Aussie bobsledder who switched to represent Canada complains about not getting a fair go

AN Australian bobsledder who now represents Canada has hit out at authorities over being demoted to the slower team.

A DEVASTATED Australian bobsledder who moved to Canada to pursue his Olympic dream has completely teed off at Canadian sledding authorities who shafted him at the last minute.

Bobsled pilot Chris Spring competed for Australia at Vancouver, then moved to Canada because he wanted to compete for a country which funded the sport adequately.

He soon forged a reputation as Canada’s leading four-man bobsled pilot.

But after Spring finished a disappointing seventh in the two-man event on day one of the Sochi sledding competition Sochi, the red-and-white knives came out.

Just before the four-man competition started, Spring was told he had been allocated the slower crew from the other Canadian sled.

Spring’s Canada 1 team during a run at the Sliding Center Sanki.

That’s the equivalent of a Formula One driver being handed the keys to the slow car and Spring was furious, knowing his medal chances had been destroyed before he so much as touched this ice.

“Yeah I’m bitter, you know,?” he said after his final run without trying to fight back tears.

“It’s the Olympics so you should be pretty proud here, but it’s hard to have those feelings after the last couple of days. I’m definitely bitter with everything.”

Earlier, an unrepentant Canadian head coach Tom De La Hunty had told The Canadian Press he made no excuses for switching the crews around at the last minute.

A close-up of Spring and the rest of his team before they start a run.

“We’re not paid to be Mr Nice Guy. We’re paid to get some medals,” De La Hunty said.

Spring had been blindsided and was utterly devastated when first told the news of what was effectively a demotion.

“I spent five minutes with my head in my hands just crying,” the Darwin-born 29-year-old said in his hybrid accent.

“That was definitely not expected. The team and I have been together all year, and we fought from being Canada 2 to being Canada 1 and we expected to come here and win medals.

“We really expected the support of our coaching staff but they didn’t have the belief in me at the end of the day here and you know… that cuts me real deep what those guys did.

Not surprisingly, the Canadian coach’s mystifying decision backfired, with the two Canadian sleds finishing 9th and 13th respectively on the last day of Sochi competition.

Spring at the end of a practice run.

Spring’s sled (which was still called Canada 1 despite having the slower crew) was the lower placed of the two after a nasty crash late in the second run cost them plenty of time.

“You can forgive people because everyone makes mistakes but I’ll never forget that my Olympic dream was taken away from me,” Spring said.

Despite his horrible Sochi experience, Spring said he’d continue to slide in the red-and-white.

“Competing here for Canada was awesome. I love being Australian too, but I won’t be switching back.”