HIGH ACHIEVERS: 2-time Olympic skeleton slider and world medallist Mirela Rahneva retires

By Martin Cleary

The road to being a high-performance athlete is filled with wild and crazy twists and turns.

Take Mirela Rahneva for example.

An introduction to sports was a given for her, since her father Stoyan was a competitive gymnast and her mother Valentina was an elite sprinter. Shortly after the family moved to Canada from Bulgaria, her parents introduced a 10-year-old Rahneva to sprinting along a 100-metre section of a bicycle path near the Nepean Sportsplex.

At some point down the road, that training would be an invaluable part for her future stardom.

As she grew older and kept active, Rahneva wanted to follow the example of her parents and become an elite athlete. Her parents complimented her activity with proper eating, meditation and visualization.

When she attended the University of Guelph, where she earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree, she spent four seasons with the Gryphons women’s rugby team and was fearless in a rough and tumble sport. She started playing rugby in high school in Ottawa.

She loved the family culture of the Gryphons and learned how to be successful on the field. During her four-year stay, she helped the Gryphons win three OUA titles (2010, 2009 and 2008) as well as a bronze medal (2007) and four CIS national bronze medals. She also experienced a short stint in the Rugby Canada women’s sevens program.

During the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, her eye caught the attention of the sliding sports. She liked bobsleigh and knew Olympian Heather Moyse through rugby, but it was determined she was too small for bobsleigh at five feet, six inches.

But her fitness, raw speed and fearlessness were perfect for skeleton, a discipline requiring athletes to have a sprint start while bending over and pushing the sled with one arm, and then jumping on the custom board headfirst to manoeuvre through a twisty-turny course at speeds up to 130 kilometres an hour. She started competing in 2012 and made the national team four years later.

It was a perfect fit for her as she developed into one of Canada’s most accomplished skeleton sliders during seven seasons on the World Cup circuit, four world championships and two Winter Olympic Games.

Rahneva was named to Team Canada for back-to-back Winter Olympics in Asia, where she placed 12th at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, Korea, and fifth in the 2022 Beijing Games.

She won the opening run of four trips down the course in Beijing and was second in the third run. But her times for the second and fourth runs placed her 18th and sixth respectively, which left her a respectable fifth overall. Her time of four minutes, 9.15 seconds left her 1.53 seconds from the gold medal and 0.69 seconds from the bronze.

It’s amazing Rahneva and the national skeleton team members even made it through the 2021-22 Olympic season as there was a lack of funding from the national association and no coach for the team. The athletes paid for their own flights, hotels and car rentals, which cost Rahneva more than $26,000.

Read More: Loans and maxed out credit cards accompany skeleton slider’s 5th place Olympic finish

Rahneva, 36, announced her retirement from international skeleton racing on Monday.

“As an athlete, the pursuit of new goals has always driven me and for years I’ve been inspired by the challenge of striving for more,” Rahneva said in a press release from Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton.

“This year, I’ve taken the time to reflect on my accomplishments in sport and feel a strong pull toward exploring new opportunities and passions beyond competition. Recognizing what I’ve achieved has given me the confidence and excitement to step into this next phase with purpose.”

After competing on the North American Cup and Europa Cup circuits for two seasons (2014-16), winning five gold, one silver and one bronze medals, Rahneva graduated to the World Cup circuit and made an immediate impact.

In a remarkable four-medal, 2016-17 World Cup rookie season, she won gold in St. Moritz, the oldest track in the world, a silver in Igls, Austria, and bronze medals in Winterberg, Germany, and Lake Placid, New York. She also claimed her first of three season-ending Crystal Globes for finishing third overall in the standings.

When she won in St. Moritz, she received a big bottle of champagne and, after more than seven years, she’s considering popping the cork to celebrate the achievements of her overall career.

“I’ve had an incredible experience in sport, largely due to the women who have been involved in shaping and elevating the sport scene into what it is today,” she highlighted. “Canada has always had a strong women’s skeleton program (with sliders Mellisa Hollingsworth, Michelle Kelly and Sarah Reid) and I feel so fortunate to be part of its legacy.”

Rahneva earned five gold medals, four silver and six bronze in her World Cup career over seven seasons from 2016-17 through 2023-24. She missed the entire 2020-21 season because of a neck injury.

Her other four gold-medal performances came in Calgary and again at St. Moritz in 2018-19, Park City, Utah, in 2022-23 and Sigulda, Latvia, in 2023-24. Her win in Calgary was the last World Cup staged on that track before it was decommissioned.

Read More: SUPER SLIDER: Winning on her home track was reminiscent of being a kid again for skeleton racer Mimi Rahneva

Athletes always remember their first significant medal and it was no different for Rahneva, who captured bronze at Lake Placid in 2016 in her second-ever World Cup race.

“Having my mom trackside in Lake Placid was one of the most emotional and meaningful moments of my career,” said Rahneva, who knew her mother was battling cancer. “Skeleton isn’t exactly a mom-friendly sport as it’s fast, unpredictable and undoubtedly nerve-wracking to watch. But she embraced it because she knew how much it meant to me.

“Earning my very first World Cup podium on the very track I started my career on and sharing that moment with her was an incredible feeling. I owe so much of my success and the opportunities I’ve been awarded to her support and the sacrifices she has made for our family.”

Valentina Rahneva died in 2017 at age 55. Mirela, whose nickname is Mimi, honoured her mom by wearing a specially designed helmet showing the importance of her mom and family.

Mirela was inspired by her mother’s strength and resilience. The remembrance features on her helmet included a small moon, a breast cancer ribbon, a Bulgarian rose, a blue silhouette of the Canadian Rockies and a praying warrior.

Rahneva and her mom often shared the phrase ‘love you to the moon and back,’ which explains the moon on the right side of her helmet. Born in Ruse, Bulgaria, the Bulgarian rose points to her heritage.

Read More: The ‘skeleton tree’ of supporters’ names on Mimi Rahneva’s sled inspires the self-made slider before every run

Having raced on tracks around the world, the natural track at St. Moritz was “something truly magical” for her. Besides posting two wins, a third-place finish and two fourths in World Cup races on the Swiss track, she also won her only individual world championship medal, a bronze, at St. Moritz in 2023. (At the 2019 worlds at Whistler, B.C., she earned a silver medal in the team competition.)

“It’s where I’ve felt the most comfort and joy, while sliding,” she explained. “There’s no such thing as a bad run in Moritz – you’re literally tobogganing from the top of one Swiss town into another, Celerina, weaving through a forest and gliding under a cobblestoned train bridge. It almost sounds like a fairytale, when you try to explain it to people.”

Read More: Mimi Rahneva wins first career individual Skeleton World Championships medal on her favourite track

In the final race of her career, Rahneva placed seventh at the 2024 world championships in Winterberg. But her four-run time of 3:51.63 was only 0.36 seconds away from the gold medal and one-tenth of a second from bronze.

Away from the track and training rooms, Rahneva has dedicated time to serve as an athlete representative on the Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton board of directors and assist new recruits entering the national team program.

She also is involved with Own the Podium’s athlete advisory committee to make sport a more positive and healthier place.

Read More: Ottawa slider ‘shocked’ by Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton CEO’s exit, but excited for ‘new people with new ideas’

In the community, she volunteers with charitable organizations Fast and Female, Classroom Champions and KidSport Calgary to make sport inclusive and open to all.

“Mirela is a warrior herself,” said Jesse Lumsden, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton’s high-performance director. “From the beginning of her career, she was always a fighter. Not only in her pursuit of being the best skeleton athlete in the world, but also she cares so much about making sure her sport continues to grow and that sport in general is a place for everyone to enjoy – be it at the grassroots or elite level.”

As Rahneva enters the next chapter of her life, she is thankful for the role sport has played in her life and wants to continue along that avenue in some way.

“It has taught me invaluable lessons and shaped my values and I’m passionate about giving back to that world in meaningful and impactful ways,” Rahneva said.

“Whether it’s through supporting other athletes, promoting access to sport or helping create environments where people can thrive, I feel inspired to use my experiences to make a positive impact. Sport is so much more than competition – it’s a way to connect, grow and build a stronger, healthier community. I am eager to be part of that on a larger scale.”