From Track and Field to the Thrill of the Bobsleigh Track: Australia’s New Winter Duo
Sarah Blizzard and Desi Johnson, two athletes with roots firmly planted in Australian track and field, are carving out a new, exhilarating path in the high-octane world of bobsleigh. Their journey from sprinters and heptathletes to a formidable two-woman bobsleigh team is a testament to their grit, determination, and willingness to embrace the unexpected.
Blizzard, a former sprinter from Victoria, and Johnson, a Queenslander who excelled in both sprinting and heptathlon, found themselves drawn to the winter sport through a shared connection to athletics. Blizzard’s path to bobsleigh began in 2019 when her coach identified her potential for the sport. Her transition was swift; within two months, she was making her international debut as a brakewoman for the renowned ‘Bobled Bree’ Walker, a partnership that spanned three seasons.
Her Olympic aspirations took a significant turn when, after serving as an injury alternate at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Blizzard decided to take on the crucial role of pilot. This move meant she would be at the helm, responsible for navigating the sled down the treacherous ice track, a decision that put her Olympic destiny directly in her hands.
A Leap of Faith into the Unknown
The search for a new teammate led Blizzard to Desi Johnson. Despite Johnson having no prior bobsleigh experience and never having even seen a bobsleigh track, she was the first to enthusiastically agree to join Blizzard. This spontaneous decision occurred at a 2023 bobsleigh development camp in La Plagne, France. Johnson, who had long harboured dreams of competing at the Olympics, had always envisioned herself in a summer sport.
Her track career had been a challenging one, marked by a persistent foot injury that prompted a switch to the heptathlon. This, in turn, led to a fractured L4 vertebra. The subsequent years were a relentless cycle of injuries and setbacks, including further back fractures, a dislocated knee, and multiple foot surgeries. Even a brief foray into rugby sevens proved difficult, exacerbating her existing foot problems due to the sport’s intensity.
When Blizzard extended the invitation to try bobsleigh in the French Alps, she was upfront about the nature of the sport. “She said, ‘I don’t care about your foot. Just hop in the sled and go down the track and see if you like it’,” Johnson recalls. Johnson, approaching the opportunity with a degree of nonchalance, saw it as a chance to try something new. “I don’t think I knew what I was getting into at all — I had no clue,” she admits. “I was going into it very blasé. Like, ‘Oh yeah, you just go down the track, it’s fine. It’ll be just like a rollercoaster sort of thing’.” The reality of hurtling down an icy track at breakneck speeds, responsible for holding herself in place, was something she hadn’t fully grasped.
However, after just one week in La Plagne, Johnson’s summer sporting ambitions transformed into a winter pursuit.
The Synergy of Speed and Trust
Since that initial camp, Blizzard and Johnson have forged a powerful bond, living, training, and travelling together year-round on the international circuit. This deep connection is crucial to their success on the track, transforming into a high-speed partnership built on unwavering trust as they navigate corners at speeds of up to 130km/h. This synergy is the bedrock of any successful two-woman bobsleigh team.
The start of a bobsleigh run is a crucial phase. At the top of the track, both athletes explode into a powerful sprint. Blizzard grips the side push bar, while Johnson provides raw, explosive strength from the rear of the sled. Once they achieve peak velocity, Blizzard quickly leaps into the front seat, immediately followed by Johnson, who tucks in behind her. From this point, the responsibility shifts entirely to Blizzard, who must expertly steer the sled down the mile-long track.
“It’s a combination between steering enough to make sure it’s controlled, but not steering too much that it slows down the sled with friction,” Blizzard explains. While Blizzard focuses on the intricate art of steering, Johnson adopts a low, aerodynamic tuck, her head down, seeing nothing but the floor of the sled as they hurtle towards the finish. “I’ve got to have full trust in Sarah to get me down that track. I have no idea what’s going on,” Johnson admits.
Upon crossing the finish line, Blizzard’s instruction for Johnson to “pop up” signals the next critical phase. Reorienting herself quickly, Johnson then engages the brakes, bringing the sled to a controlled stop within the run-out zone. “You’ve got to have absolute full trust in your pilot, and as a team, in each other,” Johnson stresses.
A Focused Path to the Olympics
Over the past few years, Blizzard and Johnson have meticulously built their team with a singular objective: Olympic qualification for the Milano Cortina 2026 Games. Johnson’s journey has been particularly demanding. She required further foot surgery before her 2023/24 debut season but managed to recover in time to compete at the World Championships in February 2024. The physical toll was immense; immediately after the season concluded, she underwent shoulder surgery for a torn labrum, initiating another gruelling rehabilitation period. Adding to the whirlwind, she only made her World Cup debut at the start of the 2025/26 season in November.
“It’s pretty crazy to think that I’m going to be competing at the Olympics this season. I can’t even put it into words,” Johnson expresses, still finding the reality hard to believe. “It still doesn’t feel real. Until I get to the top of the track and I see it and I feel it and everything, that’s when it’s going to sink in, but I am just so grateful, honestly, for this experience and being able to do this.”
Despite entering the Games as one of the less experienced teams in the field, Blizzard and Johnson are determined to give their absolute best for a successful Olympic debut. “We’ve got all the support around us to help us give the best performance possible,” Blizzard states. “For us, it’s about solid pushes that we’re proud of. For me, it’s driving the sled down and getting consistent runs that are clean and ones that I’m happy with. If we can give it everything and be proud of our performance, I think whatever the result that comes is something that we’ll be happy with. Obviously, we’d like to be inside the top 20 as the top 20 get the fourth run on the second day [of competition]. So, that would be amazing. But really, it just comes down to giving it everything and being proud of what we can give.”
The first two heats of the two-woman bobsleigh competition are scheduled to commence at 4am AEDT on Saturday. In a remarkable display of sportsmanship, Blizzard and Johnson have been training in a distinctive orange Team Netherlands sled, having generously lent their own sled to the Dutch two-man bobsleigh team.
