The 2022 Beijing Olympics were a hard one for the Canadian National Bobsleigh Team, in the middle of the pandemic which saw the team able to compete in half the number of usual World Cups leading up.

Competing in the two-woman event, Dawn Richardson Wilson, along with teammate Cynthia Appiah, finished eighth.

Following that performance in China, Richardson Wilson left the national team to pursue a degree at the University of Calgary, joining the UCalgary Dinos track and field team—all alongside working as a corrections officer at the Calgary Remand Centre.

Now, three years later, she has rejoined Team Canada faster, more powerful on the sprint, and with a renewed sense of purpose.

“When I left the sport of bobsleigh, I realized that the reason for leaving was because there’s parts of my athleticism that was lacking, and that was definitely the track and field aspect, the technical aspect of running,” said Richardson Wilson.

“To be better, you have to throw yourself into opportunities that will allow you to push yourself into new discomfort… so I left to get better, to come back.”

She said the itch to come back to the sport came from watching her former and now current teammates again chase the wins in the sport.

“I think I am better prepared. I was in the Olympics when I was 23 years old. The maturity of being able to compete in different sports and meet great people and coaches, and especially in my community in Calgary so far, I’ve been able to really push myself to becoming the better athlete,” said Richardson Wilson.

That change to becoming a better athlete has been noticed by other members of Team Canada.

“It’s mind boggling to see her change from this quiet, more timid human into like a freak of an athlete who just like embraced her beast mentality and is ready to give it her all,” said Mackenzie Stewart, who is also on Canada’s bobsleigh team.

“She’s a fantastic athlete, so she’s pushing us all and bringing us all up with her when she comes back into this team environment.”

Power and speed needed for the sport

Quinn Sekulich, a strength and speed coach with the Canadian Sport Institute Alberta, said that bobsleigh is ultimately a maximal velocity sport that is highly dependant on sprinting.

“People think that you have to be big and strong for bobsleigh. Yes, there’s a certain size you have to be, and there’s a certain amount of strength required, but at the end of the day, it’s about who gets the highest kilometres per hour,” said Sekulich

“So, you want the fastest people in sport.”

He said the brakeman’s job was to get the sled moving as fast as possible—to be the engine—and unlike the driver of the sled, a brakeman that can’t go fast enough is going to be replaced.

“For them, mindset is just being you have to be on and ready to go. Performance on demand all the time. You always have to be ready to go,” Sekulich said.

“You can always find a better engine, if this engine’s not working too well. So you get the biggest alpha males or females from sport. You have to love competing and be ready to compete every day, all the time.”

Sekulich said that seeing Richardson Wilson coming out of high school and into the sport and into the Olympics four years was special.

“She came in as a kid and competing against grown women. Then, she took the next few years off to go to school to actually get her degree, which I think is great that she finished that, and now she’s back,” he said.

“She’s the alpha female that we talk about, maybe not in the sense that she walks around and talks the part. She’s more by action. She just gets out and leads by example. Extremely fast, too.”

Sekulich said the joke was that Richardson Wilson was now the fastest woman in the history of Western Canada, having taken the 60 metre with a blistering 7.4 seconds in February at the Canada West Championships.

As for the alpha mindset, he said that Richardson Wilson is that through her actions in training.

It’s a trait that has served her well as a Corrections Officer at the Calgary Remand Centre—with a dream of becoming a RCMP officer.

“This is for me, it definitely thickened my skin just a little bit. I have always spoken about this shy girl, but definitely in the remand centre, I have to be more vocal, more assertive, and more aware of the my surroundings,” said Richardson Wilson.

“Remand has definitely, I would say, enhanced the toughness in me as an athlete.”

Heckles from opposing nations at the Olympics will slide off her back like a water off a duck.

Not that there is much that is going to keep her from competing Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

“Dawn will be on our Olympic team. She’ll be in someone’s sled and she’ll be one of the fastest pushers, not too worried about that,” said Sekulich.