Cynthia Appiah Takes the Reins

The more public the troubles at Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton become, the less easy they are to nail down. More than seventy athletes are calling for a leadership overhaul, amid complaints of ‘toxic culture’ and a serious breakdown in trust and respect between the people who actually do the high speed, high danger sports, and the people who coach, train, manage, repair, and organize on their behalf. There may be more issues than any one athlete can fairly decode, but Canadian Monobob and two-woman pilot, Cynthia Appiah, does her level best. Safety and concussion protocols are part of the contention. Many internal management decisions are stirring resent. Resources appear to be allocated based on criteria that athletes find opaque. Appiah is often asked to comment on these disputes, and she is vocal about doing so, but at the same time, she worries that speaking out might limit her career. With the Beijing Olympics in fresh hindsight, Appiah is certain about a few things. She is much happier with her two woman Olympic performance than her monobob runs, even though she finished a very respectable sixth in both events. She is all-in for the next four years of intense work towards the 2026 Olympics. She is refreshingly open-minded about her strengths and areas needing improvement as a team leader. And she is as balanced as anyone could possibly be in recognizing her role as a BIPOC leader in winter sport. The challenge that Appiah sees is not just about attracting new, diverse people into the sliding sports, but in making sure that once athletes do commit, they don’t bump against glass ceilings. As Appiah says to Anastasia – she’s not just there to represent, she’s there to win.