Scott Radley is a columnist with the Hamilton Spectator. [email protected].
It was a little more than three years ago that he stood at the top of the bobsleigh track at Lake Placid, N.Y., for his first-ever run, trying to stay calm.
He remembers being told to push hard, jump in, duck and hold on. Then, when the pilot yells for it, pull the brake. That's it. That's all he had to do.
Sure, he thought. No problem.
But as the sled gained speed and began flying down the icy track, Keaton Bruggeling was entirely disoriented. All he could hear as the metal runners slid across the pebbly track and the tube in which he was sitting rattled was what sounded like loud TV static. And there's no padding inside, so as he and his driver flew into turns and then rocketed back out, he was taking a beating.
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"It felt like you got into a sled and they rolled you down the hill," he says. "It's very violent."
This is a Hamilton Tiger-Cats receiver saying this. A guy who catches passes and then gets clobbered by fast-moving defenders with nasty intentions. A man who knows about bumps and bruises.
Yet bobsleigh is the physical test.
On Saturday, his football season ended. On Tuesday, his sliding season began when the 27-year-old flew out to Whistler, B.C., to again begin training. Soon, he'll launch into racing in hopes of making the Canadian team for the Olympics in Italy three months from now, where he dreams of temporarily trading the black and gold for red and white.
No, this wasn't always his plan.
He'd barely seen the sport growing up. Maybe a few minutes here or there when it would come up on TV. That's it.
But in 2022, while still playing football for Carleton University, he was pushing a weight sled in an Ottawa gym when a couple Olympic bobsledders training nearby noticed him. They asked if he'd ever thought of giving it a try.
Plenty of football players have turned into terrific pushers. Former McMaster and Ticats star Jesse Lumsden went to three Olympics for Canada (he's now high performance director for Bobsleigh Canada). The power and speed they bring is perfect.
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It wasn't long until Bruggeling had headed down to Lake Placid to see if this was something that intrigued him. To take a run or two, just to get a taste.
The entire way down the track that first time was scary. His head was bowed and he was doing what he calls fighter-pilot breathing while praying to whatever god the pilot prays to, he quips.
But, man, what an adrenalin explosion. He was dizzy from the rush when he stepped out and couldn't wait to get back to the top to go again.
"That night, they asked if I wanted to race the next day," he says.
Uh, yeah.
Someone gave him an aerodynamic Team Canada suit, which he slipped into and then he was reminded of the instructions. Push. Jump. Duck. Hold on. Brake.
When they won that race, he was sold.
It wasn't until a couple months later that he experienced his first crash. He describes it as all the same sensory overload he'd been experiencing, except amplified 10 times.
"I compare it to fighting a bear and winning," he says.
It's deafening. It's disorienting. It's painful. And when you emerge, the adrenalin surge is even bigger than before.
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He hasn't had a lot of spills since, which is good since people can get really hurt. Athletes wear helmets -- obviously -- and Kevlar on their shoulders because sliding along the track at that speed can cause third-degree burns.
Still, that's what all his Ticats teammates want to see when his second sport comes up for discussion in the dressing room, he says. Crash videos.
When they watch them, they tell him he's a little crazy. Football is one thing, but flying down an icy hill at as much as 150 kilometres an hour in a glorified pop can? That's a whole different level of zany.
But with a purpose.
Canada will have either one, two or three sleds in the Olympics. How many will be determined by rankings points, which accumulate on various racing circuits throughout the season.
Once that's sorted out, the national association has to select the athletes to fill those spots. That announcement will come Jan. 23, two weeks before the torch is lit in Milan.
He wants to be among them. He wants to have that experience. He wants to compete at the highest level. And, yeah, he wants to add to his collection of Team Canada gear.
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Does he still have that first suit he wore that first race?
"Want to see it?" he asks as he chats over Zoom from his spartan dorm room in Whistler.
Really? He has it with him?
"Yeah," he says. "Right here."
Sure enough, as he reappears in the video frame after three or four seconds, there it is. A little battered. A bit torn. But always nearby for good luck and good memories.
He's ready for a new one, though. This one with Olympic rings on it.