N.C. bobsledder Manteo Mitchell discusses his training plans for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Photo by Madeline Ahmadi.
Story by Abby Pender
Earbuds in. Minnie Mouse on.
As the sun peeks out onto UNC Asheville’s track, Manteo Mitchell glides through the spring heat with powerful strides — not to the pulse of hip-hop or pop, but to the jingle of Minnie’s Bowtique.
“Welcome to my new bowtique. Where each and every bow’s unique,” Minnie sings in his headphones.
The peppy tune is actually a lullaby of sorts: A reminder of his 2-year-old daughter, which helps to slow his heart rate during his workout.
After nearly two decades of sprinting, 38-year-old Mitchell is now preparing for a different kind of track — one made of ice.
In 2026, he’ll trade his track spikes for speed suits in Milan, representing Team USA Bobsledding with a shot at history: becoming the first African American man to win medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.
Only six people have ever done it.
2012: Mitchell debuts in London
The bobsledder grew up in Shelby, North Carolina, where he started running track in high school after being “encouraged” by his football coach, Mitchell said. He then transitioned from football to track, competing in the 400 m, 4×100 m relay and 4x400m for Western Carolina University before going pro immediately after college.
“He has all the pieces of strength and the speed and power, but just having the grit of the moment — that’s what puts him over the top,” said UNCA assistant track & field/cross country coach Neil Young, who’s known Mitchell for 12 years.
In 2012, Mitchell was set to race the first leg of the 4 x 400 m relay in London.
But during round one of the second qualifying heat, he fell behind.
“Manteo Mitchell didn’t run particularly well at all, did he?” a BBC commentator noted during the race.
His reason for lagging behind? About 200 meters into the lap, Mitchell’s fibula snapped.
“I don’t know what just happened, but something just happened,” he said he thought to himself. “But I’ve got to keep going.”
Despite the injury, his three teammates made up for his lost time. Tied with the Bahamas for first place, both teams finished with a time of 2:58:87 — setting an Olympic record for the fastest recorded time in the first round of the 4×400 m relay.
During the official Olympic race the following day, Team USA replaced Mitchell, and the crew won the silver medal with a running time of 2:57.05. As a runner in the preliminary round, Mitchell received a silver, too.
“I believe that if I’d been there, we would have gotten gold,” Mitchell said.
Not once, but twice
Four years after Mitchell broke his leg in London, he was leaving a speaking engagement in Cherokee, N.C., when his steering wheel malfunctioned and he slammed into a 10-foot-high stone wall at around 70 mph.
Mitchell broke every bone and tore every ligament in his right foot — the same leg that gave out in round one, heat two, 2012.
His first thought upon awakening in the hospital? The next Olympic games.
“How am I ever gonna be able to get back in time?” he worried after understanding his condition.
Through physical therapy, Mitchell eventually recovered, though he missed the chance to compete for Team USA in the 2016 Rio Games. Both breaks, he said, might seem like huge issues to some but are “little” to him.
“It could’ve been way worse — and it was really bad — but there are people who go through way worse,” he said. “And I’m just grateful that I was able to not walk away from it right then, but I’m walking away from it now.”
From summer to winter
Mitchell’s transition from track to bobsledding began during a time of uncertainty. He was — and then wasn’t — training for the 4×400 relay at the Tokyo Olympics.
Originally scheduled for 2020, the Tokyo Games were postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19, and Mitchell was told the Games likely wouldn’t happen.
“A lot of people like myself just stopped training,” he said. “Also, there was nowhere to train. Everything was closed up.”
The uncertainty surrounding the Games, paired with a difficult mental patch, led Mitchell to consider retirement.
But while visiting Manteo, his namesake town in the Outer Banks, Mitchell received a call from Aaron McGuire, the CEO of USA Bobsled-Skeleton and former associate director of international teams for USA Track & Field.
McGuire still had Mitchell’s number from his time working closely with the track team.
“I was like — Are you serious? What is that? What? I don’t even know what that is,” he responded.
“Have you seen Cool Runnings?,” McGuire asked.
“Oh — that,” Mitchell responded. “No, that’s too cold.”
But after some persuasion, Mitchell agreed to give it a try. A few weeks later, USA Bobsled-Skeleton flew him to Lake Placid, N.Y., to give the sport a shot.
In New York, things clicked. Mitchell said he “crushed” the combine, and the team soon took him to Park City to try the ice.
“In track and field, you’re just running, but you’re still doing lifting and plyometrics and that stuff,” he said. “But in bobsled — it’s just like Nascar on ice, but you’re the pit crew.”
Since that trip to Park City, Mitchell has made the national team every year.
A new take on strength
A four-person bobsled crew typically consists of a pilot, a brakeman and two pushers. The pilot hops in first to drive the sleigh, then is joined by two pushers and accelerated by the brakeman — the last man into the bob.
Mitchell, the brakeman, said the training consists of “a lot of running, it’s a lot of jumping, it’s a lot of throwing, it’s a lot of lifting, it’s a lot of reps on the ice, reps on the dry land track,” he said. “And it’s a lot of camaraderie.”
Building a team is difficult, Mitchell noted, because each of the four guys in a sled must come together and bond out of a pool of over 100 American bobsledders who compete at the international level. Team USA’s final team of four could be anyone out of those 100, he said.
“You have to build a family off of that and very fast,” he said.
If one person is having an “off day”, the crew of the sled must put together a game plan for how to continue a strong run.
In addition to building strength and speed through physical training, Mitchell is placing critical emphasis on what he considers even more important: the mental game.
He said people don’t realize how much strengthening the brain can enhance performance.
“It’s just a crazy attribute that you can add that most people either are afraid to pursue or just don’t know about,” he added.
Since 2016, Mitchell has been going to the Apex Brain Center, an immersive brain training facility that works with people who suffer brain injuries as well as high-performance athletes.
After his car accident, he said, “physically I was able to get back in shape, but mentally I was gone.” While training for Rio, he said he would get to a certain point in the track and just freeze — his mind becoming a black screen.
“I couldn’t understand or realize where it was coming from,” he said, so he started seeing specialists at the brain center.
Together with Dr. Henry Zaremba, he does a variety of exercises such as metronome training, eye tracking and tongue vibration therapy that aim to sharpen his reflexes and speed up his reaction times.
“This is probably more intensive than my actual workout,” Mitchell said while trying to remember a series of fruits and animals on an iPad while standing on a vibrating platform.
Zaremba, who joined the facility in 2002, became interested in neurological training after suffering a concussion while playing hockey for UNC-Chapel Hill. Strengthening the connection between mind and body, he said, can enhance situational awareness, self-regulation skills and anxiety control.
“That’s just as crucial for performance as anything else,” Zaremba noted.
Mitchell said this brain training is what truly gives him an “edge” over his competition.
On the sliding track, he said, everything within the 46-52 second sled run counts, so doing these brain exercises increases his amount of self-regulation, which can allow better core balance and strength — hence a better push.
2026 and onward
Mitchell was one of the first athletes to train at the United States Performance Center in Charlotte, which was founded in 2012 for high-performance athletes to engage in highly specialized training programs. The center has attracted athletes from 15 U.S. Olympic sports.
He said he’ll transition from training in Asheville to Charlotte around May and then travel to Lake Placid to train on a sliding track for two weeks out of every month between June and September. From September onward, he’ll train full time in New York.
The official USA Bobsled team will be decided around October, but Mitchell notes that he and some of his teammates have an idea of who might qualify based on how “the last few years have gone.”
Currently, he’s solo training on the UNCA track around college cross country runners and former running mates-turned-coaches.
In between workouts, Mitchell cheers for the college runners — though he doesn’t hesitate to call them out if they’re slacking. And he said he never denies anyone who wants to meet him or grab an autograph, because he knows even two or three words can inspire someone.
“I’ve always looked at myself as, not like the ‘it’ factor, but just someone who can help anyone,” he said.
Past 2026, Mitchell said he looks forward to spending more time with his wife and two kids — a 12-year-old son and almost-2-year-old daughter.
His daughter is named Melody, a reflection of both his training and the rhythm he values on the track. Listening to Minnie Mouse reminds Mitchell of his daughter and helps him to relax during intense training sessions.
“I do miss a lot of moments that are key, whether it be happy or sad, like missing funerals or family reunions or birthdays or anniversaries,” he said. “I miss a lot of those things, but my family also understands that this is short term.”
Growing up without a father or a stable household, he said his kids already have the tools to success that he didn’t.
“I didn’t have a lot of access, but there were some key individuals that helped me get to the position that I’m in and I’m grateful for them,” he said. “To be able to be that key individual for my kids is what I hope to give them.”
Neither of his children have ever seen him race before, but he said maybe the stars could align this winter.
A push toward history
The last American to double-medal in both the Summer and Winter games was Eddy Alvarez, who won a silver medal in speed skating at the Sochi games in 2014 and a silver medal in baseball in 2020 in Tokyo.
Though Mitchell could be the first African American man to medal in both Summer and Winter games, he said he feels no pressure.
“At the end of the day, if I don’t get it, I don’t get it,” he said.
“Being able to uphold a standard” for the African American community is not something Mitchell takes for granted, he said.
What resonates most with Mitchell about the possibility of medaling this winter is not necessarily about race, but about sparking interest in young athletes to pursue athletics because they see him achieving.
But even if he doesn’t medal, Mitchell will be proud of being able to transition from one sport to another with completely different body assessments, training and environments.
“To be able to overcome those obstacles — to be the best athlete they can be not only in one sport but in two that are totally different — that’s the medal in itself,” he said.
