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Justin Kripps - On the road

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 | 06:04 PM ET
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Justin Kripps is a brakeman on Canada's National bobsleigh team. He is from Summerland, B.C.

Justin Kripps is a brakeman on Canada's National four-man bobsliegh team. The men's four-man world championship will be held on Febrauary 28, 2008.


Between now and 2010 I'll be doing a lot of trips. In bobsleigh the world cup tour goes from November until march with a race every week and a break at Christmas, so while we go to 8-9 different venues in North America and Europe it really feels like 2 big trips, one before Christmas and one after.


On top of that we have training weeks at various tracks and we will soon be adding many trips to Whistler onto that. When I'm on the road sometimes its hard to stay healthy, if someone comes down with an illness we try to get them treated as fast as possible, and in the mean time try to reduce the chances of everyone else getting sick.

When we are in Europe for long periods of time it can get especially difficult to maintain a healthy diet, a lot of the food we are served over there is pretty different from what we are used to. I take supplements with me from home to make sure I get the basics covered, and other than that I just try to get enough food. When I have a trip that involves a big time zone change I try to start adjusting before I leave so that when I arrive it doesn’t take as long and start to interfere with training and racing. Sometimes I'll stay up all night and the next day go to bed when it would be bedtime wherever we are competing next.

My favorite place to compete is St. Moritz, Switzerland, its a cool place with a lot of fan support and the track is the only natural ice track on the circuit so its always a great experience to be there. When Whistler is added to the circuit it might take the top spot though, whistler will be an awesome place to race.

Each crew has a 4man and a 2man sled, its not something that can be checked onto a plane really so they have to be shipped separately if we're flying.When we are in Europe all of the world cup tracks are separated by drivable distances so we have trucks the we carry the sleds in.

I try to keep in touch with my parents when I’m on tour, sometimes its tough because the schedule is full and also we can be in a different country every week so finding a phone card that works can be difficult.

I am glad that I don’t have to travel far for 2010, It'll be amazing having the games so close to home, and in a city that I lived in for a few years.

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