Moose Jaw’s Ben Coakwell, who now resides in Calgary, is back on home soil after bringing home a bronze medal in the four-man bobsled at the Beijing Olympics.
For Coakwell, this was his third Olympics but his first-ever Olympic medal. He described the feeling of getting the medal.
“You get overcome with so many different emotions, it's hard to understand. It's just like something that's happening to you at that moment and you're just a part of it and living it. And yeah, it feels pretty good,” Coakwell said.
Messages from back home came flooding in after the competition congratulating him on the win and many friends and family shared their experience with him of watching the final run on TV.
“For the longest time, I hadn't actually seen the final run on TV, and everybody that I've talked to goes through the story of watching the final run and they said it was pretty crazy and giving them heart attacks and everything,” Coakwell added.
“I know the entire bobsled community was cheering for us at the track and at the closing ceremonies they were all telling me how it felt to watch the run and everything. It's probably been my favourite part about the whole thing to be honest.”
Coakwell, along with pilot Justin Kripps and crew members Ryan Sommer and Cam Stones, held third place through the first three heats, but Christoph Hafer’s fourth place crew from Germany was closing in heading into the final heat.
The Canadian crew would cross the finish line only 0.06 seconds ahead of Hafer to win the bronze.
“To actually pull out the win is just crazy. It speaks to our riding position and our driver skill, and I just feel like it was the perfect final run. I wouldn't have asked for anything differently,” Coakwell said.
Winning the gold and silver medals were Germans Fransceco Friedrich in first and Johannes Lochner in second. According to Coakwell, just being competitive with the Germans was a huge feat.
“Bobsleigh is a big deal for them in Germany, so that's where they put their funds. It's no different than hockey in Canada. Anytime that you can podium when there's Germans in the race or any other European country for that matter it feels like winning gold to me,” he said.
Discover Moose Jaw’s Shawn Slaght had the opportunity to sit down with Ben Coakwell to discuss winning the bronze medal. You can watch the full interview below:
Thu, Apr 25, 9:30 AM
