Ryan Sommer

Biography

Ryan Sommer made his Olympic debut at Beijing 2022. He won a bronze medal in the four-man event as a crewman for pilot Justin Kripps along with Cam Stones and Ben Coakwell.

In 2016, Sommer was living at a woodland firefighting base in Manning, Alberta when he watched the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games from Rio. After having spent two summers fighting massive forest fires that destroyed communities in northern Alberta, he was motivated to dive headfirst into a new sport. It led to him making an 18-hour road trip with five colleagues to Richmond, B.C to test his skill at a national recruitment camp. That fall, he was competing on the North American Cup development circuit.  

Sommer earned his first international medals early in his second North American Cup season in 2017-18. But while racing in Whistler, he was in crash that resulted in some fractured ribs, keeping him out of competition for a while. 

He returned to the North American Cup circuit for the start of the 2018-19 season and won three straight gold medals (one two-man, two four-man). That was just the start of the success he would have with Kripps, Stones and Coakwell. They won two straight gold medals on the Europe Cup before Sommer competed in his first World Cup race in January 2019. They would go on to win gold in Lake Placid in February for Kripps’ first ever World Cup four-man victory. After winning a two-man silver with Kripps in Calgary, the four-man crew would take the bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships in Whistler. 

Team Kripps kept the momentum going in 2019-20. They opened the World Cup season with back-to-back four-man gold medals in Lake Placid. They closed the season with a gold medal at the legendary Olympia Bobrun in St. Moritz. They only finished outside the top-five once as they finished third in the World Cup four-man standings. 

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian bobsleigh team only competed in the second half of the 2020-21 season. Team Kripps reached the podium in three of the four four-man races before finishing fifth at the world championships. 

Back for a full schedule in 2021-22, Team Kripps finished second in the World Cup four-man standings after winning three medals and never finishing lower than sixth. 

Sommer competed collegiately in track and field at the University of Lethbridge, where he was a two-time CanWest shot put silver medalist and made the CIS shot put final in 2014 and 2015. In 2013 he represented Team BC at the Canada Summer Games, winning a silver medal in the discus.

A Little More About Ryan

Outside Interests: Supports Jumpstart Sport Relief Fund and created a fundraiser for the 2020 holiday season… Graduated from the University of Lethbridge in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Kinesiology… Worked towards a post-grad degree in Education… Would like to pursue a career in sport governance… Enjoys playing chess, boardgames, cards, and fly fishing… Odds and Ends: Favourite quote: “Dreams are what you put into them.” – K. Elder…