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The FIBT announced that women are now allowed to compete in four-man bobsled events. Before this change, women only competed in the two-women bobsled races, while men competed in both two-man and four-man competitions.
For the upcoming season, it looks like their will be only women drivers, with the pushers going to be only men.
2010 and 2014 Women's Two-Man Bobsled Gold Medalist Kaillie Humphries has expressed interesting in the past in piloting a four-man sled in the past and wants to be able to race one in the upcoming season.
In a world of growing gender equality, the fact that women are allowed to start racing in four-man competition now may seem late, but not surprising considering the sports past. Four-man bobsled has been at every Winter Olympics while the two-man was first held at the Olympics in 1932. Two-women bobsled was first held only twelve years ago in Salt Lake City.
Hopefully, this is the start of one-day having a four-man bobsled team of four women. There are many quality women bobsledders in the world who will seize this opportunity and soon be in the elite of the four-man. This announcement has been way overdue. I expect there to be teams of predominately women competing in the World Cup within the next three years.
The next question is whether or not women will be able to compete for the four-man at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. The FIBT President Ivo Ferriani said it was "too soon" to speculate. It would be great to see a team with women competing for medal in Pyeongchang, but considering the lack of spots (Canada had onlythree teams make the 2014 Olympics) it would be surprising to see many women competing However, a couple experienced pilots, like Humphries, could qualify in the four-man.
