Justin Kripps is a Canadian bobsledder and Olympic champion in the two-man bob-sleigh event following his gold medal win at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Kripps, teamed with brakeman Alex Kopacz were part of just the second ever tie for an Olympic bobsleigh gold medal, matching the four-run total time of Germans Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis.
Kripps, who was born in Naalehu, Hawaii, entered the sport of bobsledding in 2006 at the age of 19 when he participated in a testing camp and was drawn to the sport as he saw it as a mix of track and field and race car driving. While attending Simon Fraser University, Kripps was a track and field athlete, leading the 4x100m team to a school record at the 2005 NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Louisville, Kentucky.
Following his introduction to bobsleigh in 2006, Kripps spent three seasons as one of the top brakeman in Canada, leading to him being a member of Pierre Lueders’ four-man crew at Vancouver 2010. Following that experience, Kripps wanted to be in control so he decided to become a pilot and attended pilot school in the summer of 2010. He spent the 2010-11 season on the developmental North American Cup circuit and competed at the 2011 World Junior Championships, where he drove his four-man sled to a fifth-place finish and his two-man sled to an eighth-place finish.
Kripps experienced the ups and downs of Olympic competition at Sochi 2014, his first Games as a pilot. Designated as Canada-3, he and brakeman Bryan Barnett were the top Canadian sled in the two-man event with their sixth place finish. He enjoyed the best World Cup season of his career in 2017-18 when he won the overall title with Alex Kopacz in the two-man event after reaching the podium five of eight races and never finishing lower than fourth. He also had two podium finishes in the four-man event to be the top pilot in the combined rankings. Heading into the 2018-19 season, Kripps decided to focus a little more on the four-man event in the hopes of being as successful in it as he was in two-man. He finished the 2019-20 season ranked third overall in both the two-man and four-man World Cup standings and was ranked second overall in both the two-man and four-man standings after 2021-22. In Beijing 2022, Kripps competed in his 4th Olympics finishing 10th in the two-man and bronze in the four-man events.
Outside of the sport, Justin enjoys playing golf and competitive games with his teammates to keep his mind sharp in the off-season and he had his Olympic dream sparked while watching Donovan Bailey win 100m gold at Atlanta 1996.
