HIGH ACHIEVERS: Skater-turned-slider Brielle Durham 1 of 6 new local RBC Future Olympians

By Martin Cleary

As a former competitive long-track speed skater, Brielle Durham learned a thing or two about how to handle the perfectly made ice of the oval.

But the ice on the outside of her athletic world was a totally different matter.

Almost two years ago, she fell on a patch of ice and her medical team has been unable to fully diagnose her right hip injury and develop a recovery plan.

As a result, her on-and-off pain forced the fourth-year University of Calgary student to retreat from speed skating, a sport she embraced for 13 years, and look for something just as challenging to feed her athletic appetite.

The winter sport of skeleton was her answer, thanks, in part, to the RBC Training Ground program, which is designed to test athletes on their speed, strength, power and endurance and try to mold them into future Olympians in one of the 15 participating national sports.

Last March, Durham attended an RBC Training Ground tryout session in Calgary. National technical officials from skeleton and rugby liked her results and talked to the former Gloucester Concordes skater about shifting into their program.

Her four test scores placed her in the top 100 athletes out of several thousand, who took part in various regional tryouts across Canada. On Nov. 1, she attended the national finals and later that month learned she was one of 35 athletes selected as an RBC Future Olympian.

Durham was one of six Ottawa area athletes rewarded with the RBC Future Olympian designation. The others were kayaker-turned-rower Henrik Neuspiel, rugby players Grace Dingwall and Jiggy Schonfeld and canoe-kayak racers Abbigail Haines (sprint canoe) of Almonte and Lachlan Faraday (slalom kayak) of Carleton Place.

The 35 athletes from across Canada will receive access to top coaches in their new or existing sport, funding and mentorship during the next two years as they strive to represent their country at a future Winter or Summer Olympic Games.

“I was so excited. I almost had no words (to describe the feeling),” Durham said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “We were at a skeleton training camp … when three of us found out that we were getting funding (as RBC Future Olympians).

“I could not believe it. It was a sense of relief.”

While Canada’s top skeleton athletes focus on World Cup races and the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy, Durham has become part of the Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton development program.

The skeleton discipline had its largest year of recruitment in 2025 and has named 10 men and six women, including Durham, to its prospects squad to attend training camps and the introductory driving school as well as to compete on the North American Cup circuit.

Switching sports isn’t something new for Durham. In 2017, the combination of a concussion and prolonged breathing issues prompted her to leave short-track speed skating, which she had been doing for about six years.

Durham made the transition to long-track speed skating as it was a better suited sport for her at the time. By 2019, she was a full-time long-track speed skater, working her way through the system. After graduating Béatrice-Desloges high school in 2022, she moved out west to study at the University of Calgary and train at the Olympic speed skating oval.

During the 2023-24 season, Durham competed in the women’s 500- and 1,000-metre races at the Canadian long-track speed skating championships. She also represented Ontario at the 2023 Canada Winter Games, participating in numerous races including a fifth-place result in the team pursuit and a sixth over 500 metres.

In January 2023, Durham slipped on a piece of ice and fell to the ground. There was significant pain and she saw a sports medicine doctor the next day. Numerous tests were and have been taken, but doctors have been unable to pinpoint the nature of the injury, after almost two years.

“Halfway through (the 2023-24 season), I was injured and couldn’t compete anymore,” Durham explained. “I was off for three months healing.”

After the summer, the pain flared up again.

“Skating was getting difficult and I couldn’t perform well,” she added. “When I started in speed skating, part of what I wanted to do was to make the national team. I moved to Calgary for training.”

Nine months ago with the pain still present, Durham attended an RBC Training Ground tryout to see if she could take her interest and athletic skills in a new direction.

“I spoke to my weight training coach to find out what sport might suit me best. He said I was super strong and quick and should look at skeleton,” she added. “I had no expectations at the RBC Training Ground (tryout) and I left my sport choice open.”

National rugby officials showed interest in Durham, but she had been in an individual sport for so long, it was hard to imagine herself in a team culture.

Skeleton officials invited her to a second phase of testing with training sessions at the Ice House venue in Calgary. The Ice House is a world-class training centre for sliding athletes to practice the critical start aspect of their races.

Durham had natural speed, but needed to become familiar with the crouched start in skeleton, where she would go from a standing, three-point stance to pushing her sled for 20-40 metres while holding one of two side handles before jumping onto the sled headfirst.

“I was like Bambi on ice,” Durham recalled about her introduction to skeleton and simulating the young Disney deer slipping on ice. “It was an awkward position, so strange to run low. Speed skating helped me a lot as I was in a compact position (throughout the race).”

Durham has been training the various elements of skeleton for the past six months and is scheduled to compete in Lake Placid, New York, for several races in January on the North American Cup circuit.

“I’m definitely still learning,” she said with a slight laugh. “The timing is so different. The steering. The feel of the body on the track. The G-forces. I’m definitely getting the hang of it. The coach says it’s a matter of reps.

“I love it. No run will ever be perfect. I love the speed. I’m a big roller-coaster person. I love the speed, the individual training. I love being able to be a strong athlete in the gym and the sprint work.”

While Durham continues to work on developing her skeleton skills, she won’t have to worry about funding for the next two years. Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton will determine how to best use the $7,500 to develop Durham into a potential Winter Olympian.

“It’s not a cheap sport. It’s expensive with travel and equipment,” she explained. “This will help relieve the stress. I can focus on being an athlete and not have to worry where I’m getting funding from. It’s amazing to have that support.”

SKINOUK’S ANTOINE CYR IN CONTENTION FOR OLYMPIC TEAM BERTH

Antoine Cyr of Skinouk is in the running to represent Canada in cross-country skiing at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games in Italy.

After placing third and fourth in the first two interval-start 10-kilometres races, he finished fifth in the men’s sprint final on Tuesday during the final day of the Nordiq Canada Olympic trials at Sovereign Lake Nordic Club in Vernon, B.C.

Canada can send a team of five men to the Olympics.

Nakkertok Nordic’s Pierre Grall-Johnson, who placed second in the sprint qualification, reached the semifinal round in bracket racing, while teammate Luke Allan was eliminated after the quarterfinals.

In the women’s sprint, Helen McCulligh of Kanata Nordic was fourth in her semifinal, after placing second in her six-skier quarterfinal.

DOWNHILL SILVER FOR PARA ALPINE SKIER ALEXIS GUIMOND, BRONZE FOR SMITH

Alexis Guimond of Gatineau was runner-up in the men’s standing category at the first men’s para downhill alpine ski race of the season in snowy Santa Caterina, Italy.

He was timed in one minute, 8.71 seconds and trailed only winner Robin Cuche of Switzerland, who had the best time of 1:07.89.

“I felt great from the start of the day,” Guimond, who posted two super-G wins last week, told Sportcom in an interview. “After training, I identified several areas where I could improve tactically and technically. I focused on those and managed to execute my plan exactly as I wanted.”

Kalle Ericsson of Kimberley, B.C. and guide Sierra Smith of Ottawa placed third in the men’s visually-impaired downhill.

8TH-PLACE FINISH FOR SKI CROSS RACER JARED SCHMIDT

Jared Schmidt of Dunrobin, ON, finished eighth Tuesday in the men’s World Cup ski cross race in Arosa, Switzerland, which was a milestone moment for Canada in the discipline.

Reece Howden of Chilliwack, B.C. placed first to become the all-time leader in World Cup ski cross race victories with 19 career wins to surpass Jean-Frederic Chapuis of France. Howden won all five of his night-time races to earn his 31st career World Cup medal.

Schmidt also found success under the lights as he placed second in each of his first three races, including the quarterfinals. He placed fourth in his semifinal as well as the small final.

Hannah Schmidt of Dunrobin won her round-of-16 race, but was fourth in her quarterfinal and was eliminated from more bracket racing.