When Nicholas Dunn takes off in a sprint on the ice to push his skeleton bobsled, he’s channeling the speed from his days competing for the Coronado High School track and field team – where he received the MVP award in 2019.
As he guides his body onto the sled, the hand-eye coordination of a running back for the University of Oregon takes over.
And, while gliding down an ice track at speeds up to 80 mph, Dunn’s body is as relaxed as it is when surfing the waves in San Diego.
Dunn, a 2019 Coronado High grad and former running back for the Oregon Ducks, is currently training in Canada to compete for the nation’s skeleton team in the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics.
“This is my first ice sport; I’m actually more of a surfer,” laughed Dunn. “It’s funny for the water to go into a different state of matter.”
Door opened to a lifelong dream
While Dunn had never competed in skeleton prior to this year, his interest in the sport first began while attending the 2010 Vancouver Olympics with his family.
“They were going so fast down this ice track and they were going sideways, almost upside down, and controlling the sled with their whole body, but they made it seem so effortless,” said Dunn. “I always wanted to go fast like that.”
Fourteen years later, in a “right place at the right time” kind of moment, the door to his lifelong dream of competing in the Winter Olympics had opened.
While visiting family in Calgary, Canada this past March, where Dunn is a dual citizen, he decided to work out at the Olympic training center roughly 10 minutes from their house. After going through his lifting routine and doing sprints on the track, he was approached by the Team Canada skeleton coach, who noticed his speed and athleticism.
From there, Dunn was invited to his first push camp – ultimately marking the beginning of his journey to the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Road to Milan
Since July, Dunn has been participating in push and sliding camps to compete against around 30 prospects for Team Canada.
Each camp breaks down the mechanisms of skeletoning and carefully logs each participant’s stats. At the push camps, Dunn and other prospects hone into the beginning of a skeletoning race where they sprint off and drop onto their bobsled headfirst down a hill, competing for the fastest time. At his last camp, Dunn finished among the top three times for push starts.
After the push camps, prospects advance to the sliding camps – which is where Dunn is currently.
A typical skeleton ice track has around 20 corners. At Dunn’s sliding camps, he and the other prospects begin sledding on the lower corners and work their way up, gradually developing a game plan and familiarity with the track so that, eventually, they may get down the ice track in the fastest way possible.
Dunn is set to compete in his first competition for Team Canada in December for the Park City North American Cup.
With a long journey ahead of him to the 2026 Winter Olympics, his goal is to take it day by day.
“Eventually, I want to be able to make the sled and me one unit so I don’t have to think of it as a separate piece.” – Nicholas Dunn
“Eventually, I want to be able to make the sled and me one unit so I don’t have to think of it as a separate piece,” said Dunn. “Even if it’s just listening to my coach on a specific corner on the track, I’ll get that down. That slowly builds toward the goal of doing my first competition with Canada. After that, it’s bringing down my time and making sure I push faster and get more comfortable on the sled so I get more ice time.”
While taking two weeks out of each month to train in Canada, Dunn is working toward his graduate degree in sports medicine and a doctorate in chiropractic at the University of Oregon. Those degrees will be completed in 2026 – the same year he will potentially compete in the winter Olympics on behalf of his mom’s home country.
Dunn currently has a GoFundMe set up to assist with training and tuition expenses as he travels to Canada from Portland, Oregon each month in order to balance his athletic and academic pursuits.
