I sit here nibbling at my 12-calorie rice cracker, trying to make it last as long as possible and ask you, have you ever had to drop weight fast before? Perhaps to fit into the dress or suit you picked out for the special occasion or party? Possibly, but have you ever had to eat so little and then be asked to perform at your absolute best?
Most people are aware that some sports have weight categories. The ones that spring to my mind instantly are weightlifting, judo and horse racing. Well, you may want to add bobsleigh to that list if you didn’t know that already. Purely down to the fact heavier weight slides faster so there is a weight limit that the athletes and the sled together can weigh. This is to make it fair and totally support that. For women bobsleigh it's 330kg. Any gram over the max weight on race day and you can see you and your team disqualified.
Now, you need to bear in mind that there is a minimum requirement that the sled can be which is 170kg. After those deductions it only leaves 160kg for the athletes. 80kg per athlete in race gear, that doesn’t sound so bad, but that is only if your sled is the minimum weight. Trust me, not all of them are! So that’s right, the heavier the sled is, the lighter the athletes must be! Never have 170kg sleds been such a delight than in the last and current season!
I’m not lucky or rich enough (yet – always hopeful) to own my own sled. Newer sleds are built lighter and meet the 170kg weight limit perfectly. (If there is anyone out there that would like to buy my one feel free too – they cost around £34-45,000 for top racing sleds. As you can imagine that’s not in everyone’s back pocket, but would save me a lot of fasting and be even more competitive!) So that leaves me with trying to find a decent enough sled to race in. Which, as I’ve mentioned before doesn’t always mean the sled is 170kgs. If you look at last year, I used a different sled for each race I did. The scales were a regular visit during the season, for both the sled and the team!
Being a taller athlete, naturally you carry more weight anyway. That with using a different sled each week meant that I may have to lose weight over a 4-5-day period to allow me and my brakeman to race. Don’t get me wrong it's a team effort, both parties are stripping weight, fast, if we need to, but of course it is not ideal. Our coaches hate to see it, as much as we hate to do it.
At the end of the week when the race is upon us, we are then trying to perform at our best. This is after having eaten very little to make race weight. Surely that is not good for performance, right?! I have always questioned, could I have pushed better if I had eaten normally?
When I first started bobsleigh the women’s maximum weight was 340kg. Easy, we could eat healthily and right. On some occasions add weight to the sled, that’s something I haven’t done in a long while. During the period I stepped out of the sport to complete my masters degree, the weight limit dropped to 330kg. Back when I was a brakeman, I would be the normal height of a women bobsledder, now I find myself one of the tallest. You can see how it has changed that sport and the athletes it attracts now.
When I look at other sports, CrossFit especially, they promote strong powerful women, and find it an ever-increasing trend on social platforms. I am all up for that. Bobsleigh, well partially, somewhat approaches that value. We need to be strong to push the sled, and fast to get the sled moving as quick as possible before we jump in, and the drive begins. Yet, on a very limited calorie diet to drop weight, how can you feel strong and powerful going into the race? We aren’t the only nation with the dilemma. It is a big topic at the moment and is currently under review…. thankfully!
So, before it or I get too political and I get all gloomy over it, at the moment it’s an issue my team currently find themselves in once again. The sled currently is 180kg, you can see the effect it has on what we need to be. On a positive note, the current sled we are using will only be used for this race. Hopefully we won’t find ourselves in a position like this again, or this extreme shall we say!
But we do this. We have trained so hard over the summer, put all our time and effort into getting out here, not to be pipped at the last hurdle. We are proud to represent our country, proud to carry our sponsors names and compete against the world’s nations. I wouldn’t miss out on a chance if I could. It’s just a stepping stone towards to end goal we just have to overcome at the current time.
For now, back to my crumbs and see what I weigh in at tomorrow morning, only 5 days untill race day!
