Pilot, pusher or brakeman? Which bobsleigh position suits your athletic type, how entry works in Germany and where the injury risk really sits.
Short and honest: if you enter bobsleigh as an adult, you will very likely become a push athlete — not a pilot. Push athletes are recruited deliberately through trials and combines, and the biggest talent transfer comes from track and field (sprint, jump, throw) and American football [1]. The pilot route, by contrast, usually starts early and directly: most pilots begin as pilots, and switching from pushing to steering is the rare exception [5].
That may sound like a rejection. It is not — it is the best news the sport has. The position with the most open door is also the one where your existing athleticism counts immediately.
A two-man bob carries a pilot and a brakeman; a four-man adds two more push athletes. Everyone pushes, everyone loads, one steers, one brakes at the end. And you are not moving a toy: an empty two-man sled weighs at least around 170 kilos, a four-man around 210 [7] — plus crew, and in competition up to 630 kilos total for the four-man [7]. That is roughly a small car that four of you accelerate past 40 kph.
One more number belongs in an honest position choice: across a measured World Cup season, pilots sustained more injuries than push athletes [2]. Frequency and magnitude of head events, however, barely differed between positions [2].
This is the position for career changers. You bring sprint and explosive power, the club brings sled and technique. Clubs such as MSC Magdeburg train push athletes deliberately, often as a second chance for athletes from other sports, sometimes starting at around 18 [3]. Your job in the race is tightly bounded and maximally intense: five seconds flat out, load cleanly, sit still.
The last person in the sled operates the brake after the finish line. In the two-man that is automatically the second person, in the four-man the rearmost. Athletically it is the same role as pushing — with one added responsibility in the outrun that coaches teach you step by step.
Pilots steer the movable front runners via rope pulls and carry responsibility for the line. The path there is typically an early, direct entry as a pilot [5]. Switches from pushing to steering exist but are rare — one well-known example is an athlete who started as a pusher at 18, won Olympic gold in 2018 and later moved into pilot training [5].
The trial tests exactly what the push demands: short sprints, standing broad jump, shot toss, squat and power clean [1][4]. Federation reference marks: 45 metres in 5.10 seconds (men) and 5.60 seconds (women), standing broad jump 2.21 metres and 1.85 metres [4] — these are best-score marks, not admission requirements.
Do you want to deliver five seconds of maximum physical output? Push. Do you want to learn a craft over years and carry responsibility for three other people? Pilot. A good pusher is not a failed pilot — these are two different professions.
All positions ride the same sled and share the same ice-track risk. This guide explains roles, it does not replace training: loading, unloading, braking and every contact with a moving bob are learned exclusively under the supervision of qualified coaches.
Piloting carries a special responsibility: whoever steers decides the safety of the whole crew. That is exactly why the training path is long and federation-bound — and why this guide deliberately contains no steering instructions.
Measure yourself before your first trial: 30-metre sprint, standing broad jump, maximal squat, body mass. Send those four numbers with your enquiry to the club — no motivation letter, just data. Bobsleigh coaches think in combine values [1][4], and an email with measurements lands in a completely different category than "I'd love to try sometime".
As a career changer you almost always start as a push athlete. That position is filled deliberately through combines and trials, mainly with track and field athletes and footballers [1]. Pilots, by contrast, mostly start in that role from the beginning; switching from pushing to steering is rare [5].
Across a full World Cup season with sensor mouthguards, pilots sustained more injuries than push athletes [2]. Frequency and magnitude of head accelerations barely differed between positions [2] — everyone in the sled shares the same baseline loading.
The biggest talent transfer comes from track and field — sprint, jump, throw, combined events — and from American football [1]. In Germany, clubs such as MSC Magdeburg deliberately develop push athletes, often as a second career chance for athletes from other sports [3].
Top push athletes run 100 metres in under about 11 seconds [4]. Useful reference points are combine best marks such as 45 metres in 5.10 seconds for men and 5.60 seconds for women, plus a standing broad jump around 2.21 and 1.85 metres respectively [4]. The mix of speed and strength is what counts.
Through the national bobsleigh and sledding federation and its clubs: 9 regional associations, around 80 clubs, some 7,000 members [6]. The federation organises trials, squads and the central push test before the season [3]. The direct route is an email to a club near a track.
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