Hollingsworth takes World Cup, looks to Olympics
Olympian anchors Canadian women's skeleton team
Last Updated: Friday, January 22, 2010 | 10:38 AM ET
By Dan Robson, CBC Sports
Mellisa Hollingsworth competes at the FIBT Skeleton World Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y., in February 2009. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) It began on a hill in rural Alberta, when a young girl named Mellisa Hollingsworth first sailed through the snow with reckless abandon — headfirst, stomach down.
Today, Hollingsworth, now 29, is one of the world's best skeleton racers, riding headfirst, stomach down, on a small sled at speeds exceeding 140 kilometres per hour.
"Every day after school I would always go out to the big hill behind our house and 'crazy carpet' till dark," Hollingsworth recalls over the phone from Italy, where she is making another stop on the busy World Cup circuit.
"I just liked the crazy carpet," she laughs. "I hated the GT snow racers. … it was just comfortable for me to be going headfirst on my stomach."
The "crazy carpet" is not much more than a thin piece of plastic, separating the slider from bumpy snow.
Hollingsworth became the overall World Cup skeleton champion for the 2009-10 season on Friday, Jan. 22, when she reached the podium for the seventh time in eight races — winning the bronze at an event in Igls, Austria.
She finished her incredible season with two gold, two silver and three bronze medals.
Hollingsworth, a four-time Canadian national champion, won her first overall World Cup title in the 2005-06 season. She went on to win bronze at the Torino Winter Games, Canada's first Olympic medal in women's skeleton, when she took home the bronze.
Now she is one of Canada's brightest hopes to win gold in Vancouver.
Glued together
Hollingsworth now lives in Airdrie, Alta., but she hails from the tiny town of Eckville, Alta., where she grew up riding horses on her family's ranch.
Mellisa Hollingsworth (middle) stands on the podium after winning the gold medal at the World Cup in Lake Placid, N.Y., in November 2009. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) To honour the athlete, the town has named a street after her.
Darcy Hollingsworth chuckles as he recalls his Olympian daughter as a gentle, "girly girl."
"She was a baby," he laughs.
But all that changed when Hollingsworth hit junior high and dominated every sport she played.
"Basketball, volleyball, track, barrel racing — she could play any sport," he says with pride. "No matter what she did, I believed she would be the best in the world."
She had a drive to win.
"I can remember her playing basketball and she would have big blisters on her feet, and she would actually glue the skin back on," her dad remembers. "Before the games she could hardly walk going into the gym, and when she hit the court she could block out the pain and she would do whatever it took to win."
A family tradition
At age 15, she decided to follow in the footsteps of her cousin, Ryan Davenport, a world champion skeleton racer in the 1990s. He is still an influential figure in the sport, known for designing world-class sleds. 
Mellisa Hollingsworth leaves the start during a World Cup event in Utah last November. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
While still living in Eckville, Hollingsworth began attending a special training facility in Calgary, two hours away. Her father and stepmother, Tammy, drove her to train a couple of times each week. It was a loving sacrifice Hollingsworth has never taken for granted.
"They didn't have to be drive me to Calgary after school on a Tuesday night, two hours, one way," she says. "But I showed my potential and showed my ambition, and they supported me for that."
These days the small-town rancher travels Europe from race to race and has few opportunities to visit her family.
"I may only see them for an hour on one day, and then they won't see me for six months," she says.
Such is the life of an Olympic contender. The demands of her dreams have taken their toll. Training and travelling can be all-consuming.
When asked what her greatest fear is, she replies: "Probably, being alone. It's a difficult lifestyle that I lead … it's probably difficult for people to ... I don't know, want to stick around."
Getting there
Hollingsworth's biggest strength on the track is her confidence, says Dave MacEachern, a former Canadian bobsledder and three-time Olympian. As she adds more podium finishes to her World Cup record, Hollingsworth's confidence continues to build.
Her World Cup victory in Lake Placid, N.Y., in November was a good sign, according to MacEachern.
"Add that with a home track, and she's a favourite to win an Olympic gold medal," he says.
Hollingsworth's Olympic journey actually began with disappointment. She was left off the Olympic team in 2002, losing the last spot to her close friend, Lindsay Alcock.
But Hollingsworth decided to travel to the Salt Lake City Games to support her teammates anyway.
"Things weren't always easy," she says. "I wasn't the most gifted athlete, but I had a big dream and a big heart and tried my best. That's kind of what got me here today, with a lot of failures along the way — they're not necessarily a bad thing."
Four years later, at the 2006 Torino Olympics, Hollingsworth stood on the podium and proudly claimed a bronze medal. It was a moment she shared with her family who travelled to Italy to watch her compete.
"Right away, I gave them the medal. I put it around their necks," she says. "There are a lot of people that own a segment of it — it wasn't just me."
