Call it foreshadowing.
When Melissa Lotholz was in Grade 8 she clearly remembers writing in her journal that she wanted to go to the Olympics.
And that is exactly what she did 12 years later when she represented Canada as part of the women’s bobsleigh contingent in Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea in February where she placed seventh along with pilot Christine de Bruin.
At the time she thought it would be in the summer Olympics as a track and field athlete and not bobsleigh.
That is what the 25-year-old Barrhead native told Fort Assiniboine School students June 14.
But she said it almost didn’t happen.
About 100 days before the Olympics, Lotholz, in the fourth race of the season, injured herself.
“And we were doing really, really well. We couldn’t have asked for a better start,” she said, adding in the first four races with pilot Kaillie Humphries Canada One Team, they won two gold medals, silver and placed fourth in their last race.
“That was really hard. I worked very hard, looking forward to racing and doing well at the Olympics and now all the work I did up to that point looked like it was going to be discounted,” Lotholz said.
Although she was disappointed Lothlolz decided that she could only control what she could control.
“Instead of thinking of it as a bad thing, I decided that I would turn it into a positive and make it another challenge to overcome,” she said, adding it took a lot of effort and some help from Team Canada’s physiotherapists she was able to get back to racing.
While Lotholz was recuperating, another brakeman Phylicia George was teamed with Humphries for the final three World Cup races before the Olympics. However, in the final Olympic bobsleigh qualifying race, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, she was paired with de Bruin in an attempt to qualify three sleds for the Olympics, something Canada had never done before.
“My coaches came to me and said they were teaming me with Christine because I had the best chance to help her qualify for the Olympics,” she said. “I was so proud and determined, but nervous too because Christine and I had never been paired in a race before.”
After a less than stellar first run, the pair trailed the third place, the American team, the sled they would have to finish ahead of to qualify Canada’s third sled for the Olympics.
Before their last run, Lotholz and de Bruins talked and promised each other that they would leave it all out on the track.
“We went down, did our best and you know what? We did it. We beat the Americans . . .We were going to the Olympics and we made history by qualifying three Canadian sleds,” she said.
Because of her success with de Bruin, Lotholz said she was still hopeful that she would be paired with Humphries, which she thought would be her best chance of reaching her goal of an Olympic gold medal.
“She has won two Olympic gold medals, has a lot of experience and is a great driver,” she said, adding she thought she had a better than average chance of being paired with Humphries.
Besides getting off to a great start of the season Lotholz and Humphries work well together and the results bear that out. In the four years leading up to the Olympics, the pair had won 17 World Cup medals, including World Championship silvers.
However, two days before the Olympic opening ceremonies, Lotholz’s coaches pulled her aside saying they were pairing her with de Bruin.
“They said Melissa it’s not because you aren’t fast enough, strong enough or that we don’t think that you can put together four good runs, but your body’s been a bit up and down because of your injury, we think its best that you are paired with Christine,” she said.
Lotholz admits after the coaches told her she felt a lot of emotions, sadness, and anger being among them.
“And it’s OK to feel that way, but the important thing is when you do that you find a healthy way to deal with those emotions,” she said.
For Lotholz that meant talking to her close friends and family and by expressing her feelings through art, specifically painting and sketching.
She also realized that instead of focusing on the negative, she needed to concentrate on the opportunities that were open to her.
“I got to race with Christine,” Lotholz said.
de Bruin and Lotholz had been friends since 2011 when they were teammates on the University of Alberta track team. In fact, Lotholz credits de Bruin for introducing her to bobsleigh (see cover story).
“So I got to race with one of my great friends and make some really great memories,” she said, adding they too could achieve with a good attitude and hard work. “Work hard and you will grow. Work long and all the places you will go. Where will you grow and go to?”
