(June 22, 2025) – For our first athlete profile of 2026 (and the 50th in the “Getting to Know…” series) we chat with Australian bobsled pilot Sarah Blizzard. Going into her eighth year of sliding this coming season, Blizzard competed in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games after making the move to the driver’s seat full-time after the Beijing Games in 2022.
Slider: Sarah Blizzard
Team: Australia Bobsleigh
Hometown: Ararat, Victoria
Home track: Winterberg
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As always, first question: What’s your favorite track and why?
That’s a very good question, I feel like that changes almost every single year. I feel like as I’m developing and as I’m trying to understand the tracks better I’m almost at a stage where I have no idea. There’s tracks I like for different reasons: Igls is always a bit of fun but we didn’t slide there last season. There was a point where I loved Sigulda but then we went there and I crashed twice in two-man and couldn’t compete there.
I do love the feeling of St. Moritz, but sometimes with the driving it’s not always flowing. In saying that though I’d say after last season it’s probably St. Moritz, because on race day it just worked. Winterberg has always been up there, but there’s always been things with Winterberg. And this year at the World Cup it also worked quite well, but probably between St. Moritz and Winterberg.
I do love the challenge of Altenberg. It’s been a track that I’ve learned since my early days in Monobob when I was lucky enough that Pierre Lueders taught me how to drive there in my first season. Since then I’ve had a lot of other coaches who have contributed a lot to my knowledge there, too. I do enjoy it driving it when it goes right!
Unrelated to the track, what’s your favorite town on the schedule?
I love St. Moritz but man it’s expensive! Like it’s beautiful there, Cortina d’Ampezzo is really beautiful there too. When you go somewhere and it’s all the nice views it just is a little uplifting and everything compared to some of the others.
For people who haven’t been there since the track’s been built, what’s the track in Cortina d’Ampezzo like as it’s kind of in the middle of town?
It’s very close to town, and I guess there’s a lot of houses there around it. But we really only saw it in the Olympic environment, so it was very Olympic and you wouldn’t have really noticed it. During the test event it was very much a construction site, so that was very different to what it looks like right now. But it’s really close to town, my parents could walk there from the bus which was great.
It’s weird, because when you’re there competing at an event like the Olympics you don’t really notice what’s going on around you. So I didn’t notice much of the town, but I know when we’re going back there it’s going to be really nice.
I think it’s a great thing for tourists, you’ll have people visiting there and they can just walk over and see the bobsleigh track. There were some people at the test event we met some people at our hotel who…well they shouldn’t have been able to…but they snuck in and were able to watch the bobsleigh training.
And completely unrelated to sliding, your favorite place to visit?
Growing up we went to a place called Mount Hotham, it’s a ski resort in Australia, we do have them! I always liked going there growing up. For our summer holidays we’d also go to Port Fairy. We still have a holiday house there, that’s where my grandparents used to live. And that feels like our home holiday house.
Other than that, I haven’t had a lot of chance to go on holidays because of bobsleigh. My money and time goes into that, and a lot of people ask me after the season “Did you go on holiday?!” and I’m like “With what money?!” I do have some dream destinations I’d like to go to in the next few years. I’d love to go to Greece, I’d love to have my wedding in Greece. It would be like a holiday week and everything. I’d love to see more of Italy…there’s just a lot of places I’d love to explore but I think it’s going to be a lot of tagalongs at the end of seasons, just little bits here and there. Being over in Czechia with my fiancée, it’s easier to get to these places but we don’t always have the time or the money to do it. So the plan is to try to do a little of that.
But honestly, those places I went growing up are kind of the places that I love going back to.
The Southern Hemisphere famously does not have a bobsled track. So how does an Aussie get into bobsledding?
I think I got pretty lucky. Bree (Walker) was looking for brakeman, she messaged Evan O’Hanlon, who had been doing bobsleigh for a little bit. She messaged my coach, Matt Beckenham, and at the time I was literally doing rehab for a hamstring tear…or strain…it was never really diagnosed. Iw as told it was a cramp, DEFINITELY wasn’t a cramp. So I’m doing rehab, and my coach comes up to me and is like “Hey Blizz, do you want to try bobsleigh?” And I was like “Why not?!”
I think he knew me, and why he came up to ask. He said there was an Aussie team looking for girls right now, her name’s Bree, let’s have a little stalk. We did a little stalk of her and basically I spoke to her that night and woke up the next morning and was like “I’m doing bobsleigh!”
My mom was visiting at the time, and she’d just come out of a physio appointment and my coach goes up to her and is like “Look at what your daughter is going to do!” and she was like “…okay, alright?” But in a good way! I think some parents wouldn’t be as supportive, but mine were like “Yeah, cool, this is a really cool opportunity!” When I got in the car I told my dad I’d have an opportunity to do bobsleigh he goes “I hope you said “fuck yes!”, so that really tells about how supportive my parents were.
Two months later I went overseas and did my first season. I’ve done seven seasons now…
Has it already been seven seasons?!
Yes! I was hiding in the back as a brakeman as a while but I’ve emerged! But yeah, started back in 2019!
When did you decide you wanted to move up to the pilot’s seat?
After the 2022 Olympic Games. I tried driving at a development camp at the start of 2020 right as COVID was starting to kick off. It was like “Oh shit, what is this?” I remember sitting in the change rooms with some of the girls. Bree was there, I think Mica (McNeill) was there, and some of the girls who have gone onto great things and are retired now…but we’re all like “Oh this is kind of serious…” and I got home just in time!
I did a driving camp then, and I was like “Yes! This is it.” I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out. Before the first run Manny Maier was there, and he goes “You nervous?” And I was like “…yeah…” and he goes “It’s fine, you can be nervous now. You won’t have time to be nervous on the track!” and it was the most true thing anyone has ever told me!
So I did that, and obviously continued as a brakeman, but for the Beijing Games I was selected as an alternate and that was a pretty tough time for me. Like I went into the season thinking I was going to be the one, I was in the best shape of my life, and just had all these massive hurdles that came up and it just didn’t work out.
At the Games Adelle (Nicoll) came up…I’d shared I wanted to drive with some of the Brits because we’d been working with them…and she said “Are you sure you want to do this?” and I was like “Yeah, I don’t know, I’m going to go home for 10 days, then go back over…” and she told me “We’ll go to New York, you can join us…” and it was with Mica (Moore) and John Stanbridge and they welcomed me and let me tag along. I was a bit miserable and was dealing with all sorts of jetlag after going Beijing to Australia to America. But I did the Lake Placid development camp and it was interesting, but that was when I was like “That’s what I’m going to do.”
It was a bit of a slow start, figuring things out financially and trying to find teammates and figure out how this all works. But I continued to work with Bree that year as well, braking for her while doing some Monobob, and it maybe put me a year behind everyone else who was development pilots when I did. But it didn’t matter because I still qualified for the Games!
One of your teammates became Ashleigh Werner, who had driven for Australia before. How did that come about?
She reached out to me while she was in Brisbane and was like “Hey, I’m thinking about coming back. I spoke to Jackie (Narracott) and she was like “Reach out to Sarah”” because I was struggling with brakemen at the time. I had some women who could do parts, some who couldn’t do the whole season. And it was like I did need someone and with her experience it would be helpful because we had someone new coming in from the testing day, so we might
need someone to show them the ropes. And she came on for the season and it was great having someone with that kind of experience. She’s helped the team quite a lot to get to where we got. I needed a brakeman, and I got really lucky that she was in that mindset at the time!
Tell us about your pets!
I don’t have a dog because I’m all over the place. But we have a family dog (Sheldon), and also three cats at home. I had a cat, my brother had a cat (Tess). My cat passed away about the time I started in bobsleigh. We then got a cat (Astrid) for my brother’s cat, but that cat was terrorizing the other cat too much, so we got another cat (Sophie) for THAT cat! So we have three cats that take up a lot of my parents’ time, so they’re all there when I go home.
Then when I go to my fiancee’s place, they’ve got their dog over there, Annie. She’s gorgeous as well, she’s nine but acts like a puppy still. She just wants attention and food, that’s her whole life basically. Where I am now, I’m living with a friend and she’s got a dog as well.
Everyone was doing something before getting in a sled, what were you doing?
I was a sprinter in the 100 and 200, but mainly the 100. The 200 never really clicked for me. And in Australia we have something called Gift Running. Sha’Carri Richardson came and ran there this year. It’s a race about 20 minutes from where I live called the Stawell Gift. It’s a handicapped race, so everyone runs on a handicap on grass. It’s 120 meters, and the fastest person (in this case Sha’Carri) is off scratch and the slower you are the more of a handicap you get. There’s a limit, obviously, because it’s a really rich one! You can win $40,000 to win.
And 120 meters was my best distance, I did nationals and stuff too, but this is how I got into the sport and what I really loved. So that was a big part of my sporting journey. That final is a big final to make, and I made it four years in a row during the time where they were increasing the prize money every year. I haven’t won it yet, which is a little bit of a sore spot, but I’d love to give it another crack one day. I even went back and worked with the TV channel for the last couple years, and I’ve been involved since. It definitely feels like my home event.
So that was a big part of what I was doing. They run gift running all over Australia, Christian Coleman and Sha’Carri coming and running it elevated it a lot this year which was great. A lot of the young kids wanting to get involved a coming to watch them was great for the town and everything.
When you go back to these events do you look out and go “I could still do this!”?
I would definitely love to compete there, but I know that I’d have to do extra work to be able to be competitive. And it’s on Easter every year, so it’s not THAT far after the end of the season, but by the time I get home I don’t know that I’d have time to get in that sort of shape.
I did ask my coach Eric (Franke) “Hey would you be opposed to me running a 70 meter…maybe next year?” and he was like “We’ll see…I’m not opposed to it but let’s see how the season goes.”
I would love to run the 70 and I think it would be a lot of fun, but the timing has to be right. I know it’s always going to be there though, and if I finish bobsleigh one day and I’m in Australia for the summer and could train for sprints a little bit. The handicapping makes it a little so your ability or age doesn’t matter as much.
With the little free time you have, what do you do with it?
It’s trying to find something to binge watch and do that. I do enjoy going to the beach, because it’s been raining so much I haven’t been there a whole lot, but I do love the beach. But otherwise it’s mostly watching Netflix and forcing myself to have downtime. My day’s a lot of planning, I’m doing some coaching with gym and athletics stuff, then at the moment I’m doing a lot of work around launching a training program. So that’s a lot of social media, which is definitely not a hobby! It’s not something I absolutely love, but it’s all part of it, so even when I’m laying in bed watching Netflix I’m also trying to work on content stuff or replying to emails or whatever.
Sometimes I do have to tell myself “Phone away!” Right now I’ve started watching Yellowstone. I know I’m really late to the party, but I’m like “I’m going to watch this” and there’s a few seasons, so it’s that mostly.
When I’m overseas I play a little bit of very bad golf with my partner! I need some work, but it’s fun and good quality time together. They’ve got a family dog over there, she loves me and I’m her favorite person, so we’ll go walk her. Then we try to find something fun to do on the weekend, but otherwise I have to force myself to have downtime by watching TV or something.
What’s your favorite meal or food to eat?
I’m a spag bol person, I’m a pasta person. Love pasta! Probably since being exposed to Europe, a prosciutto pizza is one of my favorite things that I’ve found since. And in Australia you have more of an American style pizza maybe? So trying to find the prosciutto pizza here is hard, but I’ve found one on UberEats!
I will say that I’m not the most diverse eating person, we do pancakes every Sunday when we can. I love pasta, pizza, and you know as you travel there’s different things you get to try. I’ve had some pretty amazing meals, and even with some events with sponsors, some of those meals are amazing.
On race day, what is the routine like for you and your team?
It depends on the day and depends on the race, but on a race morning we normally have the early start. For me, I’m not a morning person. My girls always have been, I don’t know why I keep picking morning people! To be fair, Hayley (Silvester) and Desi (Johnson), they knew I wasn’t a morning person and they just don’t speak to me and it’s great! They do their thing…but I AM getting better at it. It’s normally get up, have food, get dressed, coordinate bathroom time with the girls you’re with.
I don’t wear makeup a lot, but I’ll wear something every race day as part of my routine. I’m not getting rid of that anytime soon. So we go to the garage, get the sled ready, head to the track in the van with some music to try to get us pumped up. Then when we get to the track we unload then get our spot in the changing room. Warming up depends on the start number, there’s been some times we’ve had to wait for like two hours…but sometimes you’re there really early because you’re first off, so it really depends. We’ve always got a plan the night before, we’re big on having a schedule and times and everything.
When it’s an hour out I start doing my mobility and that goes into my full warmup, and then 20 minutes before I’ll come in and do my final preparations. You’ve got the music playing and switch up the music a little bit to match the mood. When I’m warming up I like it to be a little more fun, and then when I come down to get changed it’s more hype music. Then it’s go-time!
What’s your go-to music on race day?
I’ve got a bit of a set playlist. I try to make new playlists but I struggle a little bit. One of the last songs I listen to is “Thunderstruck” (AC/DC), it’s up there because I feel like it builds and it’s just good for me. Sometimes there’s a bit of fun, upbeat country in there when I’m warming up. It’s a big mix, with things like “Freed From Desire” (Gala), and then you have “Mirrors” (Justin Timberlake), but I’ve been skipping that one a bit. It’s a REAL mix, I just like to have fun so it’s music that I’m going to have fun with like if I’m out at a club and having fun with good music. When I get down to the changing room and it’s closer to race time that’s when I switch to the “Thunderstruck” or Eminem or something like that.
What’s been the toughest thing you’ve been through in your sliding career?
Not competing in Beijing. I went as an alternate and I came home afterward and people were like “Yeah you’re an Olympian!” and I’m like “No I’m not, I didn’t compete at the Olympics…”
It’s a really tough spot to be in because people don’t understand it. The support I had coming home this time was incredible, I couldn’t walk down the street without getting stopped which is amazing. When you’re from a small town it’s like that and I’m so grateful for everyone’s support.
But for Beijing it was really tough. I was going to get there, that was my goal, and all these things happened. I took it really hard, and I really struggled a lot after that. And after that it was “I’m either quitting or I’m piloting…” and it wasn’t because of Bree or being a brakeman, but I just needed something different. I don’t know that I could go through that again, because…yeah I could go be a brakeman again and work hard then someone comes in during the Olympic year and get that spot from me because I had a bit of bad luck.
I really nearly quit, and I’m just so stubborn that I wasn’t going to let myself quit! I was like “No! I put all this time and effort into it!” and that’s how I saw it: If I stopped then I’d just be giving up. It was definitely one of the toughest moments.
What’s been your favorite sliding sport moment?
After the Altenberg race this season when we’d qualified for the Olympics. The day before Desi asked me “What do we need to do in this race to qualify for the Games?” and I was like “We don’t even really have to race this weekend, we’re in, but we need to not think about that.” Very much like we didn’t want to say it out loud!
Both of my parents were there and they’d asked and I was like “We just need to race, it’s okay!”
We were probably the most emotional people out there after that second run. As soon as I crossed the finished the tears started coming and I was like “Here are the emotions! I just finished, my parents are here…” And I have a group of Czech supporters in Altenberg that are there very single race and I get photos with them every time. They were yelling and cheering for us and I turn around to Desi and she’d been crying since like halfway down the run. Because we knew, the second we got out I didn’t even know where to look or anything.
And Hayley was there as well…I was so glad she could be at the bottom of the track for that as well because she’s a big part of that. She’d been an alternate all season and I really admire how she handled that. She was a great support for everything that happened that season and we got to share that moment.
I couldn’t get my helmet off either! I was so in the moment, I had the cameras in my face and I couldn’t get it off! The girls had to help me, I think there’s some videos out there of that. We had our champagne spray moment…it was the first time I’d done that and I nailed it…but it was all the emotions and having my parents there and everything. We’re the people who came last in the race, but we were celebrating so big, but for me getting to the Games was such a big thing for me because I did miss out last time and it made it that much more special. What I did to get here paid off and worked and it was my girls’ first experience in qualifying for the games, and that was really the best moment of the Olympic experience for me was that. It’s what I cherish the most out of that whole time.
Finally, you’ve got a new training program starting this week!
My coach Eric Franke approached me during the season and was like “Hey I’m thinking about doing this program, and your socials have grown a ton, would you consider doing this program with me and promote it with me to train the way you train”
It’s called “Train Like”, and he’s also doing one with Tobias Schneider (GER), he’s one of the other athletes doing it. It’s just to train the way that I train, it’s the same principles, a lot of the same exercises, a lot of the same weekly structure and intent and purpose. All the same stuff into a program that can be for anyone.
The way that it’s developed is so that anyone can do it, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have massive squat PBs, but it’s all developed to build off your own numbers. The track distances build as they go, so you’ve got to have some sort of a training base and be training a bit, but it’s for people who used to be an athlete and want to train the way they used to. Or for people who want a bit of a change, or some people who just want to train like a high level athlete. It’s fun doing short explosive stuff and there’s a lot of life benefits you get out of it as well!
People have an interest and enjoy watching the way that I train, so now they can do that as well! It is a 12 week program, and it’s subscription based. The first 100 people who sign up get it for 29 Euros a month instead of 39!
I really want to move into coaching when I’m done with bobsleigh, and Eric knows that as well. He’s done a good job at…not exactly mentoring me…but every time we’re training together he’ll explain some of the things and we talk about things, and this is a bit of a pathway into that. And now anyone can go do it, and it’s not often you get to train like an Olympic athlete!