Upperton, Moyse reach podium on separate teams
Last Updated: Thursday, February 25, 2010 | 10:28 AM ET
By Mihira Lakshman, CBC Sports
Four years ago at the 2006 Torino Olympics, the tandem of Helen Upperton and Heather Moyse missed the podium in the women's bobsleigh event by just 5-100ths of a second.
They dramatically improved on that fourth-place finish with two medals Wednesday at the Vancouver Games.
Moyse took the gold in the Canada 1 sled as Kaillie Humphries's brakeman, while Upperton drove Canada 2 to silver, along with Shelley-Ann Brown, at the Whistler Sliding Centre.
The heartbreak of finishing just off the podium at their first Olympics was a real motivator for Upperton and Moyse.
"Losing by 5-100ths of a second, that's why I came back to bobsled," Moyse said.
Many people felt that with four more years training together, nothing would prevent them from winning a medal.
But few would have predicted medal wins on separate teams.
In the year leading up to the Vancouver Games, Upperton began experimenting with different brakemen — Moyse wasn't one of them. Upperton auditioned Jenny Ciochetti and Shelley-Ann Brown for the Olympic job and, in consultation with the coaches, chose Brown.
Moyse — considered to be one of the best brakemen in the sport — proved her worth with her new driver, Humphries.
The duo had four podium finishes on the World Cup circuit this season, compared with one for Upperton.
But none of the inner politics of the Canadian bobsleigh team seemed to affect the bobsledders when the pressure was on at the lightning-fast track in Whistler.
Both Canadian teams delivered their best performances when it counted the most.
Upperton's flawless final run down the track — the fastest of the day — propelled the Canada 2 sled into the silver-medal position. Meanwhile, Humphries and Moyse broke yet another start record, giving them the speed they needed to hang on to gold.
In the end, Moyse and Upperton embraced each other on the podium, finally sharing the honour of Olympic glory— though achieved in two different sleds.
"It's part of us together as a team," Humphries said. "It's what builds our relationship. It's kind of where we started, and we're here because of it."
Versatile athletes
Since women's bobsleigh is a relatively new sport — it made its Olympic debut in 2002 — all four of the athletes got their start in other sports.
Moyse, from Summerside, P.E.I., dominated in rugby and set several high school track and field records as a teenager. Her former coach Garth Turtle said he instantly knew she would be a success in any sport.
"She just has a talent to run fast," he said. "She didn't have to work at anything. I've never had such a God-given, natural athlete."
Upperton, from Calgary, and Brown, from Pickering, Ont., were also recruited because of their track background, since sprinters possess the raw strength and explosive power needed to be successful down the bobsleigh run.
Humphries, who grew up in Calgary, got her start as a skier. But as an athlete whose Olympic dreams were piqued after seeing swimmer Mark Tewksbury win gold in 1992, she realized by age 17 she wasn't going to reach her goals on the slopes.
"I just wasn't good enough," she told nbcolympics.com. "I knew I had to switch and do something else. And I knew I had to pick something where girls had bigger legs because I've always had bigger legs than most people. So it was either speedskating or bobsleigh."
Humphries's story has an added twist as well, since she began her bobsleigh career as a brakeman and was an alternate four years ago in Turin. She then switched gears, coming back to the team as a driver, and blossoming into one of the world's best pilots.
"Yeah, there's a rivalry," Humphries said of the competition with Upperton. "But I think it's a healthy rivalry and I think it really pushes both of us to be better because of it."
It doesn't get any better than finishing 1-2 at the Olympics.
Perhaps the heated competition between the Canadian sleds during the World Cup season spurred the athletes to figure out a way to take their performances to a higher level.
"The mental side of our sport is something you have to address," Upperton told NBC before the Games. "So, to be an Olympic champion you have to be able to manage all kinds of stuff. I think our team will be ready for it when it happens."
