Justin Kripps

Justin Kripps (born January 6, 1987) is a retired Canadian bobsledder and an Olympic champion in two-man bobsleigh following his gold medal win at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Kripps won a silver medal in the two-man event at the 2017 World Championships and a bronze in the mixed team event at the 2012 World Championships. He has competed in the sport since 2006 and has many World Cup podiums. During the 2017–18 Bobsleigh World Cup, he finished the season first in the two-man and overall, to win the Crystal Globe as overall champion.

Career Kripps entered the sport of bobsledding in 2006 at the age of 19 when he participated in a testing camp. He had competed in athletics at Simon Fraser University where Kripps led the 4 × 100 m team (Justin Kripps, Neal Hurtubise, Rob Drapala, Brett Robinson) to All-American honors and a school record at the 2005 NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Louisville, Kentucky (SFU Athletics, 2009 & NAIA 2005). Kripps entered bobsleigh as he saw it as a mix of track and field and race car driving. In the Olympics, pushed by Bryan Barnett in the Canada-3 sled he was the top Canadian finisher in sixth place. Due to his great result, he was moved to the top sled in the four-man event; eighth after the first run, he overturned in the second run and failed to qualify for the final.

At the 2018 Winter Olympics, Kripps and brakeman Kopacz tied with the German team of Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis for the gold medal, Canada's sixth of the games. Leading after three runs, Kripps came around the final corner and finished in exactly the same time as Friedrich. After the race, Kripps said, "I stayed calm throughout the whole thing and focused on my runs. I've been working on my mental game since I started driving, and coincidentally Pierre Lueders taught me how to drive, which is interesting because he tied for a gold medal 20 years ago. It was just an amazing race." Kripps would go onto win the bronze medal in the Four-man event. On August 25, 2022, Kripps announced his retirement from the sport.