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British shot put champion Adele Nicoll will make history in Milan-Cortina having been selected as the first British female to compete in the monobob at a Winter Olympics.
The event made its debut at the 2022 Games in Beijing, where the 29-year-old from Welshpool was a travelling reserve for the two-woman bobsleigh.
She is also named as the pilot for that event in Italy, alongside former GB sprinter Ashleigh Nelson while Cardiff’s Kya Placide is a travelling reserve.
Reigning World Cup and European champion Matt Weston leads the way for Team GB’s skeleton squad.
Nicoll has won the British shot put title three times overall and could feature in the event at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer.
Six British athletes will compete in the bobsleigh in total, with Brad Hall and Taylor Lawrence competing in the two-man event and being joined by Leon Greenwood and Greg Cackett for the four-man competition.
Nicoll said it is “surreal” to be in the team after her previous experience as a reserve in 2022.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” she told BBC Sport.
“Being in Beijing in 2022 and being the alternate, it was a scary position to be in because there was no guarantee I was ever going to earn that Olympian title.
“There was a little part of me that always believed it was going to happen and here we are, four years of absolute graft and I’m really proud I got through that time.”
Nicoll suffered a serious injury at the start of her season. Her spikes got caught in the ground during a training session, causing her knee to hyper-extend.
She has since however hit the best form of her career in the bobsleigh.
“Starting the season off with injury is never how anyone wants to start off their Olympic campaign but I’m really proud of how we pulled through that.
“It was a case of not sitting back and adopting a victim mentality, it was ‘right, this is the situation, how do we move on and get better?’
“The Olympic deadline wasn’t going to wait for anyone. It’s been such a battle and we’ve been fighting our hearts out every single week.
“We managed to finish with four podiums out of four at the Europa Cup, putting us into a really strong position heading into the games.”
The skeleton squad set to slide
IBSFIn addition to the bobsleigh team, Team GB has also announced the five skeleton riders who will be competing at the XXV Winter Olympic Games.
Weston and Marcus Wyatt compete in the men’s, while Amelia Coltman, Freya Tarbit and Tabby Stoecker compete in the women’s event.
Weston became the first British man to win three overall skeleton golds as he defended his World Cup title for a second successive season, while Wyatt took bronze.
Earlier this month Stoecker became the first British woman to win an overall skeleton World Cup medal for more than a decade as the 25-year-old secured bronze in Altenberg, Germany.
The BBC will broadcast more than 450 hours of live action from next month’s Games in Milan-Cortina which run from Friday 6 to Sunday 22 February.
