By Dan Plouffe
Pat Norton put absolutely everything he had into Canadian bobsledding.
The Ottawa slider devoted many years and many dollars into his pursuit of a sport that can be glorious and exhilarating, and also demanding, draining and downright cruel.
Norton spent many long stretches away from his young family as one of two pilots to consistently represent Canada on the world stage for the past four years since the Beijing 2022 Olympics.
His full term with the national team stretches back nearly a full decade, and the Milano Cortina 2025 Winter Olympic Games were to be the big celebration at the end of that journey.
One of many major twists on the road to that anticipated pinnacle moment came before the start of this season, when cash-strapped Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton had to sell one of its fastest sleds to help fund the program’s Olympic pursuits.
“So Pat, out of pocket, went out and built a sled from scratch. Like, raised the funds himself,” recounts Bobsleigh Ontario high-performance director Adam Blandford, who coached Norton out of CANAM Strength and Conditioning on Colonnade Rd. “He literally worked with the mechanic from Canada personally. They built the chassis, and they went out to try to build a sled that could be competitive with these newer sleds.”
The sled that Canada sold had previously been purchased from Germany, which won five of the six men’s bobsleigh medals at Beijing 2022.
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The fact that the Germans didn’t want to hold onto that sled to even be used by its lower-ranked teams shows how far ahead their sled technology has advanced from just four years ago, Blandford indicates.
Meanwhile, in Canada, the Redemption Run documentary shows a Canadian team mechanic trying to manually bend a lever back into proper form, while illustrating the enormous financial strain the Canadian bobsled program and its athletes are under.
As rivals raced with backing from global entreprises like BMW and Allianz, the Canadian sled flashed a Barrhaven Ford logo on its front all over Europe this season, the fruits of Norton’s grassroots campaign to secure sponsors for a sport that is largely devoid of any in Canada.
“He really did everything he could have done,” Blandford says of Norton.
When the Canadian Olympic bobsled team was announced on Jan. 23, Norton was left off the list. Canada’s sleds will instead be piloted by returning Olympians Taylor Austin and Jay Dearborn, who was a brakeman at the last Games before moving up to the driver’s seat.
“It was obviously heartbreaking for Pat and I’m sure he’s going to retire,” Blandford signals. “He’s got two kids, and he’s at a different stage in his life, and I am excited for him to be part of Ontario’s program and help support the next generation of bobsledders.”
The Ottawa Sports Pages did not receive a reply from Norton requesting an interview in the week since the Olympic team was named.
At last year’s World Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y., where several dozen hometown fans sported Team Norton T-shirts, Norton told the Sports Pages that “it’s always tough leaving” to be away on tour.
“What we do comes with a lot of sacrifice, and I’ve got a lot of support back home that allows me to do something pretty special,” he noted.
Norton appealed Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton’s selection decision, but was unsuccessful.
There was certainly a case to be made that Norton deserved a spot on the Canadian Olympic team.
With the country’s top pushers behind him, Austin established himself as Canada’s top pilot after the retirement of Justin Kripps in 2022 following his second Olympic medal win. Austin’s nomination came as no surprise.
Norton carried a significant edge in experience over Dearborn, particularly on the elite World Cup circuit. The two didn’t compete in any of the same international events this season, with Norton racing on the World Cup tour, which had stops exclusively in Europe in 2025-2026, while Dearborn continued to develop on the North American Cup circuit.
They rarely went head-to-head in past seasons either, although Norton was ahead almost every time. In the lone World Cup race of Dearborn’s career as a pilot last February in Lillehammer, he placed 24th out of 25, while Norton was 17th in that two-man event.
Dearborn also competed in the four-man at the 2025 World Championships, finishing 20th, while Norton took 15th. Norton’s driving improved his team’s rank by six places in two of their heats compared to their start times at the top of the track, which provides the critical push for races decided by fractions of a second.
Norton was also best in six of seven North American Cup races when he and Dearborn met at the start of last season.
But Norton was fighting an uphill battle to earn a spot on Canada’s Olympic team. BCS’s selection criteria only considered results from this season, and it prioritized picking Next Generation athletes to the 2026 Olympic team, with 2030 Olympic performances in mind.
BCS’s dividing line in defining who qualifies as a NextGen athlete was the 1994 birth year. That made 31-year-old Dearborn NextGen, while 33-year-old Norton was held to a higher standard to ensure his spot on the team, and his results this season didn’t make the grade.
The two-man event was a big struggle for Norton. He only earned a second run inside the top-20 twice out of seven World Cup races in 2025-2026.
His four-man results were stronger, despite it being the first season with his new sled, and having little time to make tweaks or test adjustments.
Norton’s top result of ninth place came with 20th- and 16th-ranked start times in Lillehammer. In six of seven four-man races, Norton improved his sled’s placing at the finish line from their rank upon takeoff.
“Unfortunately, the push just wasn’t there this year,” Blandford highlights.
Back on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, Dearborn collected one gold, four silver and seven bronze medals in 14 North American Cup races.
In the heavily-critiqued International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation Olympic qualification system, Dearborn accrued significantly more points than Norton on the rankings table. A spot inside the top-20 world rankings and NextGen status solidified Dearborn’s advantage over Norton for team selection.
Cyrus Gray, who also didn’t compete in this season’s World Cup, was another Canadian pilot ranked ahead of Norton on points.
“I think the bigger question was why didn’t we keep everybody back on the North American Cup?” says Blandford, who is not involved with national team selections. “Because I think that there would have been a better chance for Canada to potentially qualify three bobsleds.”
Had Norton and/or Austin also only raced on familiar North American tracks, Canada could have potentially topped Switzerland on points as the second nation behind Germany to earn three men’s bobsleigh Olympic entries. Instead, Canada will only have two crews in each of the two- and four-man events in Milano Cortina.
“They make tough calls, and unfortunately, Pat was one of the casualties,” says Blandford, who also saluted 22-year-old Carleton University Ravens rugby player Charlotte Ross for her Olympic push. “But there was no lack of effort, dedication or heart on his end to try to get there. And I know he’s super proud of those guys (who made the team).”
Compared to his fellow CANAM-developed sliders and national teammates with backgrounds in professional football or varsity sports, Norton was always an underdog. The former Nepean Raider had been considered too small during his competitive hockey days, but the Sir Robert Borden High School and Algonquin College grad was looking for an athletic challenge come his mid-20s and bobsled provided an exciting opportunity when Blandford pitched it.
“Pat’s never gonna run as fast or jump as high – those other guys are just athletic freaks,” Blandford smiles. “Pat is just an absolute workhorse that grinds his way to a result. He doesn’t fly there. But his work ethic rubbed off on a lot of those guys too, and has been key to their success.”
Blandford says Olympic selections are “always bittersweet” because some like CANAM products Dearborn, Mike Evelyn O’Higgins and Keaton Bruggeling are getting the opportunity of a lifetime, and others like Norton are receiving just about the most devastating news imaginable.
“That crew that’s going to be on the track (in Milano Cortina), Pat put that crew together and supported that crew for the quad,” Blandford underlines. “When we look at our best team, Pat had a big hand in building it, making sure those guys all got reps together to turn into what they are now.
“I’m sure it’s going to be bittersweet for him, watching those boys compete. It’s going to be a tough watch for Pat at home, thinking what could have been. But Pat’s been such an important part of the pathway.
“I could never talk about this Olympic Games without thinking about Pat. He was a big part of all of these precious journeys.”
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