North Vancouver’s Jane Channell is not just Canada’s brightest star on the World Cup skeleton circuit, but recently she’s inadvertently picked up another undeniable talent: collecting nicknames.
Last year it was “Brush Face” after her scary-looking but ultimately harmless collision with a big broom dropped by a track worker during a World Cup run. Video of the incident went viral and Channell became chuckle fodder on sports shows across the world.
This week, with the best skeleton and bobsleigh athletes in the world coming back to Whistler for the first World Cup race held at the track since November 2012, Channell has had another title bestowed upon her: Legacy Baby. The moniker comes from her status as the first elite racer who began her career on the Whistler track that was created for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
“It’s something I have to grow used to,” Channell told the North Shore News from Park City, Utah, where she was preparing for this weekend’s World Cup event. “(Legacy Baby) sounds so epic, and I really want to live in those footsteps. I’m doing my best, I guess.”
It turns out Channell’s best is pretty darn good. In just her second full season on the World Cup circuit, Channell has finished in the top seven in each of the first four races of the 2015-16 campaign, including her first ever World Cup podium finish, a bronze at Winterberg in Germany in early December. Those results have her ranked fourth overall in the world.
When Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton put out a press release announcing the upcoming Whistler World Cup races, it introduced the team as being “Led by North Vancouver’s Jane Channell.”
Not bad for someone who only took up the sport in 2011 after running track and field and playing varsity softball at Simon Fraser University while completing a bachelor of science degree in physical geography. Transitioning into sliding sports was always in the back of her mind, but watching the Vancouver Olympics unfold in her own backyard helped crystalize the idea into a solid plan. Channell moved to Whistler right after graduation and set her sights on Winter Olympic glory even though she’d never set foot on a skeleton track.
“It’s been such a whirlwind,” she said of what these past five years have been like, starting with an introduction to skeleton and then quickly shooting up the developmental circuits. “My learning curve has been so steep, it’s been amazing. From learning on the Whistler track, because it’s so fast and technical, you’re forced to learn the sport at the same pace. I’ve been really fortunate to have Whistler as a home track and in my own backyard. I couldn’t have laid it out any better than that.”
Channell is still trying to wrap her head around her status as one of the national team’s marquee athletes alongside bobsleigh maestros Kaillie Humphries, currently first in the two-woman World Cup rankings, and Justin Kripps, who is fourth in the two-man world rankings and eighth in the four-man.
“Moving through the development years I’d read up on all those articles and kind of pictured myself in those situations,” Channell said. “It never really occurred to me that I would be the one leading the team. It’s pretty exciting.”
The biggest highlight so far was last month’s bronze in Germany. Channell was in fifth place after her first time down the track but put together a superb second run to put herself in position to potentially win a medal. She still, however, had an agonizing wait as the four top-ranked sliders took turns trying to knock Channell off the podium.
“You’re kind of playing a gambling game,” said Channell. “You’ve got your fingers crossed. I knew it was a pretty solid run. I like this track. I honestly wasn’t sure because the sliders that were coming after me were also very strong.”
The next slider down failed to dislodge Channell from her first-place perch, leaving just one more racer between her and the podium.
“In the leader’s box they have a TV where you watch the run of the person who is on the track and it shows green if they are ahead of you or red if they are behind your time,” she recalled. “It was green, it was green, and then it dropped back to red. And then it stayed red for the next couple of splits and I knew then – Wow, it’s going to happen!”
Standing on the podium to receive her first ever World Cup medal was an overwhelming experience.
“There were so many cameras, interviewers, microphones, everything,” she said. “I remember standing up there and thinking, ‘I’ve got to take this all in.’ It was just so much in such a short amount of time. But it was so much fun. … Looking back, it was so exciting. I want to do it again!”
She’ll get her chance Friday in Whistler. Channell will have home-track advantage but she admits that she still hasn’t mastered speedy Whistler. She’s specifically bedevilled by Turn 6, a long lefthander on the top half of the track.
“It just blows my mind but for some reason I really struggle, I always have struggled on this one corner,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to figuring it out this time around.”
She does, however, gain confidence from knowing the track so intimately.
“If you go into a corner wrong, I know how to save that,” she said. “I know how to fix anything that can be done because I’ve pretty much crashed everywhere that can be crashed. It’s a fun, fast-paced track. I’m really excited to go back.”
In Whistler she’ll have a team of friends and family there cheering her on. With the results she’s posted so far this year, it’s not a big stretch to think that they could watch her win her first ever World Cup gold. Channell, however, is not letting her mind wander that far just yet.
“I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch,” she said with a laugh. Whatever happens next, the 27-year-old Handsworth secondary grad has already made remarkable progress from a multi-sport athlete at SFU to Olympic spectator to skeleton World Cup medalist in six short years.
“Looking at it that way, it seems like such a far-fetched idea,” she said, laughing again.
“But to actually be able to say, ‘right now I’m ranked fourth in the world,’ is something I’m so proud of. To be able to represent my country and look back at my hometown, to say ‘I am so proud that I’m from North Vancouver.’ It’s amazing. It is amazing.”
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Tickets for the Whistler World Cup event, running Jan. 18-23, can be purchased for $10 at whistlerslidingcentre.com, or in person at Guest Services at the Whistler Sliding Centre. Children under 12 are free.
