Winter Olympics: Army bobsleigh star's message to UK Sport funding

The Army's Nick Gleeson has called on UK Sport to "take a long, hard look" at the funding for GB Bobsleigh after their impressive performance at the Winter Olympics.

The four-man team, which includes Parachute Regiment soldier Gleeson and Royal Marine Taylor Lawrence, finished in sixth, despite having a much smaller budget compared to the other teams competing.

In 2018, UK Sport cut funding for GB Bobsleigh, meaning Brad Hall, who leads the British team, had to self-fund their Olympic dream for Beijing.

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With help from sources such as crowdfunding and charitable donations, the team managed to pull together enough resources to challenge at the Winter Olympics.

"I really hope UK Sport take a long, hard look at us," Gleeson told the BBC.

"We've beaten a whole host of nations with a significantly bigger budget.

"And we've done the last three years on a personal budget that is less than 10% of what these guys spend in a year.

"Obviously, we would have absolutely loved to have come away with a medal, who wouldn't, but realistically looking through everything we have gone through, everything we have had to do, everything we've had to sacrifice, top six is like a medal for us," he said.

In the same event, RAF star Shanwayne Stephens helped Jamaica to their first Winter Olympics four-man results since 1988 as they came in 28th in heat three.

That meant they failed to qualify for the final run.