Women’s bobsledders wanted a second medal event at the Olympics, and it is going to happen. It just is not exactly what everyone wanted.
The International Olympic Committee on Wednesday added monobob — a one-person sled — to the slate of women’s competitions for the 2022 Beijing Games, one of seven new medal events for the next Winter Olympics.
Some of the sport’s premier drivers, most notably Elana Meyers Taylor of the US and Kaillie Humphries of Canada, had been lobbying for a four-woman event to be added instead.
“To be fair, this is historic in that it adds another discipline for women’s bobsled and that should be celebrated,” Meyers Taylor wrote on Facebook. “Personally it’s a discipline that weighs heavily in my favor as I am one of the fastest pushing pilots in the world. However, I would be remiss if I did not express my disappointment as myself and many others have been laying the groundwork for 4woman. We will keep fighting.”
Men’s bobsled has two and four-man events at the Olympics. Women’s bobsled, which has been part of the Olympics since 2002, is only a two-woman event.
The International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation had lobbied the committee to add four-woman bobsled.
Monobob would not significantly drive up numbers of women competing in bobsled at the Olympics — at least, not at first, but there are clear advantages to introducing that discipline to the sport.
Unlike all other sliding events, where teams secure their own sleds and equipment and the teams with the most money to invest tend to do most of the winning, the monobob sleds are to be identical, as they are to be paid for by the federation.
Every sled would be set up the same way, which should mean that the person who best combines a fast start with a clean drive down the ice will more than likely wind up winning.
However, the federation also sees this as a developmental option. Nations that have not traditionally been successful in women’s bobsled because of a lack of great equipment or not enough good push athletes now could have a better chance of medaling. All they would need is a strong driver.
The plan is to ask the committee to reconsider four-woman for 2026.
It was unclear when the federation would have the monobob sleds ready for teams to begin using.
There are no monobob events on the 2018-2019 World Cup schedule.
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