St Moritz Word Cup 7

From Konigssee it was on to St Moritz, Switzerland for the penultimate race of the World Cup season. We wound our way through the mountains, the temperature dropping fast and the light fading. Time was of the essence and we drove on with no stops until, about 4 hours in, Jo had to pull over to de-ice the windscreen as the windscreen wash had frozen. Gill, Fiona and Sarah made good use of the two minute stop to dive into the only available toilet – they were getting pretty desperate by this point!

Everyone comfortable again and windscreen de-iced we pressed on to the hotel to unload our bobsleigh and equipment into our designated parking space in the hotel’s underground car park. Once the sled was tucked in for the night and all equipment was stored in its correct place we had something to eat and headed to bed ready for training the next day.

As is always the case in St Moritz it was cold and Fiona discovered early on just how slippery the surface on the loading dock at the top of the track can be. As we unloaded our sled for training on the first day she went to pull it off the truck using a set of hooks and suddenly found herself flat on her back. You would have thought this would make her more careful but, just before her first run down the track, she ended up in the same position. Limbering up for the start she jumped in the air, slipped and landed horizontally on the ice. It was a good thing she had her helmet on as she hit her head with some force on the ground. Slightly dazed and maybe a little embarrassed, she picked herself up and carried on as if nothing had happened – sometimes you’ve just got to style it out!

It was a busy week since, alongside training and racing, final selections for the Olympic brakewomen were also taking place. The first day of training saw a switch of brakewomen as Fiona had a practice run with GB2 driver Paula Walker as she would be doing a push off in Paula’s sled against GB2 brakewoman Kelly Thomas. Conversely, Kelly had a practice run in our sled as, if she won the push off against Fiona, she would then go on to have a push off against Gill, this time with Nic as the driver.

The second day of training saw both Fiona and Kelly push extremely well with Kelly just coming out on top. To make it a fair trial the girls reversed the order for a second push off the following day with Kelly again marginally ahead meaning that she went head to head against Gill to determine who would race as GB1 and GB2 at the Games. This time Gill came out on top and the teams were confirmed.

We were also joined this week by the crew from Ski Sunday who were filming us in our preparation for the race. A good time was had by all as we showed them around our luxurious training facilities in the underground car park (yes, the same one that doubled as our sled garage), explained the mechanics of the sled and generally gave them a behind the scenes taste of life as a bobsleigher. In great spirit they braved the sub zero temperatures with us at the track and even joined us in the gym where our session quickly turned into a sudden death competition, the weight increasing after every round of lifts.

Gill lifted first, then Fiona and then Nic, the tension rising as the weight moved from 85kg to 90kg to 95kg, each time all three athletes successfully making the lift. By the time the weight was increased to 100kg knees were knocking and pulses racing with no-one wanting to be the first to fail. We had set a limit of 100kg as we were racing in two days time and didn’t want to adversely affect performance, therefore we all knew that if we lifted this final weight we would win or at least tie for first place. Gill was successful, Fiona was successful, a new personal best for her and that left Nic last to go and definitely feeling the pressure! Like the true competitor that she is she dug deep and made the lift leaving all three of us on a high, knowing that we were all in excellent shape and raring to go.

Race day dawned and none of us could have anticipated the events that were about to unfold. The race itself ended with a seventh place which equalled our highest place finish of the season so far.  However, the biggest story from race day seems to have been the race suit incident.  Gill's aerodynamic skin suit suffered a mishap on the second run leaving the whole world to see the power of a bobsleigh butt.

The suit split as Gill pulled the sled back into position for the start. Realising immediately what had happened she had a fleeting ‘what do I do now?’ moment before, realising that the countdown clock had started and there was nothing she could do, forced herself back into race mode, so much so that she actually forgot all about the mishap until she sat down in the sled – it was mighty cold! Nic meanwhile was oblivious to all the commotion, probably the only person at the venue who had no idea what had happened. All she noticed was that Gill had called ‘ready’ very early and she wondered what the rush was! She also couldn’t understand Gill’s reluctance to get out of the sled at the bottom of the track, why Jo was standing in front of the TV camera instead of helping with the sled or why an American athlete was running towards Gill with a jacket! All was eventually explained and we watched with interest as the clip became a You Tube sensation. At least now we know we can deal with anything!

Thankfully Gill's derriere was in pristine condition as a result of Sarah's intensive glute workouts. Since the clothing malfunction there has been renewed motivation and enthusiasm within the team for these daily exercises to improve our buttocks in relation to both appearance and function!

The day after race day we went back to the track to watch the four-man race and to meet with staff from Britannia Rescue who had come out to support the team and were due to get a taste of bobsleigh for themselves by having a taxi bob ride once the race had finished. While we waited for their turn to come around we passed on tips on what to expect and the best position to brace themselves in to really enjoy the experience. When the time came we made sure they were tucked into the sled and gave them a good push off. They all seemed to enjoy the ride and we hope to see them at another race in the future.

After an extremely eventful week it was time to pack up once more but, with an even busier week on the horizon, this time with both a World Cup and a Europa Cup race to fit in, we had one more day in St Moritz to put in two training runs to qualify us for the Europa Cup race before moving onto Igls, Austria. But that, as they say, is another story……….