CBC Digital Archives

Heather Moyse: rugby summers, bobsled winters

Bobsled has its roots in the toboggans that have slid down snowy hillsides the world over. But the addition of a steering mechanism and a steep, twisty track transformed the pastime into a thrilling winter sport, with sledders reaching 128 kilometres an hour and finishes separated by mere hundredths of a second. From Canada's first Olympic gold in 1964 to Pierre Lueders's quest for two more medals in 2010, CBC Digital Archives looks at some of the highlights of Canada's long history with the bobsled.

Most athletes spend a lifetime perfecting their form before they reach the pinnacle of the Olympics. For Heather Moyse, it took five months. The relatively new sport of women's bobsled needs young women with speed and strength, two attributes that Moyse, a Canadian rugby star, has in abundance. As we see in this 2006 report from CBC-TV's Canada Now, the P.E.I. resident isn't letting her inexperience limit her aspirations.
• From its roots in Switzerland in the 1960s, bobsled was considered a dangerous sport in which women were not allowed to compete. Canadian women bobsledders began training in earnest once the Canada Olympic Park track opened in Calgary in 1986.
  • Though some had competed nationally against men, it was not until October 1999 that the International Olympic Committee announced that two-woman bobsleigh would be a medal event in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. In those Games, Canada's Christina Smith and Paula McKenzie finished ninth. There is still no four-woman event in the Olympics.

• Heather Moyse competed as the brakeman for pilot Helen Upperton in the Canada-1 sled at Torino. They finished fourth, just .05 seconds behind the bronze medallists in Italy-1. Germany-1 took gold and United States-1 took silver.

• In 2009 Moyse was working toward her master's degree in occupational therapy at the University of Toronto, while continuing to compete in bobsled and with the Canadian national senior women's rugby team.

• Moyse won a gold medal at the 2010 Olympics in the two-woman bobsled event with teammate Kaillie Humphries. The silver medal in the same event was also won by a Canadian team: Shelley-Ann Brown and Helen Upperton.

Medium: Television
Program: Canada Now
Broadcast Date: Jan. 3, 2006
Guest(s): Heather Moyse
Reporter: Bruce Rainnie
Duration: 3:55

Last updated: February 15, 2012

Page consulted on April 3, 2013

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