'Only the beginning' for Welshpool Olympic bobsleigh brakewoman Adele Nicoll
Welshpool's Adele Nicoll insists it is 'only the beginning' for her Bobsleigh career after being earning a spot for Team GB at next month's Winter Olympics - less than two years after taking up the sport.
The 25-year-old had become synonmous with shotput having scooped a number of titles in the discipline.
However she will now be part of Team GB in Beijing after excelling in her new Bobsleigh career.
Nicoll has been the brakewoman for pilot Mica McNeill during qualifying with the pair scooping a silver medal earlier in the year - before hitting their qualifying time earlier this month.
And now Nicoll has discovered she will be part of the team as a reserve athlete in China.
It is a sharp rise for the Powys based athlete - who moving into Bobsleigh following the first Covid-19 lockdown.
She said: "I don't think anybody anticipated me coming into it and grabbing the reserve spot.
"First of all I needed to lose two and a half stone to race because of the legal race weights, so I spent most of winter 2020 and early 2021 losing weight and getting into bobsleigh shape.
"In the summer of 2021 I was learning all the technical parts and improving my technique ready for trials in 2021, and I secured my spot in the World Cup team and I was so excited.
"I hadn't planned anything past that year, so I am so proud of the progress I have made and I will now fully support the girls going into the games.
"This is only the beginning for me and this sport."
Heading to the games caps a remarkable rise for Nicoll - who is eyeing a place for Wales at the summer's commonwealth games.
It was while the Welshpool athlete was on the lookout for a new challenge that pilot McNeill made contact.
She had see videos of Nicoll training online and thought she had the attributes to become a brakewoman.
She got in touch with Nicoll and less than two years later the pair are heading to the Olympics together.
Following the team announcement, Beijing 2022 team leader Bruce Tasker said: “It’s really exciting heading into an Olympic Games with teams producing their best results ever.
"You cannot ask more of an athlete than to be the best they have ever been and both teams have achieved record performances this year."
