Davidson de Souza grew up about as far away from a bobsled track as possible.
He was raised in a favela outside of Sao Paulo, Brazil, but the first time he slid down the ice at Calgary’s WinSport facility, de Souza knew he was home.
“It was pure adrenalin. It was everything I love,” he said. “I came down, got out of the sled super dizzy in Calgary.
“I was like ‘What the heck was that?’ And ‘Can I go up again?’ … I was hooked right away.”
That was more than a decade ago when de Souza was training with Brazil’s bobsled team. Now he’s a brakeman for the Canadian squad striving for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics.
De Souza’s path has had more twists and turns than the frozen tracks he slides down.
He grew up in an impoverished neighbourhood with his mother and brother, and started working at eight years old. Out on the cramped streets, he’d offer to take care of strangers’ parked cars, hoping they’d give him some coins in exchange.
“I was a good kid. My mom liked the kid I was. But I was a little street kid, too,” de Souza said.
At 12, he joined a local track program because it offered free food after practice. He transformed into an accomplished discus and javelin athlete, and when he was about 20, de Souza was approached about trying bobsled.
When the Brazilian team travelled to Calgary to train, de Souza’s life changed.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
“I loved it. I got in love with the sport right away,” he said. “And when I came to Canada, I got in love with the country, how people are here, how Canada is beautiful, the security, the safeness. Everything just got me.
“And I just told myself ‘One day I’m going to live here.’”
De Souza made the Brazilian four-man bobsled team that competed in the 2014 Olympics. Even in Sochi, he watched and admired the Canadian sliders, including Jesse Lumsden and Lascelles Brown.
“I can still close my eyes and see those guys doing bobsled,” de Souza said. “It was like ‘I want to be like them!’”
After the Sochi Games, de Souza returned to Brazil, sold his few valuables – including a motorcycle and a cellphone – and bought a one-way ticket to Canada.
He set up in Calgary, alone, speaking very little English and facing massive culture shock. He started working on his dream of competing for Canada, but stepped away from the sport a few years later after becoming a father.
“I just want to make sure my kids have me around as much as possible,” De Souza said.
The tug of competing continued to nag at de Souza and he returned to bobsled in 2021 when his two sons were old enough to have some understanding of their dad’s job.
“I wanted to do this and come back and show it’s possible to come out of there and be great at what you do with dedication and perseverance,” de Souza said.
De Souza was part of the four-man crew who raced to bronze at a 2022 World Cup event in Whistler. In 2023, he helped Canada take both gold and bronze at North American Cup stops.
The Canadian team spent much of November in Whistler training, and will have sleds competing when the North American Cup gets underway at the Whistler Sliding Centre this week.
While another Olympics looms, Canada’s bobsled crew remains focused on what this season will hold, de Souza said.
He has high hopes for a podium finish at the world championships in Lake Placid, N.Y., in March.
“We have a really good push this year,” de Souza said.
“I’m expecting to do a great job there and come out of there with a medal.”
When the Canadian national anthem is played, de Souza may an extra reason to sing along – after more than a decade in the country, he’ll soon become a Canadian citizen.
Competing for his adopted country at bobsled’s highest levels has long been the dream. Canada is the country de Souza fell in love with and the one where his sons — now six and nine years old — were born.
“It’s big for me,” he said. “It’s very important, meaningful.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press