What an NCAA rule change might mean for junior hockey in Sask.
Nov 18, 2024
Previously, WHL players were declared ineligible to play NCAA hockey in the U.S.
Ben Coakwell isn’t worried about pressure when it comes to the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
“I lack the stress because you train for four years to do this and I just don’t believe in stressing on something that you put so much pressure on yourself to prepare for. I think it’s like you finally get to express yourself in an event that everyone gets to watch. That’s more exciting to me than it is stressful,” the Regina-born bobsledder told Gormley before heading to China.
“I know what I’ve done, I know the work I’ve done so there are no more rocks for me to look under. I’ve done that. Now it’s just time for me to go and enjoy it and just try to execute on the day and do it for the communities I grew up in and hopefully share some (celebrations).”
Ben Coakwell. (Photo courtesy of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton)
Coakwell, who calls Saskatoon home now, was named to one of the Team Canada four-man bobsleigh teams for the Games. His teammates will be Justin Kripps, Ryan Sommer and Cam Stones.
This will be the third Olympics for the former University of Saskatchewan Huskies running back, after a 29th-place finish in Sochi in 2014 and a 12th-place finish in Pyeongchang in 2018.
Coakwell was recruited by Bobsleigh Canada in 2012 and was invited to attend a prospect camp.
Now, 10 years later, Coakwell and his team find themselves among the bobsleigh elite. The four-man combo has had a lot of success in 2021-22, winning three World Cup medals and never finishing lower than sixth. They ended the season as the second-ranked team in the world.
“We feel pretty confident in our chances that if we show up on the day and execute, we can win the race,” Coakwell said.
The 2022 Winter Olympics will also be under the shadow of COVID, with strict testing protocols and a bubble environment.
But Coakwell doesn’t expect that to be an issue.
“It’s just something that’s a part of our lives now with the whole pandemic thing. There’s all sorts of safety precautions and it’s really not so bad. It doesn’t affect us as athletes because we have a job to do and that’s to go there and compete and win some medals for Canada. That focus has never changed,” Coakwell said.
“The Olympics is always the same — it’s always a bubble. You test into the bubble and that’s where you stay and you don’t leave that. That’s how it was in Sochi (in 2014), that’s how it was in Pyeongchang (in 2018) and that’s how it will be in China.”
Competition at the Olympic Games is to begin Wednesday and run until Feb. 20.