Tobi Ade has a lot on his mind, a lot on his hands, and a body working overtime. By day he’s a professional civil engineer who designs residential subdivisions. Outside the job, Ade manages the rigours of being a competitive athlete for Canada’s national bobsled team. While the 26-year-old seems driven in different directions at the same time, Ade has a holistic view of his career goals and interests.
Always an athlete
Growing up, Ade was always active. Whether it was a track and field team in high school or recreational soccer. When asked to join a sport, regardless of whether or not he’s tried it, he’d jump right in. The daily minutiae of training, competing, and being a part of a team have always appealed to him — being an athlete makes him feel most like himself.
Rookie success
Ade was recommended by a friend to register for the RBC Training Ground, a nucleus for finding and supplying aspiring Olympians with financial assistance if qualified. Although he was seven months into recovering from an ACL reconstruction that resulted from a soccer injury, he was eager to prove his athletic prowess again. Ade performed well during the training sessions and was unexpectedly recruited by Bobsleigh Canada’s coaches to join their prospect pool, a sport he had no experience in.
In his first season, Ade was slotted as a brakeman in a four-man bobsled crew, finishing second in the 2025 North American Cup.
Towards the end of the 2025 season, they were nominating a team for the 2025 World Championships, the highest level of bobsled and skeleton other than the Olympics. Although Ade was told to just focus on the North American circuit in his rookie season, he pushed himself further, taking his training seriously just for a chance to make the team for the World Championships. He made the team, and placed in the top 20 in the IBSF World Championships in 2025.
“It’s when I realized I’m not doing this for fun anymore. I’m competitive and it’s my chance to do something big,” Ade said.
Art of being a brakeman
A perfect run in bobsled comes down to three things: a good sled, a strong push, and a smooth and controlled run down the track. As the brakeman, Ade is responsible for the push, contributing to a third of the overall performance by getting 210kg into motion seamlessly as fast as possible.
The push is crucial in generating speed and momentum. The average push in bobsled is five seconds, trying to cut a hundredth of a second if possible for an advantage.
Ade sets the template for how the run goes. Once the sled moves faster than the brakeman, that’s their cue to get in the back of the sled. Holding on too long creates unnecessary drag and only slows the sled down. Power and timing are key to getting off to a good start.
Once over the finish line, it’s the brakeman’s job to pull the lever and bring the sled to a safe and complete stop.
Bobsled requires lots of mental and physical fortitude. The track is only a minute long, but it feels much longer, constantly analyzing each corner you’re going into. At the start, you’re going 40 kilometers per hour, pushing up to 130-140 kilometers per hour while having to respond and react in milliseconds.
Ade notes you’re constantly thinking about what’s going to happen in the future.
He adds, “By the time you’ve thought about it, it’s already happened.”
A typical day of training for Ade consists of being at the track for over five hours. Setting up the sled, warming up, and sliding down the sled. His workouts focus on moving heavy weights fast at high speeds.
“Everyone is either very fast, strong, or both,” Ade said. “The science shows athletes who can move heavy weights quickly tend to perform better in bobsled, and it’s something I am really focused on.”
BALANCING PROFESSIONS
In the beginning, bobsledding was something Ade did on the side, as he still had his work life outside the sport. He goes to work during the day before leaving for training, even staying back to train a few extra hours to keep the edge he needs. By the time he’s home, he’s exhausted heading into work the next morning.
“It was hard to think I was taking this seriously”, Ade said. “I was trying to please people, especially on my work side, while also fulfilling everything I wanted to do as an athlete,”.
“It’s not like I could do either to 100% of their potential. I found it very hard. All I could do is be transparent and do lots of planning while still prioritizing sleep and training.” – Tobi Ade
Ade balances being a high-level professional athlete with his civil engineering career. Rather than trying to balance the two, Ade attempts to let one help the other. His work in civil engineering is more structured compared to the fluidity of his schedule in bobsled. At times, he’ll have to compensate at work by being transparent about his schedule to his work team and how much he is able to do.
“Rather than trying to balance the two, or trying to work on them separately,” said Ade. The way I’ve been approaching it, is to let them be one and together. I’m not only an engineer, nor am I only an athlete, I’m somebody who has tried to do both and is still figuring it out.”, Ade said.
Financial sacrifice
Sometimes a professional athlete’s life comes with financial sacrifice. Team fees in bobsledding are more expensive compared to other sports and can reach up to $30,000 per team member. Ade often deals with the strain of not having money for months at a time.
“A lot of athletes, myself included, are constantly thinking about whether we can afford the next season while waiting for team fees to be announced,” Ade said
Although Ade got his start through the RBC Training Ground, he did not receive funding from them to support his bobsledding career. Rather, he receives funding from the government and Canadian Athletes Now (CANFUND), a charity aimed at granting Canadian athletes financial support to represent their country. However, CANFUND only provides additional support and isn’t substantial enough for athletes to train and compete without having financial support.
“If there were more people who had more funding, you’d see more people in these types of sports. I found myself in a position where I can afford it,” Ade said. “Having a full-time job before getting to sports helps. Not everybody on the team has a full-time job and yet they still find a way to make it work to keep the dream alive.”
He adds, “Everybody puts so much into being where they are in that moment you gotta respect it. It’s not easy. It’s not like we’re getting paid millions of bucks to do this thing. Some of us are just doing it for the love of the game.”
More than competition
With the financial realities involved with bobsleigh, Ade had to put his career on the brakes. He was hoping to make the team for the 2026 Olympics in Milan, but with the level of skill and strength needed to get that slot, he was only named as a non-travelling alternate, just missing out on a racing spot.
Ade has ambitions to fully complete his engineering degree; afterwards, he hopes to get certified in the profession.
“At that point, it would be a pretty decent time to go back and see whether something’s left in the tank for bobsleigh.”, Ade said.
When Ade finished playing soccer, he came to terms he wasn’t playing sports anymore and found joy in other things. But when the opportunity to compete again came along, it reminded him that being an athlete was the best version of himself.
Although he’s taking a break from bobsled, the training and the routine the sport gave him will continue, and he still has plans of competing in the 2030 Olympic Games in the French Alps.
For Ade, a career in sports goes far beyond healthy living or having a healthy dose of competition.
“Watching how athletes train and push through adversity, responding to failure, captures a window into how to approach life. The discipline it takes to show up every day, the humility to learn from a loss. The resilience to keep going when it’s hard. These are the lessons which extend well beyond the track.”, Ade said.
