Great Britain Targets Gold as Bobsleigh Season Commences

Great Britain’s bobsleigh team aims for a strong start to the global season, intending to build momentum towards the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, according to crew member Arran Gulliver. Pilot Brad Hall, an experienced athlete, has been a member of GB’s four-man team in the last two Winter Olympic Games. The season is scheduled to commence on Saturday, 7 December, with Team GB’s initial race taking place in Altenberg, Germany. The team’s objective is to reach peak performance ahead of the IBSF World Championships in March, held at Lake Placid in the United States, an event that combines bobsleigh and skeleton disciplines. Gulliver, 27, conveyed to BBC Midlands Today, “Obviously the big one is the Olympics – we believe we can win a medal there.” He further stated, “We want a gold medal. The best medal is the next one.” With the Winter Olympics approximately one year and two months in the future, Team GB is pursuing its first bobsleigh gold medal since 1964. Leon Greenwood and Arran Gulliver train at their base at the University of Bath. The four-man squad, designated as GB1, experienced injuries during the previous season, resulting in participation in only half of the year’s scheduled races. Gulliver and Leon Greenwood, who conduct their training at the University of Bath, became members of the team during the 2022-23 season. After a training incident in which Leon sustained a broken toe, Gulliver was given competitive opportunities. That season, the team secured Britain’s first four-man world medal in 84 years, earning silver in St Moritz, Switzerland, finishing behind Germany. Additionally, they achieved a historic milestone by becoming European champions for the first time in Altenberg. The primary competitor for GB1 is Germany, a nation that allocates approximately £2m annually solely to research and development. In contrast, British Bobsleigh received £120,000 from UK Sport prior to the Beijing Games. For the Milan 2026 cycle, the organization has been granted £2.8m, following a £900,000 increase in August 2023. Notwithstanding this augmented funding, Gulliver indicates a desire for their wages to keep pace with inflation. He elaborated, “It’s performance based – we have consistent medals coming in at championships.” He added, “We always want more funding – we know it will bring us better equipment. It’s on us as the athletes to get those results.” Gulliver further explained, “One of the issues we’ve been speaking about recently in the athletes’ sphere is the performance awards, the money that comes directly to us, that supplement our wages and help us train full-time.” He continued, “They haven’t changed for a long time now and an increase in them would be great,” while also expressing gratitude for the existing funding provided by UK Sport. The funding enabled Greenwood, 27, to resign from his full-time employment and dedicate himself to bobsleigh. He recounted, “I was working a full-time job, doing a 60-hour week and night shifts. One time I finished at 3am and then had to be on the track for 8am. It was tough.” He concluded, “We do get a little bit of funding and I’m grateful – it allowed me to leave my full-time job. If they want us to win that gold medal, that has to happen.”