A new era of Canadian bobsled began this past weekend in Whistler, British Columbia. There were some significant questions who would take over from the Canadian bobsled with the retirement of Canadian Olympic gold medalist Justin Kripps of Summerland, British Columbia, and the doping suspension of Christine de Bruin of Edmonton, Alberta. On Friday, we got our answer. Bianca Ribi of Winnipeg, Manitoba was simply stupendous in winning the gold medal in the women’s monobob for her first career World Cup medal.
Ribi in fact led a 1-2 Canadian finish. Cynthia Appiah of Toronto, Ontario won the silver medal. Ribi had a winning time of 1:50.89. Appiah’s second place time was 1:51.16. Kaillie Humphries of the United States won the bronze medal with a time of 1:51.18. Ribi earned a medal by .39 seconds and Appiah earned a medal by 0.12 seconds. Melanie Hasler of Switzerland finished in fourth place with a time of 1:51.28.
On Saturday, Canada won a third World Cup bobsled medal in Whistler. Taylor Austin of Lethbridge, Alberta, Cyrus Gray of Duncan, British Columbia, Davidson De Souza of Calgary, Alberta, and Shaquille Murray-Lawrence of Scarborough, Ontario won the bronze medal with a time of 1:42.37. Germany won the gold medal with a time of 1:41.56. Great Britain won the silver medal with a time of 1:41.98. Canada reached the podium by 0.12 seconds over Switzerland, who had a fourth place time of 1:42.49.
