Canada's Cynthia Appiah has bobsleigh redemption, representation, and monobob gold in mind

When Canada's Cynthia Appiah competes in bobsleigh’s new monobob event at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, it will cap a tough four years and a career of struggle, sacrifice, and triumph.

It’ll also mark two debuts. One for the monobob discipline, and one for the athlete, who received some crushing news two weeks before PyeongChang 2018.

Just ahead of those Games, the then-27-year-old was told she was a reserve on the Canadian team, rather than getting the chance to compete.

"It was beyond heart-breaking," the former athletics competitor told Olympics.com.

"There aren’t even words to describe the feelings I went through. At the end of the previous season, I’d done the test event in PyeongChang with Alysia Rissling and we’d finished third on that track.

"It was very painful to see the Olympic dream that I thought I’d earned slip from my hands. Watching from the sidelines was very difficult. There wasn’t a day I didn’t cry but it showed me who I was.

"Once I’d been through that and picked up the broken pieces, I needed to decide what I wanted to do and what I was in bobsleigh for. I’m not happy I went through the experience but what I learned from it has made me better. I came back with a new mindset."

From one track to another

Previously a field athlete in shot put and hammer throw, Appiah started in bobsleigh as brakewoman for Kaillie Humphries and Rissling.

After missing out on her Olympic Games debut in 2018, she was at a crossroads and considered quitting.

"When I decided to come back to the sport, I knew I was either going to continue as a pilot or pack it all up and go home because I couldn’t carry on as a brakeman," she said.

"There was no turning back, and I found it a lot of fun. There was a lot of crashing, and Lake Placid (for pilot school) is one of the hardest tracks in the world, but it was such a great experience and I’m glad I took it."

The 31-year-old is now one of the leading monobob competitors in the world, finishing third in the overall World Monobob series in 2021/22.

Appiah is driven by even more than her dream of being an Olympian.

"I still want to be the best my sport has ever seen, and I fully believe I am capable of that, but I really want to be a representation of what Black athletes can do," she told Olympic.ca in 2021.

"I want to be a visual representation for children and youth, especially Black youth, that we belong in all sports, including winter ones."

A daughter of Ghanaian immigrants, family is also a powerful motivator for Appiah, who grew up in community housing.

She reflected on the family bond and how central they have been to her journey from athletics, to bobsleigh, and now Beijing 2022, with Canadian broadcaster CBC.

"Both of my parents worked super hard to get over to Canada from Ghana and they’ve really instilled education being a super important piece for us and hoping we can get better jobs than they have and lead better lives than they’ve been able to," she said.

"But once they saw how impassioned I was with (bobsleigh) and the success was starting to eek its way into becoming a regular thing, they are the biggest champions. Almost to the point where it’s a little embarrassing.

"My whole family has really come around and I’m super grateful for the support I’ve been getting from my family over the years."

It’s the tight-knit nature of family which has made the sacrifices sometimes even more difficult, with missed gatherings, celebrations and birthdays, moving away from home, and working multiple jobs to save to be able to compete.

Looking back on her journey, Appiah told CBC about the fire that burns inside her to achieve her goals and overcome the disappointment of four years ago.

"There were so many things that kind of came into play as to why, and a part of me, as much as I want to win a medal and I think I’ve got a really good shot at that, a part of it was to come back and kind of rub it in people’s noses that they made a mistake in 2018," she said.

"I know it sounds kind of un-Canadian to think like that, but a part of it was kind of being like ‘I’m going to show you guys how much you erred in 2018.'"

"I did go to that Beijing Test Event in October and I walked away with a bronze medal and I’m hoping to upgrade that to a gold.

"But for me, the ultimate success would be to be able to go to step on that start block and to officially call myself an Olympian.

"It will help validate me first of all because I’ve felt almost like an imposter these last four years; I haven’t been able to call myself an Olympian because I’m not.

"A big win for me will be able to officially add those three letters beside my name after these Games are done."

The women's monobob starts with official training on Thursday 10 February, at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre.

Keep up with all the action in our Live Blog updates throughout Beijing 2022, here.