Summerland’s Justin Kripps named to Canada’s Olympic bobsleigh team

PENTICTON – South Okanagan residents will want to tune in to the the bobsleigh competition at this year’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics after a second local competitor was announced to the Canadian Olympic team this week.

Justin Kripps of Summerland was named to the bobsleigh team this week, joining Penticton resident Andi Naude, who will be competing in the freestyle moguls event.

Kripps, 31, was introduced to the bobsleigh in August, 2006, at age 18, and has spent three seasons as one of the top brakemen in the country. He has since become a bobsleigh pilot, making his first world championship appearance as a pilot in 2012.

The Canadian Olympic team website says Kripps made the world cup podium three times in the 2016-17 season, and had the best world cup season of his career in 2017-18 by winning the overall title in the two man bobsleigh. He reached the podium in five out of eight races and had two podium finishes in the four man event.

PyeongChang represents Kripps’ third Olympics. He previously competed at Vancouver and Sochi.

Kripps said in a Facebook post he was “proud to be representing Team Canada again."

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