Justin Kripps (born January 6, 1987) is a Canadian

bobsledder Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

and an Olympic champion in two-man bobsleigh following his gold medal win at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

Pyeongchang Pyeongchang (; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ; ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seou ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. Kripps won a silver medal in the two-man event at the 2017 World Championships and a bronze in the mixed team event in the 2012 World Championships. He has competed in the sport since 2006 and has many World Cup podiums. During the 2017–18 Bobsleigh World Cup, he finished the season in first in the two-man and overall, to win the Crystal Globe as overall champion.

Career

Kripps entered the sport of bobsledding in 2006 at the age of 19 when he participated in a testing camp. He had competed in athletics at

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...

where Kripps led the 4 × 100 m team (Justin Kripps, Neal Hurtubise, Rob Drapala, Brett Robinson) to All-American honors and a school record at the 2005 NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Louisville, Kentucky (SFU Athletics, 2009 & NAIA 2005). Kripps entered bobsleigh as he saw it as a mix of track and field and race car driving. During his initial years in Canada, he competed as a brakeman; Kripps won his first

Bobsleigh World Cup The Bobsleigh World Cup is an annual bobsleigh competitions. It has taken place since the 1984 Winter Olympics. Below is a lists of season champions. Each table shows the country and driver only. Combined men's Debuted: 1985. Medal table Two- ...

race in the men's four-man in

Cortina d'Ampezzo Cortina d'Ampezzo (; lld, Anpezo, ; historical de-AT, Hayden) is a town and ''comune'' in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the Province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the Boite river, in an alp ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, January 2008 alongside

Pierre Lueders Pierre Fritz Lueders (born 26 September 1970) is a Canadian Olympic, world and World Cup champion bobsledder who competed from 1990 to 2010. He piloted both two-man and four-man bobsleigh, retiring after the 2010 Winter Olympics. He was named to ...

, Ken Kotyk and David Bissett. Kripps and Lueders were the first people to slide down the

Whistler Sliding Centre The Whistler Sliding Centre (french: link=no, Centre des sports de glisse de Whistler) is a Canadian bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track located in Whistler, British Columbia, that is north of Vancouver. The centre is part of the Whistler Blackc ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

in 2007. The two competed again years late in the four-man event at the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Starting as a driver

Following the 2010 Olympics, Kripps decided he wanted to become a driver and attended pilot school in the summer of 2010. He spent the 2010–11 season on the developmental North American circuit. Kripps competed at the 2011 World Junior Championships, where he placed fifth in the two-man and eighth in the four-man competitions. The next season he competed on the Europa Cup circuit for 2011–12 before starting his first

event at Whistler in February 2012. His first

FIBT World Championships The IBSF World Championships (known as the FIBT World Championships until 2015), part of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, have taken place on an annual basis since 1930. Starting with 2002, championships of non-Winter Olympic ...

as a pilot took place in 2012 when he participated in the mixed team event and won bronze. Kripps' first podium as a driver on the World Cup was in 2014 when he won gold at

Königssee The Königssee is a natural lake in the extreme southeast Berchtesgadener Land district of the German state of Bavaria, near the Austrian border. Most of the lake is within the Berchtesgaden National Park. Description Situated within the Berch ...

. While attending the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

, Kripps learned that his website had been restricted from access in Russia. Kripps said in response on his

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account, "Looks like my website is censored in Russia, classic #SochiProblems I wonder if there's a camera in my room". In the Olympics, pushed by

Bryan Barnett Bryan Barnett (born 10 February 1987) is a Canadian sprinter who specializes in the 200 metres. He took up bobsleigh in 2013 and represented Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Career Athletics Barnett won the silver medal in the 200m event at ...

in the Canada-3 sled he was the top Canadian finisher in sixth place. Due to his great result, he was moved to the top sled in the four-man event; eighth after the first run, he overturned in the second run and failed to qualify for the final.

World and Olympic success

Through the 2016–17 Bobsleigh World Cup season, Kripps found the podium three more times. At the 2017 World Championships, he finished in the silver medal position, pushed by

Jesse Lumsden Jesse Lumsden (born August 3, 1982) is a Canadian Olympic bobsledder and a retired Canadian football player, who played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders. Career Football Lumsden is the son of former CFL fullba ...

. Pushed together by Lumsden and new push partner

Alexander Kopacz Alexander Kopacz (born 26 January 1990) is a Canadian bobsledder and the reigning Olympic co-champion in the two-man bobsleigh event. He competed in the two-man event at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Kopacz and pilot Justin Kripps tied with the G ...

he finished the season in the top position in both the two-man and overall standings for the 2017–18 Bobsleigh World Cup season, taking the Crystal Globe in both categories. At the

, Kripps and brakeman Kopacz tied with the German team of

Francesco Friedrich Francesco Friedrich (born 2 May 1990) is a German bobsledder who has been active since 2006. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, he and his brakeman Thorsten Margis tied with Canada's Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz for t ...

and

Thorsten Margis Thorsten Margis (born 14 August 1989) is a German bobsledder.FIBT Profile

< ...

for the gold medal, Canada's sixth of the games. Leading after three runs, Kripps came around the final corner and finished in exactly the same time as Friedrich. After the race, Kripps said, "I stayed calm throughout the whole thing and focused on my runs. I've been working on my mental game since I started driving, and coincidentally Pierre Lueders taught me how to drive, which is interesting because he tied for a gold medal 20 years ago. It was just an amazing race." In January 2022, Kripps was named to Canada's 2022 Olympic team. Kripps would go onto win the bronze medal in the Four-man event. On August 25, 2022, Kripps announced his retirement from the sport.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kripps, Justin 1987 births Bobsledders at the 2010 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2014 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2018 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2022 Winter Olympics Canadian male bobsledders Living people Olympic bobsledders of Canada Simon Fraser University alumni Sportspeople from Hawaii Sportspeople from British Columbia Canadian people of American descent People from Hawaii (island) Internet censorship in Russia Olympic medalists in bobsleigh Olympic gold medalists for Canada Olympic bronze medalists for Canada Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics People from Summerland, British Columbia