Nelson super excited after sporting switch
Ashleigh Nelson takes a major step on her quest to become a Summer and Winter Olympian this week when she competes for Great Britain at the Bobsleigh World Championships in Lake Placid.
Nelson competed for Team GB at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the 2016 event in Rio and the 2020 Games in Tokyo and she now has her sights set on the Winter edition in Milan Cortina in less than a year’s time.
The 34-year-old former sprinter only switched to bobsleigh in the summer after a stellar sprinting career that saw her win medals at world and continental level, including becoming the first British female to win a European Championship 100m medal for 40 years in Zurich in 2014.
Nelson won World Championship medals in the 4x100m relay in Doha in 2019 (silver) and Moscow in 2013 (bronze) but this week’s global showpiece will be an entirely different - and much colder - experience.
“I’m super excited, thrilled and happy to be at what will be my fourth World Championships but my first in a completely different sport,” said Nelson, who hopes to follow Montell Douglas in becoming the country’s second female Summer and Winter Olympian.
If someone would have said that I’d be in a bobsleigh at a World Championships a year ago, I would have laughed and said, ‘I don’t think so!’
“When you do one thing your whole life, people pigeonhole you and then you can have a tendency to buy into that, too. I’ve always just seen myself as a sprinter so I didn’t know if I could do this. I’ve had to tell myself, ‘no, you can do it. You are good enough. You can learn something new’. As you get older, when you start something new, you do second guess yourself, whether that’s in sport or not. This period has been self reflective and given me the belief that I can do anything I put my mind to.
“My career has never really been straightforward. I’ve had a lot of injuries and a lot of setbacks and that in itself gives you experience of doubt. I had surgery on my rec-fem (rectus femoris) and the doctor said I might never get back to the speed I was running the year before but then I ran a PB the following year.
Coming into bobsleigh, although I have had some doubt, it’s almost been like, ‘well people have doubted you before and you’ve doubted yourself as well and look how that’s turned out’. My athletics career has almost prepared me for this.
“I can’t believe we’re coming to the end of the season already. It’s crazy how it’s flown by. The only reason it’s flown by is because I have genuinely enjoyed it. I know this weekend will be a big step forward but I’m excited and I’m looking forward to it.”
Nelson’s journey to the top tier of the sport has been almost as fast as her 100m personal best of 11.19 seconds: she only had two bobsleigh races to her name before earning World Championship selection but she impressed significantly in her limited time in a sled and in push testing in Lake Placid.
Her first bobsleigh outing in British colours came in Winterberg just two months ago and her second saw her push Adele Nicoll to seventh spot in Lillehammer last month.
Nelson’s rapid rise began with a random social media connection with Nicoll and it’s now reached the World Championship startline for the last remaining four-heat race before next year’s Olympics.
“It all started when Adele messaged me on social media. We’ve got quite a few mutual friends on there and I’m good friends with Montell (Douglas) so I think I popped up as a suggestion for her after liking one of Montell’s posts. She messaged me seeing if I wanted to give it a go and I replied asking if she thought I’d be any good at it. She put the eyes emoji and that’s how I got into it,” added Nelson.
“There are quite a lot of similarities between track and bobsleigh in terms of the physical side of it but it’s a lot more intense and there’s a lot more risk involved. I feel like everything’s heightened.
Compared to Adele, who’s a shot putter, I’m nowhere as strong but I keep reminding myself that they haven’t asked me to be here because I’m strong - they’ve asked me because I’m fast. That speed is the main similarity.
“It’s not just as easy as come along and run, though. I’ve had to learn the technique of how to hit the sled and how to get the sled moving. I think I underestimated that beforehand, thinking I’d just be able to run. There’s a lot of technique involved and these girls are really impressive athletes.
“I’ve had to pick it up quickly. My sprinting ability is higher than some of the others just because I’ve been doing it since I was 14 years old and I’m now 34. That’s put me in a position where, because I’m one of the fastest, it’s given me an opportunity to make the team and that means I’ve had to learn the skills required to go with that really quickly.”
There are plenty of similarities and an equal number of differences between athletics and bobsleigh, but one of the things that Nelson has loved most about her switch from sprinting is the team ethos that surrounds every element of life as a bobsledder.
Nelson had the honour of captaining Great Britain in athletics and she looks back fondly on many of the relationships that she built within the sport but she insists the level of camaraderie, selflessness and support in her new sport is very special indeed.
This is really different in the sense that we’re a team. The sled can’t move without us working as a team. That’s the same in the garage; getting it on to the truck; getting it off the truck; flipping it; getting it to the block, and I’m really enjoying that side of things.
“In athletics, I’m used to turning up at the track on my own, with a pair of spikes. If there’s a relay involved, we might go together but it’s still quite individual: you do your own warm up; you come together for a few drills; then carry on with your own warm up before coming together again. You’ll even go out on to the track on your own. Yes, someone passes you the baton, but you’re still running the main bit on your own.
“Everyone’s had a helping hand away from the ice here, too. Kya (team-mate Kya Placide) has been extremely helpful: she’s taken me into the garage and shown me how to hit the sled with dry hits. It’s not just been me working really, really hard - it’s been everybody.
“I’m learning the calls on the block. We have a call and I kind of use that as my ‘on your marks, get set, go’. I’ve related that back to the athletics. There are definitely quite a few similarities.
“As for big differences, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to wearing a helmet, especially with all my hair! Whenever I take my helmet off, people seem to be shocked at how much hair I’ve actually got inside of it! It’s definitely a much colder experience and I’ve got a different race suit on but ’m just really enjoying the team element. It’s a nice, refreshing environment to be in.”
As for that ultimate aim of adding a Winter Olympics to the two Summer ones already on her resume, Nelson isn’t getting over excited just yet but there’s no chance she’ll shy away from another big challenge.
“Why should Montell be the only one who gets to say she’s a Summer and Winter Olympian?!,” joked Nelson, who has a huge amount of time for the athlete she’s attempting to emulate.
Montell is somebody that I’ve known for a very long time and have always seen in athletics and looked up to. I trained with her in London for a couple of years. She’s probably thinking, ‘you just copy everything that I do!’ so why not try and take it an extra step?!
“It’s challenging me in so many ways but I’m really enjoying it. I’m competing with the best in GB for a place in the team and you have to up your game because of that so there is always that little bit of doubt. That doubt hasn’t been about whether I can actually do this and learn a new skill, though - it’s more whether I can compete with the very best again.
“I’d love to do it but you never know what will happen in a year’s time - my experiences have definitely taught me that, just look at the last 12 months! They’ve also taught me how to work really, really hard so I’ll be doing that and then we’ll see what happens.”
World Championship schedule
All times are GMT
Thurs 6 & Fri 7 Mar
Men's Skeleton: Weston 1st; Wyatt 2nd; Bostock 18th
Women's Skeleton: Stoecker 8th; Coltman 14th; Tarbit 18th
Sat 8 & Sun 9 Mar
2-man Bobsleigh: Hall & Lawrence 6th; Baird & Butterworth DNF
Women's monobob: Nicoll 16th
Sun 9 Mar
Skeleton Team Event: Stoecker & Weston 2nd; Coltman & Wyatt DSQ
Fri 14 Mar
4-man Bobsleigh Runs 1&2 1pm
Women's Bobsleigh Runs 1&2 6pm
Sat 15 Mar
4-man Bobsleigh Runs 3&4 1pm
Women's Bobsleigh Runs 3&4 6pm
