Olympic champion Cynthia Appiah has yearned for this moment for years – a moment that has nothing to do with her sport.
The bobsledder has always wanted to compete in the Jepoardy!
This fall, after more than six years of applying for the quiz show, Appiah got his wish. Its episode will air on October 28.
“Honestly, this has been a lifelong dream,” she said in a telephone interview from Whistler, British Columbia, where she is back in training for the upcoming bobsleigh season.
“And I know it's funny to hear me say that, considering I'm training for the Olympics. I think most people would say it's a lifelong dream, too.”
Growing up in Toronto, Appiah watched “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” with my parents and siblings every weeknight. She often got into trouble for shouting out answers before the questions were fully read out.
“That hour was a time for us to be together as a family,” she said.
In May, Appiah finally received word that she had passed the quiz portion of the show's application process and would be scheduled for an interview.
Then, last month, she flew from her training base in Calgary to Los Angeles to tape her episode. Her sisters Martha and Evelyn came from Toronto to share the experience with her.
“Obviously I was in the middle of training,” Appiah said. “So as much as I was excited to go down, I still had my Olympic brain because I was like, 'OK, well, I need to get in and then go back to Calgary to continue training.'
The brief respite from strength training and gym sessions was a memory she won't soon forget.
“It was honestly a lot of fun,” Appiah said. “I kick myself a little bit for some of the questions I asked incorrectly, or some that I thought, “I should have intervened!” But ultimately I had a great time.”
Nerves began to run high in the studio, where she met the other members and had a chance to get used to the lights and sound before recording began.
As the game began, Appiah began her bobsled training.
“There were quite a few moments where I thought, 'Oh, I didn't get this right,'” she said. “And I was like, ‘You know what? Just like in bobsleigh, you don’t go around the corner right, you go to the next corner because you still have the whole length of the track in front of you.”
“And only when the race is truly over will it be over.” And that’s how I felt about it.”
There was a moment, however, when the Olympian felt starstruck – when “Jeopardy!” Host Ken Jennings made his first appearance to talk to the contestants.
“I’m sitting in the second row and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God. I'm sitting in front of Ken Jennings, the greatest of all time,” she said.
“But he's super cool, super laid back. We had a part where they were doing an interview mid-game and then doing an interview after the game, and he was super excited to talk to me. He was like, 'I've never met an Olympian and I've never met a bobsledder.' This may be my only opportunity!”
Jennings even signed her business card wishing her luck at the 2026 Olympics in Italy.
Preparing for the February Games is one of the reasons Appiah was committed to this show. A good performance could earn her much-needed money to cover the big expenses of the season.
“Little spoiler alert: I didn't do as well as I would have liked. So I had to create a GoFundMe to be able to fully fund my season,” she said.
Appiah knows what it takes to compete in the Olympics. At the 2022 Games in Beijing, she finished eighth in both monobob and double bobsled.
Great results have been achieved in recent seasons, including third place in the overall monobob standings in 2023.
Heading into the Olympic season, Appiah is feeling good about his craft.
“Whistler actually had my number for quite a while and right after the first week of sliding the coaches were very positive and said, 'You drive really, really well.' And time reflects that in speed and downtime,” she said.
“I'm very excited and I have all the tools to ensure I win a medal, but I'm really going to need the support of all Canadians to support me.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2025.
