Canadian bobsledder Cynthia Appiah’s story enforces the potential in reimagining your calling
Perhaps one of the most fascinating and impactful origin stories at the Olympics is of bobsledder Cynthia Appiah. Appiah was recently named to the Canadian bobsleigh team.
The 35-year-old brakewoman grew up in Toronto Public Housing and bobsled came to her by “falling into her lap.”
We chatted about her love of her sport, misconceptions about bobsleigh, and her other love: the game show Jeopardy!
The daughter of Ghanaian immigrants was taught early about earning her place in the world, which also translated to her place in the driver’s seat on the national team.
“I think everything that I’ve done in life has really fallen into that,” she said in an interview. “As the basis of everything I do, I give 110 per cent on, because I would have to deal with my mother if I didn’t [or] if I didn’t do well,” she added laughing.
Appiah did not play soccer as a child despite it being a beloved sport in her family’s home country of Ghana. She played baseball through a program offered by Jays Care Foundation which led to her being a fan of the team, and even working in ticket sales.
“I remember asking my dad if I could go play soccer, and he was just like, we don’t have the money. We can’t do it. And so my only outlet through sport was anything that was just cost effective.”
Canada’s Cynthia Appiah shares her journey from a Toronto girl inspired by Cool Runnings to a veteran bobsledder preparing for Milano Cortina 2026.
According to the Aspen Institute, winter sports are considered to be more expensive for youth because of the equipment and travel costs. Appiah’s participation and success in sports was directed by access at an early age.
She also began to compete in athletics in shot put and weight throw. She had a successful career at York University as a student-athlete while studying history and psychology.
“I think that’s where my love for sport really started, was through those two being with me, being able to access those two sports,” she said.
Bobsleigh wasn’t something that Appiah went looking for but the transition and skill-set she had from athletics was easily transferable.
“I didn’t wake up to be a bobsledder,” she said.
She initially tried the sport through a combine and testing camp at York University. She did, however, get a lot of pushback at home.
“Not surprising,” Appiah adds. “The sport is quite dangerous, and whatever limited knowledge [my family] knew of the sport was predicated on the safety aspect, or what they thought to be the lack thereof.”
Appiah had promised her parents she would complete her Bachelor’s (she earned high distinction) but they suggested she get a Master’s degree or go on to graduate studies.
She went “full steam ahead” into bobsleigh despite her parents trying to renegotiate and throwing “everything but the kitchen and the kitchen sink” at her.
Appiah made her first official Olympic appearance at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.
She was an alternate brakewoman in Pyeongchang in 2018, but after that experience decided to become a pilot and hasn’t stopped since most recently winning a silver medal in monobob at the World Cup in early January.
Her performances had not been as consistent as she would like, making that World Cup run really important leading into the 2026 Olympics.
I wondered if there was added pressure as a Black woman in a predominantly white sport. Appiah told me that bobsleigh is arguably the most racially diverse sport in the Winter Games ecosystem. She mentioned legendary U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers-Taylor, and Victoria Olaoye and Lamine Deen of Great Britain who helped her see a place for her talent and identity.
“Bobsleigh has a long history of diversity in terms of the breakthrough position,” she said. “Many, many Black athletes who transfer over from track and field have taken on that brakeman/ brakewoman position, but not many have transitioned over into the driving role.
“That’s where you get your Elana, you get Lamin, you get Victoria. And they really opened up the pathways for people like me to be able to submit my spot in bobsleigh history, I guess you could say.”
Something to prove
As much as there is progress in the sport with diversity, there are legacies that are hard to extinguish. Appiah recalls that there are ways of thinking like the “football mentality” whereby people don’t believe Black athletes can be good quarterbacks.
That parlayed into bobsleigh where people didn’t think Black athletes could be solid pilots because it was too cerebral. Athletes like Appiah and Meyers-Taylor break the mold of what Black athletes can do.
“But I think the sport is trying its best,” Appiah maintains. “There are many ways they can improve, the organization internationally is trying its best to really diversify the sport, to make it a little bit more inclusive.”
Being an intellectual powerhouse is exactly in Appiah’s wheelhouse. She was even a contestant on Jeopardy! A lifelong dream that was realized in the fall.
Appiah had been applying to be a contestant for over six years. She finally made the second round, and one of the show’s producers was taken with her story — particularly being an Olympian.
“I got on a show through merit and merit alone,” she said. “I’m a Canadian trying to get onto an American game show. They have no incentive and no reason to want me on their show. It really was through my brain power.”
She incorrectly answered a question about Tim Horton’s; something she says she may never live down.
Teammates and competitors alike were supportive and even went as far to quiz her ahead of her appearance. That is a piece of the sport that she loves.
Bobsleigh is a small sport and creates a circle of people who truly care about each other.
“It is quite a niche sport. … It’s such a small community, and you can really lean on each other,” she said.
“We’re, obviously, naturally going to be competitors on the day of the race. But what I love about the sport is, off the ice, everyone gets along pretty well for the most part. Some of my greatest friends are on the Austrian and Australian teams.”
Cynthia Appiah won the silver medal at the IBSF World Cup monobob race in Winterberg, Germany.
Her reflections ahead of Milano-Cortina on the culture of bobsleigh are important if we’re looking at ways to not only ameliorate sports culture in Canada but support the most talented and the brightest minds — irrespective of where they start off.
For Appiah, that’s the beauty of bobsleigh. No matter what sport you come from or even if you don’t come from a sport, you could find yourself on the bobsleigh.
“Your true calling can be in bobsleigh, even if you never thought it was.”
Helping young Canadians reimagine what their calling is becomes a powerful tool in expanding the excellence of sport.
Game show appearances optional, of course.
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