Hurtling down the Olympic track at 90 miles per hour, Helen Upperton calmly steers her bobsled through tight curves, racing against the clock and friction. Her red Team Canada suit starkly contrasted the ice and white bobsled as she raised her arms in victory.
At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, with a 3:33.13 minute run, Helen Upperton won UT its first-ever medal in the Winter Olympics.
UT’s student athletes excel in their fields with a total of 214 appearances in the Olympics and 178 medals won. Of those athletes, only one has participated in the Winter Olympics.
“(In 2006), we missed the podium by just 500th of a second,” Upperton said. “Then, Vancouver won the bid for the 2010 game, so the chance of competing (at) a home Olympics was really special. … We worked really hard over those four years, and we were lucky enough to get on the podium in 2010.”
Helen Upperton moved around in her childhood, but said sports provided a constant to come back to. Upperton competed on the UT track and field team for the triple jump until a stress fracture in her foot changed her career trajectory.
“Had I not been a part of that incredibly successful and talented team (at UT), I don’t think I would have been the athlete I became,” Upperton said. “I wouldn’t have met and spent time with the coaches who ended up being the ones who invited me into (bobsledding) in the first place.”
Recruiters for bobsled teams often reach out to college athletes, looking for strong, fast and powerful individuals to push the roughly 128 kilogram sled. Canadian bobsled coach Stuart McMillan referred Upperton to tryout for the national team. McMillan said everyone who ends up being a bobsledder failed at another sport, but ends up looking around for something else to do.
“In Helen’s case, she was a track athlete long jumper and not good enough to be an international class long jumper,” McMillan said. “But because she was pretty good, she could (try bobsledding).”
Shelley-Ann Brown, Upperton’s partner for the 2010 Olympics, faced a similar experience, being recruited during her track and field career at the University of Nebraska. As the brakewoman, Brown pushed the sled to achieve maximum speed then trusted Upperton to steer. Brown said they had very different temperaments that complemented one another.
“Her outlook and approach to competition was the same as mine, where she was just calm,” Brown said. “I could feel like she trusted that I was going to do what I needed to do, and I trusted that she was going to do what she needed to do.”
Upperton now works as a firefighter in Calgary, maintaining her love of adrenaline and athletics. She is currently in Toronto doing the TV coverage for bobsledding in the 2026 Olympics.
