Edmonton-area Olympian becomes rare athlete to compete in both winter and summer Games

Kelsey Mitchell has already competed in the summer Olympics on her bike, but she's now trading it in for a bobsled.

Sherwood Park’s Kelsey Mitchell, an Olympic track cyclist by trade, is achieving a goal a decade in the making as she joins Canada’s 2026 Olympic bobsledding team in February.

“That was kind of my goal … but cycling picked me up, and I obviously had a lot of success with cycling … Now full circle, bobsleigh contacted me in the summer, and I started training with them,” the 31-year-old told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday.

The two-time Olympian first became a gold medalist for the track cycling sprint at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She’s set to travel to the Milano Cortina Games after being nominated to the bobsledding team just last week.

This makes her one of 14 Canadians to ever compete in both Summer and Winter Olympics.

“It feels like my first Olympics all over again. I don’t really know what to expect. I’ve never stayed at the village. I’ve never gone to an opening ceremony. So it’ll be different,” she said.

Mitchell first tried bobsledding at age 21 after graduating from the University of Alberta in 2016.

“My post-secondary soccer career was coming to an end, and I just wanted to keep being an athlete. I thought bobsleigh would be for me at the time,” recalled Mitchell.

“I just wasn’t fast enough or strong enough, so 10 years later, I finally have the strength and power and was able to make the cut.”

The adaptable athlete has been described as a quick study – four years prior to winning gold for cycling, for example, she didn’t even have a bike.

After a disappointing eighth-place finish in last year’s Paris Olympics, she took a break, switched gears and spent the better part of 2025 training for her winter sport dream.

Phillip Daly, the owner of Firstline training who’s seen Mitchell through her athletic career right out of university, said her pivot to bobsled has taken “utter commitment.”

“She’s super dedicated,” he said. “Her ability to not only transition from sport to sport, but her dedication for each sport at that time … her work ethic definitely gets her to where she is right now.”

And becoming a dual-sport Olympian is no small feat, which Clara Hughes, a Summer and Winter Games medalist, can attest to.

“I’ve lived it, and she’s doing it right now, and she’s doing it in sports that I didn’t do,” said the cyclist and speed skater in an interview Wednesday. “So I’m a fan, just like everyone else, and super curious to see what she can do with this opportunity.”

After her bobsledding debut, Mitchell says she has her sights set back on track cycling for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

“Being back here in Edmonton, it’s great to be home and be with friends and family,” she added.

“Hopefully after the Olympics, I’ll also be back here and training at the velodrome that’s just been built in Edmonton.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Miriam Valdes-Carletti and The Canadian Press