ERIN – While most teenage boys may find themselves lost in the world of video games and hanging out with friends, 16-year-old Quinton Groves from Erin has lost himself in a world much colder and faster.
The Erin teen is sledding his way to the Winter Olympics after becoming one of the youngest athletes to successfully pilot a bobsled from the top of the world’s fastest bobsleigh track in Whistler, British Columbia.
Groves was first introduced to the sport at an RBC Training Ground event, a specialized training camp that looks to pair young athletes with Olympic potential with a fitting sport.
“I went into that and just did my best and then a couple weeks later my parents got the email for bobsleigh,” said Groves.
“It was kind of surprising because it was a strange kind of sport [that] not many people get the opportunity to do.”
Groves told the Advertiser he had always dreamed of being a F1 race car driver, and was happy to have found a sport with the same adrenaline factor.
“Bobsleigh is considered one of the sports that is closest to F1 racing with all the G forces and speed,” Groves said.
The young athlete truly began the sport last June, when he attended a “push camp” at Lake Placid in New York – a camp dedicated to pushing the bobsleigh and getting a feel for the equipment.
“I was kind of excelling in that,” said Groves.
“Some of the people that went there a couple times for the push camp, I was beating their scores.”
Accompanied by his parents, Groves was approached by former U.S. Olympian Adam Blandford, now resides in Ottawa and teaches bobsledding under the Ontario Bobsled Association.
“He had a chance to talk to myself and my wife at the end of the push camp and said that Quinton’s got a lot of ability and he’s young enough that if he was interested in potentially looking at being a pilot of bobsled,” said Grove’s father Grant.
From there Groves was invited to attend a pilot camp in Whistler, where he was coached by former and current Olympic bobsled athletes from all over the world.
The camp ran from March 18 to 31.
“It was not like anything I [have] experienced before,” said Groves.
“The atmosphere … and just being around people that have the specific passion for the sport … really gave me a kind of insight.”
Under the guidance of his coach, Australian- Canadian Olympian Chris Spring, Groves became one of the youngest athletes to successfully pilot a bobsled from the top of the Whistler track.
It’s easier said than done.
“The biggest challenge is mentally preparing yourself for what’s about to happen,” said Groves.
“My first ever time going down … I was nervous, but once I was actually going down the track it didn’t seem so bad.”
The young athlete intends to continue his training, and perhaps compete on the world stage just as his mentors before him.
“This is a sport that I find myself enjoying very much,” said Groves.
“The Olympics is [something] I can have a goal for.”
