Olympic heart,
small town roots, big goals.
MEET KEN KOTYK.
Olympian
World Medalist • Performance Coach
Born and raised, along with his two sisters, on a grain farm in Rama, Saskatchewan, Ken Kotyk knows the value of hard work and perseverance. When he wasn’t at school or playing sports, Ken was shoveling grain and lugging farm equipment. In 1996, teenage Ken watched Donovan Bailey win the 100m sprint at the 1996 Olympics. He pointed at the TV and told his parents he wanted to be a full-time athlete and Olympian. The specific sport didn’t matter, although—as his career in sports shows—his short sprint is world-class.
Ken is known for his personal drive and focus. He has spent decades developing his physical and mental discipline, but he credits his initial desire to win to playing intense card games with his Ukrainian grandparents.
After high school, where he excelled at many sports, Ken attended the University of Saskatchewan to study Kinesiology, Physical Education, and Science. While searching for “his” sport, Ken joined the University of Saskatchewan track team, and also explored volleyball, Huskies football, and even finished with a season of shot put on the track team. In 2003, his sprint coach told him that Bobsleigh Canada was looking for fast 30-meter acceleration athletes. Ken immediately left his studies and drove to the rookie camp in Calgary and, one month later, was named to the national bobsleigh team.
Professional Bobsled Career 2003 - 2010
TRANSITIONS
As a member of Canada’s 4-man bobsleigh team, Ken made 12 World Cup podiums, earned silver and bronze World Championship medals (where his team set a track record in 2005 in Calgary), and achieved 4th place in the 2006 Olympics. By 2010, however, Ken was feeling the pressure of sport bureaucracy, the demands of training and maintaining a spot on the team, while dealing with bursitis in his hip and raising a young family. He gave his notice to Bobsleigh and Skeleton Canada and went home to the farm to regroup.
When Ken returned to Calgary that fall, he began his career as a Strength and Conditioning Coach at The Athlete Factory, moving in 2014 to Talisman Centre (now MNP Community & Sports Centre). During his time there, Ken was nominated twice for Impact Magazine’s Canada’s Top Fitness Trainer—in 2020 and 2022. In 2023, he was recruited to lead the Wolves Den facility at West Island College in Calgary. At the same time, he launched his own company, Kotyk Athletic Performance, as an independent Strength and Conditioning Coach.
Over the years, Ken has maintained his training and fitness. He still visits the icehouse at WinSport for the occasional bobsleigh push. Always attentive to form, he has, through time and experience, become even better at pinpointing and fine-tuning his own and his clients’ technical performance, and increasing efficiency through improved movement patterns. More recently, he has developed an interest and skill in opening minds to possibility. As Ken says, “We don’t know how much we have in ourselves until we challenge ourselves.”
These days, Ken’s main passions are fitness, family—including spending time with his two teenage daughters—and supporting others in reaching their potential through individual client sessions, motivational talks to youth teams, or even chatting with random people who ask about his Olympic ring. And when Ken needs time off to recharge, he does what he has always done: he goes home to the farm for a few days.
Biography by Barb Howard