CALGARY -- When gyms were shut down due to COVID-19, Canadian bobsledder Christine De Bruin knew she was going to have to get creative to get her workouts in.

So she and her husband decided to build a workout facility in their garage.

De Bruin says they had to act fast.

“We started talking to people, our friends, our family. We just ended up borrowing a lot of things,” she said.

“We made a platform and decided to make it work because we have to. This is our work.”

De Bruin is the top pilot on the Canadian women’s Bobsleigh team. She competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea and won silver medal in the team relay at the 2019 Bobsleigh Championships in Whistler, B.C.

De Bruin says you can pretty well do everything you need to get your workout in.

And other sledders have also been using the makeshift gym. They make sure they’re social distancing and keep the numbers down.

bobsled

On this day, two members of the Canadian women’s skeleton team joined De Bruin for a workout.

Madison Charney says it helps make things seem normal again.

“Because it gives us that routine that I think most people are lacking right now. It kind of helps us stay in that training routine and keep on with our normal routine. If you want to call it normal now.”

Mirela Rahneva says being with other high performance athletes helps keep you motivated.

“It’s definitely good to get your workout in with a buddy rather than doing it yourself. And you’re also pushing each other.”

The workouts aren’t just confined to the garage. De Bruin, Charney and Rahneva also move outdoors, on the road to get their workout in. On this day it also gave their dogs a chance to get in some exercise.

The push is very important in bobsleigh. De Bruin even has a sled on wheels that she pushes on the street. She says she got it from a friend.

“One of the former bobsleigh athletes told us that he had an old push cart from the early two thousands that they used to use. So we’re like yeah, let’s take it,” she told CTV.

“We don’t know when the ice is going to be opened again, so this is a really good part of our workout.”

De Bruin

After a workout high performance athletes always hit the ice tub. When you don’t have that, you also have to get creative. De Bruin says it wasn’t hard to find a solution for that.

“We go to the Bow River. It’s the closest thing. It’s pretty similar in temperature," she says, adding that  "It’s always running water, so it works out pretty well.”

Of course De Bruin, Charney and Rahneva can hardly wait to get back to training at Winsport.

De Bruin says it’ll be nice when that happens because they can once again park their cars in the garage at home.