Cynthia Appiah – Bobsleigh Strength Training Success
Chapter Overview:
0:01 Who is Cynthia Appiah
0:10 How she got into bobsleigh
0:33 What sport she played before
0:59 What struggles she managed to overcome to achive her career goals
1:30 What is one of the hardest things she dealt with in her sport
2:56 What led her to LPS Athletic
3:17 What made her continue training here
3:45 What separates LPS among other facilities
4:16 What are the improvements she achieved
5:23 What sacrifices she has to make for her dream
5:57 What are her aspirations and dreams
6:10 What does DOMINATE mean for her
6:55 What advice can she give to younger athletes
My name is Cynthia Appiah. I compete in the sport of Bobsleigh as a pilot. Our team is based out in Calgary, but we compete worldwide. Mostly in Europe and North America.
I’ve been competing in Bobsleigh competitively since 2014. I started dabbling in it in 2011 though. I started playing around 21, but I didn’t really become committed and serious about it until I was 24.
I was actually a walk on, I wasn’t recruited by Bobsleigh. They had open tryout at New York University, which is where I went to school and I decided to try it out.
So the sport that I played before Bobsleigh was Track and Field. I was a thrower. I was a shot putter at Hamburg thrower outdoors and shot putter and weight thrower indoors. And it definitely contributed to my transition into bobsleigh as throwers were super dynamic, we’re powerful. We have explosive power and that is pretty much part and parcel with the brakeman role, which is what I transitioned into right away for bobsleigh.
Some of the struggles I had to overcome as an athlete were definitely financial issues. You know, I grew up from a low income family and sport isn’t the cheapest in Canada. So having to work multiple jobs to be able to achieve my dream was definitely a struggle. And you know, kind of putting everything into one basket and hoping that it would work out. Sometimes something that we don’t really put our, we don’t really think through until we’re in it and we realize, okay, well we’re already knee deep in, it might as well go full in.
One of the hardest things that I had to go through was being named an alternate for the 2018 Olympic games. I went into that season the best, as the best version of myself, I was the fittest I ever was. I was the fastest I ever was and I had a really good world cup season leading up to those 2018 games.
And about three weeks before leaving for South Korea, I was pulled aside by one of the coaches and was told that for some reason, one way or another, I was being named as an alternate and not a racing breakman. And up until that point I had thought I had it in the bag and it really made me question everything that I was doing up until that point… Why I made all those sacrifices all those years ago and it made me want to walk away from the sport. It left a really bad taste in my mouth.
So the point where I did wanna quit was after those 2018 games. So I still went as an alternate. I fulfilled my duties because that’s the kind of athlete that I am. I go all in, but once I came home, I did wanna quit because the politics of the sport had just left such a bad taste in my mouth that I couldn’t fathom going back to a system like that.
And the only reason why I didn’t quit was that I had a lot of people who were on my side, who saw what I went through and saw what went down. Didn’t agree with the decision that had been made and convinced me to stick around, but to switch from the brakeman role to the pilot role.
When you’re the pilot, you do have a bit more control over your career and you don’t get tossed around. You’re not as expendable unfortunately as a brakeman is.
I heard about LPS by Googling it. Actually, I had been thinking about finding a place to train. A lot of the training facilities were shut down and I was looking for a coach as well in the weightlifting side of things. I felt that that’s where my weakest point was. LPS happened to be one of the first searches that I found on Google.
What made me come to LPS was the testimonials that I saw on the website. It looked like the place that I wanted to train at a high performance facility that really wanted to get the best out of the athletes that trained there.
And also one of my teammates also trains here through LPS and speaking through him and giving, getting his feedback. It really encouraged me to try it out. And what made me stick is the first day I walked in, I felt super welcome and knew that I’d made the right decision to try out LPS.
The difference between where I was training before and where I’m at now with LPS was I was on my own. I had a program that was sent to me from my coach out in Calgary, but when I’m in Toronto, I’m pretty much by myself. And as much as I like to work on my own, I think I do thrive in a, you know, a kind of growth mindset environment where everyone is encouraging you. Everyone is on your side. And that’s where LPS, I think, was that difference maker.
The growth or the changes that I’ve seen since training at LPS have been, I’m more technically sound with my Olympic lifts specifically with the snatch and my power clean. And I’ve seen an increase in my lifting numbers as well. For the longest time, I was struggling to get consistently over a hundred kilos in my power clean and in the first eight weeks alone with training with LPS, I was able to hit 110 kilos easily.
I’m still in the off-season. So I really haven’t seen a lot of that progress to my sport just yet. However, in the few instances that I’ve been back to Calgary and training in the ice house, I see myself hitting the positions in the push a lot cleaner, a lot smoother, and I look more powerful on ice than I had been in the past.
Between where I was training before and where I’m at now, I wouldn’t say outwardly, there were many, many differences, but there wasn’t as much of a focus on full range of motion as there is at LPS. And I think that’s where I’ve seen the biggest changes in my athleticism and my abilities to perform my sport specific tasks, namely pushin. Like I said, it wasn’t anything bad with the old program, but I just wanted more and I felt like I wasn’t getting that there.
I’ve had to do a lot of sacrifices to be able to chase my dream, you know, missing out on so many family events. I don’t get to see my nieces as often as I do. I don’t get to see my sisters, my mom, my dad, my brother. I don’t get to see ’em as often. Missing out on friends. Kind of living like a nomad out of a suitcase because you’re going from one stop to another.
I live here in Toronto, our team is based out in Calgary. So half of my summer when it gets really popping here in the city, I’m missing out on all those events cuz I gotta be out in Calgary training and focusing on my dream.
My aspirations and dreams are to be world champion, world cup overall leader, and champion, and ultimately to be the Olympic champion in both two women and monobob at the 2026 games in Milan, Italy.
What DOMINATE means to me is giving your 100% like waking up on time, getting to practice on time, putting in your full effort into every training day that you have and everything that goes around it. So recovery diet, everything that you need to do to make sure that when you hit the field of play, you are the best player on that field.
And LPS resonates that through and through and how they build a program, build their athletes up, and you feel it around you training with the other athletes. Like I’m a Bobsledder here. There are a lot of footballers that play out or that train outta here, and you all feel like you’re all working together at the same, for the same goal, even though you’re all in respective sports, but that you’re also all cheering each other on cuz you want the best for each other.
The one piece of advice I’d give to myself and to younger athletes is allow yourself the compassion to forgive yourself when things don’t go the way you want it to, not everything is gonna be a hundred percent perfect every step of the way.
You will have missteps, but those missteps will make you stronger and allow you to re-evaluate to get better on the next try.
When you have those moments where you falter, allow yourself the grace to forgive yourself and know that you’re only human, but it again will allow you to be a stronger and better athlete moving forward.
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