Humboldt bobsledder chasing Olympic dream to honour friends who couldn't
CBC
A Saskatchewan athlete is taking a big step toward his dream of bobsledding in the Olympics, a passion that took hold in aftermath of the tragic 2018 Humboldt Broncos crash.
Luke Puto is gearing up to compete in Europe at a series of World Cup bobsledding events in January, his first World Cup races.
Puto spent his teenage years playing hockey in his hometown of Humboldt, Sask. Like many young Saskatchewan players, Puto dreamed of making it to the NHL, but eventually realized it wasn't going to happen.
He set down his skates and thought his sports career was over. He stopped going to the gym and staying fit.
"I just fell out of love with the game," he said. "I kind of was just done with sports."
Then the Humboldt Broncos bus crash happened. The team was on the way to a playoff game when a semi driver blew a stop sign and drove into the path of the team bus. Sixteen people were killed, many of them close friends to Puto.
"When the accident happened it changed that perspective a little bit," he said. "I realized that there was something missing. And what was missing turned out to be sport."
Puto said sports had helped him cope as a child. After the crash, he got back in the gym.
"It wasn't about trying to make the Olympics or trying to pursue sport at a high level," Puto said. "It was more about trying to process the grief."
A turning point came when he was helping clean out the room of his friend Jacob Leicht, who dies in the crash. Puto found several pamphlets for post-secondary schools and the RCMP training program.
"[Leicht] still thought that all those dreams were going to come true, and unfortunately [the Broncos] don't have that opportunity," Puto said.
"It was a real eye-opener for me. I knew that there were still dreams left to dream."
Puto said he began to look at his life in a new way. He Googled sports you get into as an adult at a competitive level and found bobsledding. He said almost every bobsled athlete started out in another sport and turned to bobsledding for a second chance.
"I was really itching to find something competitive and something that I could be good at again," Puto said. "That's exactly what I needed."
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