Olympic Bobsledder Coaches Former Team

This ALPA Member Is Going for the Gold

Many of us will be closely watching the upcoming XXV Winter Olympic Games, cheering on U.S. and Canadian athletes as they go for gold. However, one ALPA member, Capt. Heath Spence (WestJet Encore), has a pretty good reason to root for another country’s team.

Chair of the union’s Local Executive Council 211 in Calgary, Alb., Spence is also president of Bobsleigh & Skeleton Australia. He’ll be coaching the 2026 men’s Olympic bobsled team and overseeing all Olympic “sliding” sports for the “Land Down Under.”

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Spence maintains dual citizenship as both a Canadian and an Australian. The de Havilland Dash 8-400 pilot brings a wealth of experience to his latest coaching assignment as he served as a member of the Australian 2014 Olympic bobsled team in Sochi, Russia, and later coached teams from China and South Korea.

“Bobsleigh & Skeleton Australia’s mission is to support and develop Australian athletes for the nation’s winter sliding sports, with a particular focus on international competition,” said Spence. Shortly before Air Line Pilot went to press, he noted, “We have 17 athletes under our care longlisted to qualify for this year’s Olympic games. Realistically, we’re hoping for 9 to 12 of those athletes to make the team.”

Spence competed as the Australian bobsled captain and “pilot” at the 2014 Olympics after qualifying at the previous Bobsleigh World Cup in Igls, Austria. Races begin with a tremendous push as the participants sprint and jump into the sled. A quick start is imperative because medals are decided by fractions of a second. As the sled hurls down the track, a pilot in the front position steers using two ropes called D-rings, which are connected to the vehicle’s front runners.

On February 16–18, 2014, Spence participated in the two-man Olympic event with Duncan Harvey, steering an 11-year-old sled worth about $15,000 (as compared to the $100,000 models some competitors use). The two placed 26th with a combined time of 2:53.73 in three runs. Spence and Harvey were later joined by Lucas Mata and Gareth Nichols for the four-man races on February 22–23. They placed 22nd after three runs with a combined time of 2:48.64.

“We worked so hard to get there,” he commented. “The preparation and training were nonstop, and you have to perform as an individual and as a team at your absolute peak. There’s no room for error,” Spence remarked. “Honestly, it was a relief just to qualify, but to see the excitement and enthusiasm of my family members rooting for us, there in Sochi, was truly amazing.”

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games, which will be held in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, February 6–22, feature four bobsledding medal events: two-man and four-man bobsled, two-woman bobsled, and the monobob, which was introduced in 2022 and features a single female pilot who also manages pushing and breaking duties. Races are scheduled to take place in the Eugenio Monti Sliding Center in the Italian Alps.

Commenting on the Cortina d’Ampezzo run, Spence observed, “I know the track like the back of my hand. I know that corner seven goes right, and three quarters of the way around, there’s an expansion joint. I know every bump.”

Humble Beginnings

Growing up in Melbourne, Spence always wanted to fly, but limited resources prevented him from pursuing his interest. His father was the coach for the Sydney Swans Australian Rules Football team, but instead Heath decided to give rugby a try. “A red-headed kid with glasses is hardly what most of us think of as athletic, but I didn’t let that deter me,” he acknowledged. “I pushed really hard; I wanted to be good at the sport and, somehow, managed to make the school team.”

After graduating, Spence played rugby for various professional teams, including the Melbourne and Victoria clubs, eventually making it to the Australian Rugby Shield, a premier league for six to eight of the best teams within the country. In July 2007, he felt like a change and decided to try playing rugby in Canada, thinking, “It’s a British Commonwealth country, I can get a work visa there, and they speak English.”

Meanwhile, Canada was preparing for the 2010 Winter Olympics, which would take place in Vancouver, B.C. “I just happened to be at Canada Olympic Park sometime in 2008, snowboarding on a Friday night. I caught a bobsled team practicing and was fascinated by the dynamics and teamwork involved,” Spence recalled. He went up to the top of the hill, mingled with several of the participants, asked lots of questions about the sport, and then thought to himself, “I could do this.” Spence was invited to try out for a team several days later, “and the rest is history,” he quipped. Spence immediately set his sights on the Vancouver games.

Despite his best efforts, Spence was unable to qualify as a brakeman for the Australian team for the Vancouver Olympics, but he wasn’t dissuaded. Spence set a goal of becoming a bobsled pilot and competing in the Sochi games. In preparation, he made Calgary his permanent residence and worked for WinSport, providing bobsled rides for tourists year-round to both earn a living and develop his skills and feel for the track. In the summer of 2012 alone, Spence completed 700 tourist runs.

In the days approaching the 2014 Olympic games, he helped his Aussie teammates acclimate to the colder weather they’d encounter by coordinating with Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton to get them some practice runs on the Calgary track.

Post-Sochi

While Spence hoped to improve his bobsledding performance after Sochi, the following year he was involved in a car accident when a truck failed to stop at a red light. His shoulder and neck were seriously injured, compelling him to reconsider his future prospects as a professional athlete.

During this time, Spence made the decision to pursue his earlier dreams of flying. After taking lessons and building his hours, he purchased a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, which he flew on numerous cross-country trips. “I also got my Beechcraft King Air 360 type rating with the idea that I could easily end up flying medevac missions,” he noted. “However, WestJet Encore was hiring, and I was lucky enough to get a job in September 2023 as part of Class 139, probably in part because of my life experiences and my positive, can-do attitude.”

However, in the years immediately following the car accident, bobsledding never left Spence’s thoughts. A friend from Germany soon called, asking if he’d be interested in helping an Asian team prepare to compete in bobsledding for the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea. Spence became one of 20 foreign coaches and fitness trainers employed to help the Chinese improve their cross-country skiing, snowboarding, bobsledding, and other winter sports prospects—disciplines that have traditionally been dominated by European and North American nations.

Despite the language barrier and other challenges, Spence helped China’s two-man and four-man bobsled teams to qualify. As a member of the New Horizons Sliding Champion program, Spence also coached the South Korean national bobsled team during the COVID-19 pandemic before deciding to return to Canada, pursue flying as a career, and start a family.

Approaching middle age, Spence continues to be active and driven to overcome challenges. He participated in the 2019 Crossing for a Cure, a charitable event to raise money for the cystic fibrosis community. Over the course of 14 hours, Spence propelled a paddleboard 80 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, from Bimini, Bahamas, to Lake Worth Beach, Fla. “I teamed up with a kayaker and another paddleboarder, and the three of us followed a boat,” he noted. “We only went as fast as the slowest person, but it was still a great experience and a great cause.”

Many of Spence’s achievements haven’t gone unnoticed. In addition to numerous newspaper stories, he’s the subject of a short documentary, New Horizons, which was produced in 2020 and was a “Documentary Short Official Selection” at the Fargo Film Festival in 2022. He was also interviewed as part of the podcast “So, What’s Next?” produced in 2022 and available on Amazon Music as well as Instagram, @podcastsowhatsnext. And Spence’s next adventure is likely just around the corner.