Britain’s first ever team to lift the bobsled world title in February last year are striving for a second win, ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. The pair that race Team GB’s women’s bobsleighs; Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke, have admitted that they are “learning how to now remain at the top”.
The two-man World Champions told BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday that they “had a great result in February and it has certainly been a busy summer”, so now their main focus is on performance – as they build toward an Olympic place.
Dubbed the ‘ice queens’ Minichiello and Cooke united towards the end of last season, with Britain’s number one bobsleigh driver Minichiello realising her national team needed to be strengthened in order to obtain podium finishes and medals in Vancouver.
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Originally competing in long-jump, athlete Cooke admits in the radio broadcast that she was contacted by Minichiello on a social networking site. Minichiello found a novel way of pinpointing specific athletes by surfing the social networking site Facebook.
She selected 20 women, all of whom she believed had the attributes to augment the team and fired off emails in the hope they would consider testing with Team GB. Minichiello wanted someone fast and through her research discovered that long-jumper’s successfully transfer enough power to be implemented as a break- woman for the sled.
Cooke’s short career in the bobsleigh event has been graced with victory, thanks to her strength and ability to apply force and also to project her weight at the start.
Minichiello spoke about the track she will be racing on, “I love the Vancouver track. It is the ultimate bobsleigh track, which is what I prefer because it is more technical and demanding on the driver. It is fantastic and bodes well for the Olympics.”
To hear the BBC Radio 5 live interview with Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke please see Bobsleigh team ‘progressing to new levels’.
Elinor Davies, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
