From the pool to the ice: How a Calgary athlete is making the switch from elite diving to Olympic bobsleigh
After years of competing as an elite diver, a Calgary athlete is hoping to become a member of Team Canada, but not in aquatics — instead, he’s making the jump into Olympic bobsleigh.
When Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson retired from springboard diving this summer, he thought his athletic career was over. Armed with a degree in neuroscience from Northwestern University, he started applying to medical school.
Then, a former strength-training coach of his at the MNP Community and Sport Centre, and two time Olympic medallist Lascelles Brown, suggested he try out for the Team Canada bobsleigh team.
It was a pretty easy decision for Eskrick-Parkinson after that.
“Every other time I’ve made a huge decision to try something new, it’s been the best decision in my life … I saw this door open for me and I thought I’ve just got to take the crazy option,” he said.
“And I think that says something about second opportunities and really taking the leap of faith on things.”
Eskrick-Parkinson says he thinks his background in diving will help him pick up bobsleigh quickly. Both sports involve a high degree of technicality, and as a pusher, the role on the team he’s trying out for, Eskrick-Parkinson will have to perform well for a short burst of time, a similar rhythm to diving.
But although he’s been training with Team Canada since the end of August, he has yet to step onto an actual track.
All that will change this week, when he and the team travel to Whistler, B.C, for a three-week training camp, at the end of which he’ll learn whether or not he’s made the squad.
“Obviously he’s at a pretty big advantage with his athletic ability and his work ethic,” said Taylor Austin, the current pilot of Team Canada’s four-man bobsleigh team.
“But again, [that spot] is earned. He has to earn it still, and he still has to go down and see if he likes it.”
No stranger to high-level performance
Eskrick-Parkinson has been scouted once before. At the age of seven, a diving coach saw his notable lack of fear of heights on the diving board at his local pool, and encouraged him to pursue the sport.
When he was nine, Eskrick-Parkinson started diving competitively with Dive Calgary, which led to him competing at the Canadian junior nationals from the ages of 11 to 18.
It was while he was at Northwestern competing on their diving team that Eskrick-Parkinson took his career to new heights. He reached out to pioneering Jamaican diver Yona Knight-Wisdom, and having just received his own citizenship (Eskrick-Parkinson is half Jamaican), the two formed the country’s first ever synchronized diving team.
Eskrick-Parkinson moved to Scotland for two years to train with Knight-Wisdom. The two competed in the Pan American games and the Central American and Caribbean games, before heading to the world championships in Japan and Qatar, both Olympic-qualifying tournaments.
Their dreams to make it to the Paris games never materialized, but Eskrick-Parkinson said that experience has honed his ability to perform under pressure, a skill he hopes to take forward now in bobsleigh.
That said, he admits he does have some new skills to learn.
“I was never like a big runner, and in [bobsleigh] it’s all about sprinting and power,” said Eskrick-Parkinson.
“I have the power, but I need to learn how to run properly fast in those 40 metres or so that we have to dash and jump into the sleigh.”
His potential future teammate, Austin, said he knew from the start that Eskrick-Parkinson had potential.
“I think [from] the first couple pushes you could tell he had some athletic ability just naturally in him,” said Austin.
But he adds that seeing how Eskrick-Parkinson’s effort so far will translate onto the actual track will be the biggest learning curve.
“The first run, it’s always scary. You’re standing at the top of an ice slide that you’re gonna go 150-plus kilometres an hour [down] and you don’t know what it’s going to feel like,” said Austin.
“So I think that understanding of standing at the edge, just taking that leap of faith that it’s going to all work out and it’s going to be good is probably the biggest thing.”
Eskrick-Parkinson said he’s excited to finally get out there this week. As for the fear? It may not be much of a hurdle for him.
“I’m a diver so I love the adrenaline rush, I love something a little scary. I think I’m gonna like it.”
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