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Colin Jost, Jason Kelce Show the World How Terrifying Bobsledding Is for the Inexperienced

Both of them detailed how scary their experience was in the bobsled.
Jason Kelce experienced a bobsled race with Team USA.
Jason Kelce experienced a bobsled race with Team USA. | Jason Kelce/Screengrab

Every two years, either the Summer or the Winter Olympics inspires viewers at home to look into sports they may not have known much about before tuning in. And in some cases, that research even prompts viewers to give the sport a go themselves.

Bobsledding is one of those Winter Olympic sports that tends to pique interest from viewers across the world because it’s not one many fans are used to watching outside of the Olympic Games. Have you ever wondered what it’s like to bobsled?

NBC correspondent and Saturday Night Live cast member Colin Jost, along with former Eagles star Jason Kelce, tried a mock bobsled race during this year’s Olympics. Needless to say, neither held back their honest thoughts while on the track; they were both truly terrified.

“I was not prepared for the level of terror of this bobsled,” Jost said on an NBC Sports segment. “I swear to God I thought I was going to die. I thought my back was going to snap in half. I thought my bones were gonna fly off my body and be littered all up and down the bobsled track. It was by far the scariest experience I’ve ever had in my life.”

Jost can be heard screaming and yelling expletives in the footage of him in the bobsled.

Kelce, meanwhile, shared more of his bobsled experience in a lengthy Instagram comment underneath a joint post with USA Bobsledding. He said the bobsled reached 84 miles per hour.

“I thought this would be like a fun roller coaster, but man was I wrong. It started out quiet and smooth, but as we continued to pick up speed the intensity got higher and higher. The turns bounced my shoulders and head like I was back on a football field, the noise of the sled got louder and louder, rattling as if the whole thing was falling apart. Faster and faster we kept gaining speed until we topped out in turn 8 At 84 miles an hour. By then, my 280 pound body was being multiplied by 5 Gs and it felt like 1400 lbs was pushing me into the bottom of the sled, It’s metal rails I was sitting on bruising my hips. At that point, it was so loud I could no longer hear my own screams, which I’m not sure I was even producing because the air had been squeezed out of my body. Just as I wondered how much more of it I could take, I heard the relieving sound of the brakes.”

It sounds like bobsledding is not for the faint of heart. It definitely made Jost and Kelce have even more respect for the Olympic athletes who put their bodies through the wringer every time they get in the bobsled.


More Winter Olympics on Sports Illustrated


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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.

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