Sara Villani
Canada
Bobsleigh
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Biography
The drive for me to be an athlete started back in my gymnastics days. I knew early on I would not be able to continue that sport, but I was keen to find my next passion. In came track and field. I found success in my early high school track and field days, which led me to want to continue to pursue it at a university level.
In my first year of multi-event training, at Western University, I won the 2015 Junior National Championships in the heptathlon, which qualified me to represent Canada at the 2015 Junior Pan Am Games held in Edmonton, Alberta. In my second year, while competing in the pentathlon at the Provincial University Championships (OUAs), I miscalculated a step in one of my long jump warm-ups and would later be diagnosed with a bone bruise in my ankle. I ended up with gold and was ranked 1st going into the Canadian University Championships (CIS, now USports), but the pain in my ankle was high. At CIS, I got to the second event, high jump, and it was evident I would not be able to continue the competition…I had DNF next to my name. After this, I became very unsure of my next steps. After a lot of back and forth, I decided that I would specialize in the throws. In 2019, I found myself standing on the podium in 2nd place at the USports Championships in shot put.
In 2018, I went to an event called The RBC Training Ground used to find the next Olympic talent. They tested the participants through various ways such as a broad jump, vertical jump test, 30m sprint, etc. I ended up winning a few of the individual events, for the women, and then winning overall. From this, I was recruited to different sports, one of which was bobsleigh.
In December of 2018, I had my first experience in a bobsled in Calgary, Alberta. I really did not know what to expect…I had seen it on TV, but “you don’t know what you don’t know”. My first run down I ended up experiencing a crash! Luckily, that did not scare me off and I finished the week. I came back home to Ontario and knew that I was going to become a bobsledder.
So, in October of 2019 I was announced to the Team Canada Development team. Now, I am training to make the World Cup team with eyes locked on the ultimate goal of competing in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
In my first season of bobsleigh (2019-2020) I achieved:
- 2 sixth place finishes on NAC in Lake Placid
- 3 third place finishes on NAC in Park City
- Sixth place and ninth place finish on NAC in Lake Placid
- Named to 2 World Cup races