It will be memories that last a lifetime for local bobsleder Clay Sparks.
The Taberite competed in the Junior Winter Olympics in Austria late last month representing Canada and finished in eighth with his combined time with his driver in boy’s bobsled at 1:50.54.
“The competition was pretty tight. Between where we were and first place, it wasn’t much of a difference,” said Sparks.
Italy would end up in first with a time of 1:49.14 in its gold-medal runs, host Austria would take silver at 1:49.23 and Monaco would take the bronze at 1:49.31.

“The big difference was all the European teams, the track we raced on was the one they had to qualify on. So they had hundreds of runs on it while my driver and I had maybe 10 on it before our race,” said Sparks.
“They knew the track a lot better than we did.”
The track in Austria is considered slow by overall standards, in fact probably the slowest in the world according to Clay.
“We were going 70 down that track instead of 110 (kilometres per hour),” said Sparks.
“The average bobsled track you’ll go 120-130, and the speed record there was 110. There wasn’t as much of an incline on the track.”
Clay’s mother Diane added Italy was in eighth place after its first run, only to vault up to first in the second run as the familiarity of the track paid off.
“They all had similar start times and they got gold. They had that good of a run in their second run and that comes down to driving. They knew where to take a corner a little lower to shave off that fraction of a second,” said Diane.
With Monaco not exactly known for its winter-sport dominance, its bronze-medal finish in bobsled may seem like a surprise, but the nation had very strong incentives in the sport.
“It was their first ever Olympic winter medal. The kids got paid big money to go there. The prince of Monaco used to drive bobsleigh, so the teams from Monaco were sponsored by the government,” said Sparks.
“Canada, their guy that won in the Olympics, he’s the fastest pusher in world and he’s got a residence in Monaco and they are paying him a lot of money to train athletes.”
Clay stayed in the Athlete’s Village where countries were encouraged to participate in various cultural events to accumulate points and win prizes, with Clay noting Canada did very well in making connections with other nations.
The junior version of the Winter Olympics had all the same events of their big brother adult version and Clay was taken back by the revelry of the whole event which was taken quite seriously by locals.
“It was done fantastic. Clay was interviewed and you couldn’t turn a corner without seeing advertising everywhere,” said Diane. “The opening ceremonies was just what you’d see at the regular Olympics.”
“It wasn’t really advertised much in Canada so I thought it’d be whatever with a couple of people watching our event. Our coaches said that’s the most people they’ve ever seen out at a bobsleigh race,” added Clay. “There’s were thousands of people lined down the track watching.”
Clay was a little disappointed with his overall result, wanting to do better. But as he continues to chase his dream of representing his country in bobsled at the adult Winter Olympics one day, his coaches put the result in perspective with the overall picture.
“Now all you got to do is work your butt off even harder so once you come up against those guys again in a race you can kick their butts,” said Clay of the advice he received.
Sparks will continue to train at the local gym here, upping his sprints along with doing his weekly training up at the track in Calgary.
“It’s a fun sport and it’s pretty rare. Not many people do it,” said Clay. “It’s a neat thing to say that you are a bobsleder.”
WINTER WONDERLAND: Clay Sparks was given a nickname from all the European athletes at the junior Winter Olympics in Austria of ‘The Canadian Bear’ with his bearded look.
“It was probably on average plus-two there everyday and I would wear a long-sleeved shirt and shorts everywhere and they thought I was crazy,” said Clay.