The Jamaican diver fell just short of realising his Olympic dream of competing at the Paris 2024 Games. Now, Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson's Olympic aspirations take a wintery turn to bobsled.
Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson competed at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha and the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, as well as the 2024 World Aquatics Diving World Cup—all key qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympics. However, after missing out on Paris, the Calgary-born diver with dual Canadian and Jamaican citizenship began to wonder what might come next.
Having studied neuroscience as a student-athlete, the 24-year-old thought it might be time to either start working or hit the the books again for medical school. "After diving, I thought, 'Alright, I'm ready to work, ready to move on to something else."
That's when a chance encounter with former diving coach and fellow Canadian-Jamaican opened Eskrick-Parkinson's eyes to keep on his Olympic quest—just this time with the the springboard specialist trading the pool for the bobsled track.
That former coach of Eskrick-Parkinson? None other than Lascelles Brown.
Considered one of the most powerful bobsled brakemen, Brown started his bobsled run with his native Jamaica, competing at the Salt Lake 2002 Olympics. After the Games in Salt Lake, Brown moved to Canada eventually earned citizenship before going on win silver and bronze medals for the Maple Leafs in the Torino 2006 and Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
"Hearing that from him was like, alright, here is a chance. I'll do it; I'll see what happens," Eskrick-Parkinson recalls.
He started into the sport with a local Alberta provincial team in July, then received an offer to attend a national team camp.
So far, so good for Eskrick-Parkinson's transition to the track: last month, the Canadian national bobsled team named him to the team.
Eskrick-Parkinson credits his diving background with his flying start into bobsled.
"Diving is super technical. Every single dive we do, we are looking at it and analysing it with our coaches," he said. "Now, I'm going to push the sled, I'm going to get corrections, and I'm going to get better.
While Eskrick-Parkinson has caught the eye of his better bobsledders -- including top driver Taylor Austin who also knows what it's like to turn to bobsled himself after being an American football player before - he isn't getting ahead of himself.
"I'm super early in this sport. I can't be certain that this will happen, but if I can, I'm going to take it all the way.
"I'd like to take it to the Olympic one day, if that opportunity is there."