bobsledder and a retired Canadian football player, who played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders.
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Francesco Friedrich is a German bobsledder who has been active since 2006. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, he and his brakeman Thorsten Margis tied with Canada's Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz for the gold medal in the two-man competition. Friedrich also won gold outright in the four-man event alongside Margis, Candy Bauer and Martin Grothkopp, making Friedrich the fifth German pilot to win two-man and four-man golds at the same Games, after Andreas Ostler in 1952, Meinhard Nehmer in 1976, Wolfgang Hoppe in 1984 and André Lange in 2006. At the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, Friedrich and Margis again won the gold medal with both sleighs. Friedrich previously competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in the doubles and fours and finished in eighth and tenth place, respectively.
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The two-man bobsleigh competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 18 and 19 February at the Alpensia Sliding Centre near Pyeongchang, South Korea. Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz of Canada and Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis of Germany shared gold after the two teams recorded exactly the same time after four runs. Oskars Melbārdis and Jānis Strenga of Latvia won the bronze medal.
Alexander Kopacz is a Canadian bobsledder and the reigning Olympic co-champion in the two-man bobsleigh event. He competed in the two-man event at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Kopacz and pilot Justin Kripps tied with the German team of Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis for the gold medal.
Alysia Rissling is a Canadian bobsledder. In 2015, she was the pilot for the first all-woman team in an official four-man bobsleigh race after the event became gender neutral. She competed in the two-woman bobsleigh event for Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics with Heather Moyse; the pair finished in 6th place.
Christine de Bruin is a Canadian bobsledder. She competed in the two-woman event at the 2018 Winter Olympics with Melissa Lotholz. She won bronze in the women's event and a silver medal in the team relay at the 2019 Bobsled World Championships in Whistler, British Columbia.
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The two-man competition in bobsleigh at the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 14 February and 15 February, at the Xiaohaituo Bobsleigh and Luge Track in Yanqing District of Beijing. The event was won by Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis who repeated their 2018 success. Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer won the silver medal, and Christoph Hafer and Matthias Sommer the bronze medal, for each of them the first Olympic medal. This was the only podium sweep at the 2022 Olympics.
The four-man competition in bobsleigh at the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 19 February and 20 February, at the Xiaohaituo Bobsleigh and Luge Track in Yanqing District of Beijing. Francesco Friedrich, Thorsten Margis, Candy Bauer, and Alexander Schüller of Germany won the gold medal, and Friedrich thereby successfully defended his 2018 Olympic title. Germany-2 driven by Johannes Lochner won the silver medal, and Canada-1, driven by Justin Kripps, won the bronze.