Thomas De La Hunty (born 4 July 1956) is a British former bobsledder and bobsleigh coach.
De La Hunty started bobsledding after joining the Royal Air Force in 1978. He started his bobsledding career in 1980, going on to be RAF Champion for 13 years and competing for the British national team from 1980 to 1991. He also competed in the 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics, [1] earning his best finish of 12th in the two-man event at Calgary in 1988.
After retiring from competition in 1991, he became a coach, initially for the British bobsleigh team, serving as Assistant Ice Coach in the 1992, 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics and as Head Coach at the 2006 Games in Turin. De La Hunty was also coach of the Dutch team at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In June 2010, De La Hunty was named as coach of the Canadian bobsleigh team, [1] a position which he held until 2016. During that time he guided Kaillie Humphries to her second Olympic gold at the 2014 Games in Sochi, two consecutive World Championships in 2012 and 2013 and three overall Bobsleigh World Cup titles in 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2015-16. In July 2017 he was announced as the head coach of the Dutch Bobsleigh Federation. [2]
Bobsleigh or Bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation. National competitions are often governed by bodies such as the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, and the German Bobsleigh, Luge, and Skeleton Federation.
The 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Lake Placid 1932, were a winter multi-sport event in the United States, held in Lake Placid, New York, United States. The games opened on February 4 and closed on February 13. It was the first of four Winter Olympics held in the United States; Lake Placid hosted again in 1980.
Skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled, down a frozen track while lying face down and head-first. The sport and the sled may have been named from the bony appearance of the sled.
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.
Duff Gibson is a Canadian skeleton racer who competed from 1999 to 2006. He was born in Vaughan, Ontario. His father was born on December 13, 1937. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, He won the gold medal in the men's skeleton, narrowly beating out his teammate Jeff Pain. With his victory, the 39-year-old Gibson surpassed ice hockey player Al MacInnis as the oldest gold medalist in Canadian Winter Olympic history. More significantly, Gibson became the oldest individual gold medallist in the history of the Winter Games, a record previously held by Norway's Magnar Solberg, who was 35 when he won the gold medal in the 20 km individual biathlon event at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo; he held the record until Ole Einar Bjørndalen won gold at the 10 km biathlon sprint aged 40 at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. He retired immediately following the 2006 Games in Turin.
Jamaica competed in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They competed in one sport, Bobsledding, in both the two-man and four-man events and finished outside the medal places in both competitions. Athletes were recruited from the Jamaica Defence Force, which saw Dudley Stokes, Devon Harris, and Michael White become the first members of the team. Caswell Allen was the fourth man, but was injured prior to the start of the Olympics and was replaced by Chris Stokes, who was only in Canada to support his brother and new teammate Dudley.
The Jamaica national bobsleigh team represents Jamaica in international bobsleighing competitions. The men's team debut in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games four-man bobsleigh in Calgary, Alberta, was received as underdogs in a cold weather sport represented by a nation with a tropical environment. Jamaica returned to the Winter Olympics in the two-man bobsleigh in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2014, and 2022; a women's team debuted in 2018.
Meinhard Nehmer is a former East German bobsledder who competed from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he won four medals with three golds and one bronze. Nehmer also carried the East German flag during the opening ceremonies of the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck.
Wolfgang Hoppe is a former East German decathlete, bob pilot and 36-time international medal winner who competed from the early 1980s to the late 1990s. Competing in four Winter Olympics, he won six medals with two golds, three silvers, and one bronze (1994).
Todd Dennys Hays is a former American bobsledder who competed from 1994 to 2006. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he won the silver medal in the four-man event at Salt Lake City in 2002, breaking a 46-year medal drought for the US national bobsleigh team.
Howard Banford Siler Jr. was an American bobsledder who competed from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.
Nicola Minichiello is a retired British bobsledder who competed between 2001 and 2011. She won two medals in the two-woman event at the FIBT World Championships, winning a silver in 2005 and making history with a gold in 2009 partnering Gillian Cooke, to become the first British female bobsleigh driver to win a World Championships. Competing in three Winter Olympics, Minichiello earned her best finish of ninth in the two-woman event at Turin in 2006. This was also the best ever Olympic result by a GB women’s bobsleigh team.
Chris Lori is a Canadian bobsled driver who competed from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. Competing in four Winter Olympics, he earned his best finish of fourth in the four-man event at Albertville in 1992. Lori won the Bobsleigh Overall World Cup four-man championship in 1989-90. He won nine Crystal Globes for top three finishes in Overall World Cup final standings and totaled twenty two World Cup medals and fourteen Canadian Championship titles. He Lori was instrumental in establishing Canada as a world power in the sport of bobsledding.
John Alun Adolphus Herbert is an English former sportsperson, who represented Great Britain as both a triple jumper and a bobsledder. Competing in athletics, he won the gold medal for England in the triple jump at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. He represented Great Britain at the 1984 Summer Olympics and 1988 Summer Olympics. He competed in the four-man bobsleigh event at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
The Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Bobsled Run is a venue for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton in the United States, located at the Lake Placid Olympic Sports Complex in Lake Placid, New York. This venue was used for the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics and for the only winter Goodwill Games in 2000. The third and most recent version of the track was completed in 2000 with the track hosting both the first FIBT World Championships and FIL World Luge Championships done outside of Europe, doing so in 1949 and 1983. In 2010 the bobsled track was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Justin Kripps 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.
Elana Meyers Taylor is an American Olympic bobsledder and World Champion who has competed since 2007. Born in Oceanside, California, Meyers Taylor was raised in Douglasville, Georgia and is a graduate of George Washington University, where she was a member of the softball team.
The four-man bobsleigh competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was held at the Whistler Sliding Centre in Whistler, British Columbia, on 26–27 February. The German team of André Lange, René Hoppe, Kevin Kuske, and Martin Putze were the defending Olympic champion in this event. America's team of Steve Holcomb, Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler, and Curtis Tomasevicz were the defending world champions in this event. The test event was won by the Latvian team of Jānis Miņins, Daumants Dreiškens, Oskars Melbardis, and Intars Dambis. The last World Cup event prior to the 2010 Games place took place in Igls, Austria on 24 January 2010 and was won by the German team of Lange, Hoppe, Kuske, and Putze. Holcomb of the United States won both the four-man and the combined World Cups.
Ivo Ferriani is an Italian sports official and bobsledder. In September 2010, he was elected president of the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT), ending the 16-year presidency of Canada's Robert H. Storey. In 2016, Ferriani became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
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.