From TikTok to the Track: Australia’s Bobsleigh Duo Carving a New Path
Australians are increasingly finding themselves captivated by the dynamic duo of Desi Johnson and Sarah Blizzard, the nation’s two-woman bobsleigh team. Whether it’s through their engaging social media presence or their inspiring athletic journey, they are fast becoming household names. When asked how they’d like to be introduced to the wider public, Sarah Blizzard’s response is refreshingly straightforward: “I guess as ourselves.” This authentic approach is precisely what defines their burgeoning online persona.
Desi Johnson, in particular, has cultivated a significant social media following that complements her demanding sporting career. Her content creation has evolved into a full-time endeavour. What began as spontaneous TikTok videos during the COVID-19 lockdowns, featuring everything from home workouts to lifestyle snippets, quickly gained viral traction. Johnson has since honed her digital presence, amassing a combined audience of over 3.1 million across her primary social media channels. To put this reach into perspective, Johnson’s following is nearly five times that of NRL star Reece Walsh and rivals the social media presence of Matildas captain Sam Kerr.
“I didn’t realise the heights that it could take me,” Johnson shared with Wide World of Sports, speaking ahead of the Winter Olympics. “I could monetise off it, and [my digital branding] just started to get bigger. I didn’t realise I could turn it into a full-time job.” She emphatically stated, “If I weren’t doing social media, I don’t think I would be here today.”
Balancing the intense focus required of an elite athlete with the demands of content creation is a constant juggle for Johnson. “It can be very hard. It is a lot of work. You’ve got to have people to help you with everything because it is honestly so hard doing it on your own,” she explained. “The editing and everything takes forever. When I’m in Australia just training, I’m sitting at my laptop, or I’m on my phone 24/7. I’m constantly thinking of what I’m going to post tomorrow. This season I’ve tried to stay as focused as I can. It’s very hard to take it all on at once, but it does work together really well.”
Johnson’s audience has been following her bobsleigh journey since 2023, and her sports-related content is now fuelling a new wave of growth. Her life as an athlete and a creator has become mutually reinforcing. Johnson credits her digital success with enabling her to navigate the practical realities of being an elite athlete in a niche and expensive sport. Her social media career has effectively become her primary sponsor. Without the income and reach she generates online, she believes she would lack the financial means to fund her Olympic qualification alongside Blizzard.
“We’re a self-funded team, and it is very hard to buy new equipment, to be overseas. It’s the same stuff for Sarah,” Johnson explained. “It’s very, very expensive. So, being able to do social media and to build it up to what it is today, I’m able to pursue this dream. I believe it has helped me make the Olympics. So, I’m so grateful for it.”
Johnson’s social media presence is far from a casual hobby; it is her financial backbone, funding her Olympic campaign in a manner akin to substantial team sport salaries. “When you do this sport, most of us have to quit our jobs, and I did at the start, too,” she said. “So, it’s pretty incredible that I can say that my job is on my phone and I can take it wherever I go and do whatever I want. My audience is going to follow my journey the whole time.”
Johnson describes the gruelling, years-long journey toward Olympic qualification as pivotal. The narrative possesses all the hallmarks of a compelling story: mounting tension, the suspense of an uncertain outcome, and ultimately, the prospect of a true underdog success story at Milano Cortina 2026. However, the real value lies in pulling back the curtain on the complex, gritty, and often invisible work that takes place off the track.
“It’s really helped our visibility within the sport, and I think that’s an amazing thing with such a niche sport that people don’t really know about,” Johnson remarked. “People are getting around it, and I think there’s going to be a lot more people watching it at the Olympics, which will be really cool.”
Blizzard echoes this sentiment, noting that the most compelling aspects of the sport are often those that elude the television cameras.
“There’s so much to bobsleigh that people don’t know,” she commented. “Obviously, the sport itself is cool, but there’s so much more to it, and people are starting to see that, and I think that’s exactly what we want to get out of it.” Blizzard admits that while Johnson was the primary content creator initially, the platform’s success is now translating into commercial opportunities for her as well.
Often likened to “Formula 1 on ice,” bobsleigh is a sport where success is as dependent on superior equipment and cutting-edge technology as it is on athletic talent and flawless technique. At the Olympic level, speed is an expensive commodity, and acquiring the latest engineering innovations comes with a significant price tag. A single set of sled runners – the specialised steel blades that glide across the ice – can cost upwards of $15,000.
“It really does come down to the sled and the runners,” Blizzard explained. “If you have an old sled, you’re never going to gain any spots through driving alone. The sled that we have, I bought second-hand, but it is one of the more competitive models. There hasn’t been anything fast that’s come out since.”
This contrasts sharply with powerhouse nations like Germany and the United States, which benefit from multi-million-dollar budgets and exclusive partnerships with automotive giants like BMW. “They have their own, exclusive manufacturers that do insanely fast sleds,” Blizzard noted. “That’s a separate problem. So, unfortunately, it’s a sport where money buys good equipment. The more money you have, the better equipment you get. But I do think that we’ve gone above and beyond with the resources and the money that we have available. We’ve done a pretty amazing job to be here based on what we’re competing against.”
The first two heats of the two-woman bobsleigh competition are scheduled to commence at 4 am (AEDT) on Saturday. In a remarkable display of sportsmanship, Blizzard and Johnson have been training in a distinctive orange Team Netherlands sled, after Blizzard generously lent her own sled to the Dutch two-man bobsleigh team.
