Williamson is from Florida. Now a 2x Olympic Bobsledder. Yes, Really.

Josh Williamson grew up in Sanford, Florida. Bobsledding? Not exactly a Sunshine State conversation. So when he started telling people that was his plan, "obviously, I got some funny looks."

It was an Instagram rabbit hole that changed everything. He'd been following a few heavy weightlifters online, guys who were strong in the way he wanted to be strong. He had no idea they bobsledded. 

When he found out, he looked into the combine numbers. "When I looked into those numbers, I kind of just thought those actually might be doable for me." He was 20 years old, still in college, considered young for the sport. That summer, he went to a combine. "I decided to train for it and give it a try. It went really well."

That was July of 2017. Nine years ago.

Williamson moved to Lake Placid to train full time at the Olympic Training Center. He calls it his version of burning the ships. "If I'm going to miss weddings and things I really wish I could have been at, the only real way for me to make it worth it is to relentlessly pursue this." No half measures. All in. 

Once he made the national team and then the Olympics, the narrative shifted. "Everybody kind of thought, okay, this wasn't as far-fetched as maybe you thought." The people around him had been confused, not doubtful. "I honestly had a lot of great family and friends who were kind of confused, but at the same time were like, yeah, man, go ahead." They trusted him. And he trusted himself.

Coming off his first Olympics, the sky felt like the limit.

"I kind of immediately was just really optimistic about improving. I've made it this far in 4 years. If I can just continue this improvement exponentially, sky's the limit, right? And that's what we all think. That's what you should think." 

But sport has a way of interrupting even the best plans.  It was this mentality that carried him through everything that came next.

The injuries hit.

Right after his first Olympics, Williamson went in for hip surgery. Twelve to sixteen months of recovery. He fought back and was back, got himself going again, and then faced a knee surgery just a year and a half out from the Games. 

"There was a lot of doubt that came from both of those injuries." But he's quick to clarify what that doubt actually looked like. "It really was no question that I was ever gonna quit. I was more so afraid that the opportunity for another Olympic appearance would pass me by and that chapter would close." 

"I'd always identified myself as tough," he says. "But when you get injured a lot, you start to wonder. You realize you're not bulletproof." 

What made Williamson so tough was his ability to take a comeback in stride. 

“No matter how daunting the injury or the task, I continued. And that taught me a lot about myself." He pauses. “No matter what happened, no matter how hurt I got, I came back and improved. And to me, that was incredibly empowering."

The injuries handed him something else, too: clarity on why he was actually doing this.

“A lot of times you wonder if you love the sport, or if you love going to the Olympics." Forced off the ice, the answer became obvious. "I realized that I just really loved the sport. I love the people I do it with. I love how hard it is."

For young athletes still searching for their thing, Williamson's advice is rooted in his own winding path from Florida football camps to Olympic bobsled tracks. Keep whittling it down. Be honest with yourself. "Don't judge yourself for not liking something someone else does." Bobsled wasn't on his radar growing up in Florida. But he took a chance, followed his instincts, and found something he never expected. "I was born to do this sport, and I never really knew it. How often do you find something in life that you were meant to do?"

A kid from Florida who found his sport through an Instagram follow. Two surgeries and two Olympics. And a mindset, hard-earned and unshakeable, that he was always exactly where he was supposed to be.

ABOUT THIS SERIES

I'm Amy Wotovich, and I am on a mission to interview 100% of Team USA's 2026 Olympic and Paralympic athletes for Back The Team's series Inside the Mental Game of the Games — the most comprehensive mindset record of a single Games cycle. What do elite competitors actually believe about pressure, identity, failure, and joy? Josh Williamson is one of hundreds of athletes sharing their unfiltered answers. Follow the journey!