A Mercerian competed in bobsled events in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina and earned fourth place in the two-man competition. Josh Williamson and partner Frank Del Duca earned the best position for the U.S. men’s bobsled team since 2014.
Williamson, a Sanford, Florida, native, was recruited by Mercer University to play lacrosse and joined the team as a freshman in 2015, fulfilling his longtime dream.
“It was a really big goal of mine from childhood to play Division I lacrosse,” he said. “Even though my life went another way, I still look back on that really fondly.”
Williamson said he had a great experience at Mercer but injuries and financial factors led him to transfer to Florida State University — where he later earned a marketing degree — before his sophomore year.
“It took me three months of not being an athlete to realize that I wanted and needed to do something. It was the first time in my life I wasn’t playing a sport,” he said.
Williamson stumbled across the sport of bobsled and saw that the training was similar to lacrosse in that it focused on strength and speed.
“I came into it for the physical aspect. I think we really cater to people that are into what we do, the training we do. We are some big, strong, fast athletes, so if you look up to that stuff, you gravitate toward the sports like bobsled that involve that,” Williamson said. “I was born to do this. I just didn’t really know it.”
By summer 2017, he had participated in his first combine, an open recruitment tryout, and won Season 1 of NBC’s “Scouting Camp: The Next Olympic Hopeful,” a talent search organized by Team USA. He competed in his first events in the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation’s World Cup later that year.
“I immediately showed that promise,” he said. “For most athletes in our sport, it’s post-collegiate. It’s a second sport for most everybody.”
Since then, Williamson has turned bobsledding into a professional career. He and his wife, Kristen, a Canadian bobsledder whom he met on the competition circuit, live in Lake Placid, New York, the training headquarters for USA Bobsled-Skeleton.
“Bobsledding has given me a lot, but definitely the best thing it’s given me is my wife,” he said.
Williamson is a push athlete, one of the teammates who run and push the sled at the start of the race, and a brakeman, the teammate who is last to jump on the sled and responsible for pulling the brake lever at the end of the race.
“Ultimately, the most important thing you do is push. That’s the only time you can truly gain an advantage. You can’t truly gain time (otherwise). The push is so important to us,” he said.
He trains through weight lifting and sprinting, as well on the Lake Placid facility’s “push track.” The bobsled competition season runs from November to March, during which Williamson competes in eight events and a world championship with the U.S. men’s team. During the off-season, he takes a little time off but continues to stay active and train.
Williamson competed in his first Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022, where his team placed 10th in the four-man race.
“That was really creating that atmosphere of learning the sport, improving personally at the sport, and getting over the hurdle of making the Olympic team,” he said. “After my first Olympics, I was very excited to build off of that.”
Bobsled is a tough and rough sport, and injuries are common. Williamson underwent hip surgery following the Beijing Olympics, a recovery that took more than a year, and knee surgery in 2024, which he bounced back from after four months.
“A lot of times, I wondered if I would be able to come back to it. But it was empowering that I came back,” he said.
A fourth-place world championship run proved that he was ready for the 2026 Olympics, and this time, he focused on taking his performance to the next level.
In Italy, he was part of a four-man team that took 12th place and a two-man team that earned fourth place, the latter being the U.S. team’s best finish since the 2014 Olympics. The team was half a second away from the third-place medal. Williamson said it was a bittersweet experience.
“You’re very proud of what you’ve done, but at the same time, fourth place is one of the hardest places to be in the Olympics,” he said. “I’m really proud of what we did, but I find it motivating to try to change that next time. I’m proud to be a part of such a historic finish for the U.S. in the Olympics.”
Williamson is now looking toward the Olympics in 2030 in France and 2034 in Salt Lake City. He is hoping for fewer injuries and more improvements as he continues to train.
“My big thing is heading into this quadrennial with a little more perspective,” he said. “I know very strongly that I’m going to push through (the obstacles) no matter what. It’s about being really ready in four years and playing the long game to improve off that fourth place and get onto the podium. As long as my body will let me and I’m good enough to make the team, I want to continue. Until I’m not enjoying it, I want to keep doing it.”
Williamson said he enjoys getting to highlight his Mercer connection, especially around the Olympics. He recently was invited to join a Mercer Class of 2019 group chat with alumni he played lacrosse with as a freshmen, and that reintegration into the world of Mercer lacrosse has been fun for him.
