Skeleton Bobsleigh

I have been on the Army Skeleton Bobsleigh team for 3 years now and it truly is the most exhilarating and rewarding sport. The Olympic bobsleigh track at La Plagne in the French Alps had many of our team shaken, stirred and terrified in 2015. So many of the Army Skeleton Bobsleigh team were pleased to hear that the 2016 Championships were going to be held at Winterberg, Germany. This year we were really pleased with the amount of novice Skeleton athletes that came to compete at the Army Championships. We spent the week prior to the Championships being coached by Stuart Hayden. Stuart kindly came back to coach the Army team this year, which we were very grateful for.

After finally mastering corner 9 (which was no easy feat), I was able to retain my Army Champion title. For the men’s race, this year, the title was taken by Nathan Jackson, a very promising athlete, who has spent a great deal of his own time training and competing around Europe this season.The Inter-Services Women’s Skeleton Championships was a very close race this year. The Army women’s team beat the RAF team by just 0.01 of a second. Chelsea Ainsley, a novice slider from the RAF team, slid very well this year and is one to watch for next season. This year was the first year in a long time where the women’s Army team won gold at the Inter-Service Championships and I could not have been prouder of my team. Nicky Moxon, Sarah Raby and Rhiannon Graham all slid superbly. The men’s team also did us proud, winning silver.

The first British Championships under the newly merged British Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association took place the following day. Laura Deas saw off the challenge of fellow GB Skeleton slider Jor’dan McIntosh to claim gold. McIntosh capped her comeback season following brain surgery with the silver, whilst I took bronze, less than 24 hours after retaining my Inter-Services title. It was an absolute honour to race alongside such promising GB athletes. I hope this season that we see more novice sliders introduced to Skeleton as the sport seems to be going from strength to strength.