Jacob Coleman

When Jacob was two years of age, his father sat him down to watch a World Cup Downhill Mountain Bike race. Two hours later he was outside on the driveway smashing the training wheels off his bike with a rock. Two years after that he was racing his first sanctioned BMX race. Fast-forward two more years, and Jacob was the youngest expert-class ranked BMX racer in the country, achieving a national title that year. All this by the age of six. 

One could argue he was born to compete in extreme sports.

Jacob transitioned into downhill mountain biking at that time and after winning the first-ever Crankworx World Tour downhill race for kids, he was scouted by B.C. Cycling as a “Future Champions” prospect and recruited to train on a Norco factory racing team. By the time the pandemic shut down racing, Jacob had competed in 39 races, 11 of which resulted in podium finishes, 19 top-5 finishes and all but four were top- 10 finishes. 

Early on during the pandemic, when he was 15 years of age, Jacob’s school participated in a skeleton discovery day at the Whistler Sliding Centre. Not only was his pandemic-restricted need for speed satiated, he absolutely fell in love with the sport. Jacob then attended a Snipers foundation sliding camp in Whistler, and the coaches encouraged him to stay on for a progression camp alongside Team Canada who had just returned from Beijing. Following less than two weeks of official sliding, he was encouraged to start from the top of arguably the fastest and most feared track in the world, and the rest is history. 

Jacob has had a singular goal since he was a two year old toddler smashing himself free of those training wheels; to be the fastest in the world at his chosen sport. He knows how extremely lofty that goal is, but originally qualifying for the Canadian National Team at the 2022 selection race, and training alongside some of the best athletes in the country, has brought him one step closer to realizing that dream. 

Outside of the sport, Jacob enjoys mountain biking, playing guitar, photography, videography and occasionally training in high-horsepower desert-racing trophy trucks. He is a senior in High School and intends on creating a flexible post-secondary education program where he can train skeleton full time while attending film school. 

Did You Know….

When Jacob was camping on his family’s land in the Mojave desert, he and his sister researched how to identify the best areas to pan for gold in the dry desert washes. They collected all the equipment required and set to work digging and dry-panning, and sure enough they struck gold! So his backup plan is to pan enough to pour his own medal if required.