Luke Puto, inspired by Broncos crash victim, sets sights on Olympics

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It has left Puto chasing the Olympic dream in the sport of bobsleigh and not hockey, the sport he grew up playing in Humboldt and later Saskatoon with teammates who would be on the Humboldt Broncos bus that crashed back on April 6, 2018.

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Luke Puto ultimately found inspiration and motivation through tragedy.

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It has left him chasing the Olympic dream in the sport of bobsleigh — not hockey, the sport he grew up playing in Humboldt and later Saskatoon with teammates who were later on the Humboldt Broncos bus that crashed on April 6, 2018.

Today, Puto is a member of Bobsleigh Canada’s national team. He’s set to make his World Cup debut next week in Germany as a brakeman for Canada’s four-person crew piloted by Pat Norton.

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It’s been a long journey for Puto, with many twists and turns along the way.

The aftermath of the Broncos crash proved to be life-changing for Puto, as it was for so many others.

One of his best friends growing up in Humboldt was Jacob Leicht, one of the 16 people who were killed.

Puto was also good friends and a former teammate of then-Broncos goalie Jacob Wassermann, who was seriously injured in the crash.

“When I quit hockey, I didn’t really have an intention of going back into sport,” recalls Puto, who played hockey for the Saskatoon AAA Blazers under-18 squad with Wassermann and attended some junior camps before leaving the sport.

“I was kind of going to go to school, do my studies and then live life. But when we were dealing with all of that (bus crash) … It was so surreal because I remember talking to them about all the different goals and dreams and things they wanted to do and I remember having all those goals and dreams and then coming to a realization that, for them, in the case of Jacob Wassermann, they were going to be very different.

“He’s done incredibly well with what’s happened (becoming a Paralympic rower) — and, with Jacob Leicht, his dreams were never going to be realized.

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“For me, I kind of took a long look at where I was going with my life, whether or not that was actually what I wanted to do or whether there were still things I could do, or try to do, that would be more in line with what the dreams were like when I was in high school.”

Childhood friends with Jacob Leicht

Puto developed a close friendship with Leicht and Tyson Hergott after moving to Humboldt from Red Deer as youngster.

“We would play sports all the time together, video games, bikes,” Puto said of the trio.

It was Leicht who posthumously become the “catalyst” and the spark Puto needed to pursue bobsledding. One could say that his bobsleigh career is in some ways a part of Leicht’s legacy.

“He was such a good guy to talk to,” Puto says of his childhood friend. “He was always so kind. You could tell him just crazy dreams or crazy things you want to do. He would never be the type of person to tell you, ‘Well, that’s just dumb’ or whatever.

“He was very big on letting people talk about the things they wanted and supporting them. That’s kind of where the inspiration came to pursue more of the dreams rather than just kind of start life (outside of sports).”

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That road has seen many setbacks along the way. Puto’s first exposure to bobsleigh came in 2019 through the testing combine and rookie camp. Unsuccessful in his first two tries, he came back for the third time in 2022 and finally made the team.

However, a freak gym accident — which resulted in a broken foot from a falling weight plate — put the brakes on the 2023-24 season.

Making the national team this season and getting an opportunity to compete in the World Cup a year before the 2026 Winter Olympics has him back on track.

“Honestly, it’s pretty incredible,” admits Puto. “I’ve been a part of this program before, but last year, I had some injuries and some other stuff come up and I wasn’t sure I was going to get to come back again. I’ve come through all the injuries and all the kind of stuff that was going on.

“To get back here means an awful lot. First off, it was a relief. I put in a lot of time and a lot of work and a lot of travel and stress on my family and people I know, to get all this stuff done. I’m just proud it all came together in the end.”

It gets him closer to the Olympic dream, which is now an “Olympic goal,” he says.

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“Absolutely. The path gets a little clearer every year. You start to see it as less of a dream and more of a goal, especially as you get into the last two years of this quad (four-year cycle) and you can start to see what it’s going to take to get there and there’s more of a plan in place for how you can do it.”

So why bobsledding? What does he love about the sport?

For Puto, it’s a very scientific sport, very technical.

An accountant by trade, he loves crunching numbers and there’s no shortage of data to analyze when it comes to bobsleigh racing.

“There are two things that kind of keep me coming back to this crazy sport. First of all, I love the precision that’s involved with our sport. When you look at it from the surface, it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of little things that go into bobsledding. It’s just like ‘the driver drives it down the track and that’s kind of the end.’ But, behind the scenes, there are all kinds of things.

“We change the weight of the sled, we will change the balance of the sled by moving into different parts of it. We wax the sled. We do a lot of stuff with aerodynamics. We do a lot of stuff with how we push the sled, techniques that are involved. There are multiple theories behind how to push the sled the fastest.

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“There’s all kind of nuanced pieces to it that you can’t really tell on the surface. Once you get into it, there’s a lot more to the sport — at least when I started, I thought there was. It keeps me constantly entertained and constantly focused because there’s always something else you can do a little bit better or you can try to do a little bit different to get a little bit better outcome.”

The second reason is simply speed.

“Speed is something I’ve always been interested in, and this is kind of one of the closer ways to get involved in something that’s faster than you can drive a car on the road most of the time. For the thrill of it is kind of really what keeps you there too.”

Humboldt’s Olympic tradition

Born in Prince Albert, Puto moved to Humboldt from Red Deer as a youngster with his parents, who were teachers. They retired last year and have settled in Saskatoon, where Puto is employed with the Deloitte accounting firm.

When he’s not competing on the bobsleigh circuit, he splits his time between the Saskatoon and Calgary offices.

Should he go on to make Canada’s Olympic team, Puto would join Humboldt’s growing list of Olympians that includes current Bobsleigh Canada coach Lyndon Rush, Brianne Theisen-Eaton and Paige Crozon, along with Paralympian Wassermann.

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Puto says he’s proud to having graduated from HCI and points to how the city of Humboldt rallied and came together in the face of tragedy.

“(The bus crash) has always been something really tough … but it also was a reminder of how powerful that community can be, in general; having all these people come together and having people by your side means a lot, especially with something like that happening.”

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