Barrett Martineau

Barrett Martineau was born on September 4, 1991, in Calgary, Alberta. His athletic journey began early with Nordic combined, a sport he trained in for 12 years starting in 1998. During this period, he spent four years on the national team and made four appearances at the world junior championships. A significant turning point in his career occurred after the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, where he served as a forerunner for ski jumping and witnessed Jon Montgomery win a gold medal in skeleton. This event inspired Martineau to transition from Nordic combined, a sport that emphasized slow-twitch muscle fibers, to skeleton, which required the development of fast-twitch muscle fibers for explosive sprints.

Martineau made his international skeleton debut in March 2012 at a North American Cup race. He returned to the circuit full-time in the 2012-13 season, achieving podium finishes in eight out of nine races. In 2012, he secured a bronze medal at the World Junior Championships. His career progression continued as he began competing on the Intercontinental Cup circuit in 2013-14 before moving to the World Cup circuit in 2014-15. Over successive seasons, he secured multiple eighth-place finishes on the World Cup circuit, with the most recent in January 2017. Martineau represented Canada at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, where he finished 24th in his Olympic debut.

Martineau achieved Canadian National Titles in both the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons. He also holds seven America’s Cups and three Canadian National Titles. Beyond his athletic pursuits, Martineau has pursued academic goals, working towards a Bachelor of Business and Administration at Mount Royal University. His career highlights include a 13th-place finish at the IBSF World Championships in 2017. He continues to be involved with the sport as a Canadian Skeleton Coach for the Alberta Skeleton Association.