Harrogate man's Trinidad and Tobago bobsleigh team to take on world at Beijing Winter Olympics
A man from Harrogate is set to lead the Trinidad and Tobago bobsleigh team in the Winter Olympics.
In December, Axel Brown and his team qualified for the two-man bobsleigh event for the first time in 20 years.
His mother, Carolyn, was born in Trinidad, but it was only in July 2021 that the 29-year-old gained his Trinidadian passport in his quest to reach Beijing.
Axel decided to pursue taking Trinidad and Tobago to the Olympics after training for several years with the Great Britain outfit, missing out narrowly on a place in the squad for the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
After gaining his passport, he then tried recruiting athletes and sponsors while working on a shoestring budget.
"It was literally at the point where two weeks before the season I didn’t have any Trinidadian athletes," Axel said.
"I was going to track and field training sessions in Trinidad with my timing gates and my kit on like, 'Hey do you want to join a bobsleigh team? We leave in two weeks'."
The country last competed in Olympic bobsleigh events in 2002, having also taken part in the two Games prior to that, but until last year it looked unlikely that they would have a team for Beijing.
Their story has drawn comparisons with the Disney comedy film Cool Runnings, which told the story of the 1988 Jamaican bobsleigh team's unlikely debut in the Calgary Olympics.
Axel said: “We are a Caribbean nation competing in the same sport and I’m the guy who has gone and recruited track and field athletes that have narrowly missed out in the Olympics. There are a lot of parallels, so I embrace it because I’d love to be even a part of that movie and what that sled of 1988 was."
He will take to the ice today alongside his brake-man Andre Marcano, who had never even been in a bobsleigh until after the opening ceremony.
They will be among 30 teams from all over the world competing in three heats spread over Monday and Tuesday, before the top 20 fight it out for the medals in the fourth and final heat on Tuesday.
Their aim is to reach the final heat although Axel is conscious they are viewed as the competition's underdogs.
He said: "Getting here is absolutely a great story, it’s life affirming stuff but we’re trying to stay focused and have got a job to do. Ultimately when I’m at the top of the track about to drive a mile of ice at 100mph, I can’t be thinking I’m happy to be here. It’s got to be game time."