Gangwon 2024 insights: U.S. bobsleigh hopeful Liam McKenna's unique training technique - pushing his parents' car
14-year-old Liam McKenna is competing at the Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024, where he told Olympics.com, how he got the idea to use a car as part of his training routine.
Bobsleigh
A 1500kg SUV.
For most people that sounds like a nice vehicle to get from A to B.
For Liam McKenna of the United States, it is a training tool to improve his bobsleigh abilities.
From October to March, the teenager and his parents travel from their home Massachusetts to Lake Placid every weekend, a 650km round trip.
The rest of year, the sliding track is closed due to warm weather, and with no bobsled push track near the home in Lunenburg, 14-year-old McKenna had to think of alternative ways of training his sport.
“One day I had a training program where I had to push a sled, and I don't have a sled, so I just looked out in the driveway and said ,'I could put that into neutral and push it,'” McKenna told Olympics.com. “I’m not gonna lie, I did slip my first time, but after two or three times I got used to it.”
“It's good for resistance of power. It's useful, because it's much heavier, so you can use the car as a much slower sled. You can really practice getting down and pushing through and work on the strike in the form.”
Liam McKenna: From ice hockey to bobsleigh at Gangwon 2024
Before getting involved in sliding, McKenna was playing ice hockey.
“I got introduced to bobsled through watching the 2018 Olympic Games in Korea. I started off in luge, and over the course of two years of doing luge, I transitioned from luge into bobsled, because I liked the sport more,” McKenna said.
“What I find so intriguing, interesting about the sport is I love speed. I like getting high on those walls. I love just the adrenaline rush, the speed that you get from it.”
Liam McKenna is enjoying to be at Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024.
Liam McKenna: “Hopefully one day I can compete in the big Olympics”
At the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Gangwon 2024, McKenna will be the youngest to compete in the men’s monobob competition that takes place on 23 January.
By qualifying at such a young age, he has achieved a big goal of his bobsleigh career already.
“I've always wanted to go to the Olympics, and starting off in the Youth Olympics has been a dream of mine. Because I get to come here and compete for my country. Just being in the atmosphere of the Youth Olympic Village is amazing,” he explained and revealed he has bigger hopes for the future.
“My long-term ambition in bobsleigh is definitely to grow in the sport. Go from monobob into two-man. I'm running in a two-man now. And later go from two-man into four-man. Then hopefully one day compete in the big Olympics."
And what about pushing cars? Will the teenager challenge himself and push something bigger?
“If, one day, the opportunity comes, and I'm strong enough, I'll definitely go and try push a bus,” Mckenna concluded.