With each sprint he takes in training, 25-year-old Luke Puto is inching one step closer to his Olympic dream.
He’s on the road once again as part of the North American Cup bobsleigh circuit, following a few weeks back in his home province of Saskatchewan.
“There’s so much more to it than just getting in the sled on race day and seeing how it goes,” said Puto. “It’s nice to see it all start to pay off.”
Puto, one of the youngest members of Canada’s national bobsleigh team, is on a meteoric rise to becoming one of 15 brakemen across the country to compete on the international stage.
Beginning his athletic career on the ice in hockey rinks across Alberta and Saskatchewan, it’s been a ride that his family has been a part of for the last six years.
“We were standing at Whistler on a cool, windy day and I’m sweating because he’s coming down an ice tube at 150 [km/h],” said Luke’s father, Dallas Puto. “It’s exhilarating, but it’s also a little bit nerve-wracking, too.”
It was during his time in hockey that Luke’s family moved to Humboldt, where he was introduced to U18 AA Broncos teammate Jacob Leicht.
The pair would quickly become close friends on the Broncos, before Puto departed for the Saskatoon U18 AAA Blazers and Leicht moved up north to play for the Prince Albert U18 AAA Mintos.
In April 2018, however, everything would change following the Humboldt Broncos bus crash which would claim 16 lives, including Jacob’s.
“After the tragedy happened I was a little bit listless for a while wondering what I could do,” said Luke. “I didn’t have a direction, I didn’t really feel like going to school at that time. Things were kind of just in a rough spot.”
Following his lone season with the Blazers, Puto walked away from hockey and struggled to find the next path he would take in life.
That spark came months after the crash, as he assisted the Leicht family in cleaning out Jacob’s old room. It was then he discovered several pamphlets left behind by Jacob, including potential university options and one focusing on pursuing a career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
That’s a path in which Jacob had expressed interest prior to his death.
“It kind of hit me in that day that he had all these other dreams outside of hockey that he doesn’t get a chance to do anymore,” said Luke. “They disappeared with him on that day. For me, it kind of opened my eyes.”
With a fire to continue his athletic career lit, Puto began searching for potential sports to pursue at an older age and the first result he saw was bobsleigh.
He then competed in a local RBC Training Ground identification event and was able to connect with Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, who kept tabs on the former hockey star.
After years of training and getting his times closer to the national level, Puto was identified as a potential Olympic-calibre brakeman and has since competed on four-man teams with pilots Pat Norton and Cyrus Gray.
“He’ll need to get faster than he is now,” said Bobsleigh Canada push coach Quin Sekulich. “But that’s all of them, everyone needs to get faster than they are now, especially if you want to be competitive at these Olympics. That’s where we are as a team.
“Individually, if he continues to get faster, just cleans up his technique a little bit more and just keeps being a great team guy, he’s going to have as good of a shot as anyone.”
The 2026 Milan Olympics remain a career goal for Puto, who will be looking to add more World Cup races to his arsenal with a stop approaching in Lake Placid, N.Y.
He’s taking a very hockey-based perspective on the Olympic team, though, just taking it one race at a time.
“You don’t get quite so caught up in the gravity of what you’re trying to do,” said Luke. “In trying to qualify sleds for the Olympics and trying to get to the Olympics itself, but I’d be lying if it doesn’t pop into your head where you’re thinking about it.”
Still close with the Leicht family, the Putos credit much of Luke’s pursuit of elite competition to the inspiration that he received from Jacob and continue to honour the former Humboldt Bronco at their home in Saskatoon.
“I think we’ll always have a stick on our doorstep,” said Dallas. “He meant that much to the family and means that much to us. For Luke to grab that type of inspiration from him really is encouraging because though he’s not with us, he never leaves.”
Diving in with both feet into bobsleigh, Puto has turned his grief into a spot on the Canadian national team over the last three seasons and still thinks of that fateful day at the Leicht home.
He knows that every time he hops into the bobsleigh, there’s more than just himself powering Team Canada down the track.
“It’s become more of a full-time lifestyle to me than it is just a sport,” said Luke. “I have Jacob to thank for that, for pushing me in that direction.”