Female athletes sweep the awards board
British women secured a clean sweep of the athlete prizes at the BBSA Awards sponsored by PPWD Consulting yesterday evening.
There were female winners in all four categories - Bobsleigh Breakthrough Athlete of the year; Skeleton Breakthrough Athlete of the Year; Bobsleigh Team of the Year; and Skeleton Athlete of the Year - at the annual event at Saltford Golf Club close to the team headquarters in Bath.
Adelé Nicoll and Kya Placide took the top bobsleigh award, with Tabby Stoecker winning the skeleton version. Amelia Coltman claimed the skeleton breakthrough category, with Placide making it a personal double by winning the bobsleigh equivalent.
Placide only joined the British Bobsleigh set up in the summer and Nicoll had just one full season of driving to her name prior to the start of the 2023/24 campaign but they ended the year with a host of medals. Having won Europa Cup (EC) bronze in their first ever race together in December, they won the country’s first EC gold since 2017 when they triumphed in St Moritz the following month.
They placed 11th at the World Championships in Winterberg - a track Nicoll had never driven before and one that 19-year-old Placide hadn’t previously pushed at - and they ended the season with a stunning World Cup silver medal in Lake Placid in March. That podium place in the United States was just the second for a British female team at World Cup level in 15 years as they saw off the reigning Olympic Champion and the back-to-back Overall World Cup winner to end the season on an almighty high.
Adelé Nicoll and Kya Placide won Bobsleigh Team of the Year
Stoceker also tasted World Cup success in 2023/24 - again in her first full season of top-tier competition.
The former gymnast celebrated a sensational gold in the second race of the season in La Plagne in December, becoming the first British woman to win a World Cup race since Laura Deas took top spot in Altenberg back in 2015.
World Cup bronze followed in Igls a week later as she joined an elite list of just six British women to have won multiple World Cup medals, with the other five all going on to make the podium at an Olympic Winter Games.
December also saw her win Junior European Championship silver in Altenberg - another track at which she was a complete novice - and there was more success at the World Championships in Winterberg, as she finished fourth in the individual event and second in the team competition with Matt Weston. She beat her result from the previous season by a staggering 19 spots, missing a medal by just two hundredths of a second in the women’s race as she came within a whisker of what would have been a first female medal for GB since 2017.
In the team event, she produced the second fastest time of all 18 women to further illustrate her abilities on the big stage just two years out from the Milan Cortina Games, with all of her successes this season coming at the age of just 23.
Coltman came agonisingly close to a medal at the World Championships, too, as she capped a superb season with sixth spot in the individual event and a fine fourth-place finish alongside Marcus Wyatt in the team competition.
She finished just 0.09 seconds outside the top three in a 27-strong field in the women’s race in what was her first World championship appearance but she did make her maiden top-tier podium earlier in the season when she won European Championship bronze in Sigulda.
Tabby Stoecker and Amelia Coltman were the skeleton athlete winners
Performance Engineer, Conor Boden, won the Skeleton Staff Member of the Year category after making a big impression on the athletes during his first season with the squad, while bobsleigh coach and 1998 Olympic bronze medalist, Sean Olsson, was among those presented with his international cap.
After a hugely successful career as an athlete, in which he won multiple World Cup medals, finished fourth at the World Championships and featured in three Olympic Winter Games including that historic success in Nagano 26 years ago, Olsson began working with GB teams again during the last Olympic cycle and is now a key part of the team targeting success in Milan Cortina.
Olympic medalist Sean Olsson received his international cap
British Bobsleigh’s Performance Director (PD), Mark Silva, was thanked for his significant contribution to the sport as his time with the BBSA comes to a close at the end of the month. Silva leaves after serving as both PD and Development Manager and having had a hugely positive impact on both the short and long term success of the sport in this country.
Special thanks goes to Paul Davison, founder of PPWD Consulting, who kindly sponsored the event attended by athletes, coaches, partners, sponsors and representatives from the likes of UK Sport, the UK Sports Institute, the British Elite Athletes' Association and the University of Bath.
