Hello and Season’s Greetings to everyone!
Greg Cackett here. One part of the Equisoft | Altus Consulting – sponsored bobsledding crew who got a letter off Prince William this year that he probably didn’t write. Our pilot Brad Hall’s wonderful mum photocopied and laminated them for us which means, if she’s anything like her son, the original is probably on eBay.
In seriousness, for the last 4 years (I can’t believe it’s been that long, time flies when you’re avoiding getting a real job), the GB1 bobsleigh team have been proud partners of Equisoft I Altus Consulting. Our journey has been facilitated in no small part thanks to your time, investment and genuine interest you’ve shown in us in our journey.
After our Top 6 finish at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, we carried that momentum into year 1 of the next Olympic Quadrennial. We work tirelessly to repay the faith our sponsors place in us and I’m so pleased to give you a brief rundown of last year’s successes:
Year 1 of 4 year approach to Milan 2026 Winter Olympics
🥇European Champions (first GB crew ever to achieve this)
🥈World Championship Silver (first World Champs medal for GB since 1939)
🥇🥇🥇World Cup Gold x3 plus numerous other World Cup medals.
🥈Overall World Cup Silver Globe winners (4-man)
🥉Overall World Cup Bronze Globe winners (first for a GB 2-man)
From the early days in Brad’s Honda Civic, pitching to a receptive, albeit slightly bewildered Altus board, to where we now stand as European Champions and the World number 2 team, it’s been a wild ride. We’re over the moon that our partnership with Equisoft | Altus Consulting is continuing, which brings me onto year 2 of this Olympic cycle.
I’d love to say our second year of the Olympic quad is proving as successful as last year…
But it isn’t.
Year 2 of 4 year approach to Milan 2026 Winter Olympics
We’re all injured.
Yes, after a promising summer of performance improvement (winter athletes are built in the summer), each member of last year’s crew have been struck down with some sort of unfortunate sporting malady.
I picked up an extremely nasty hamstring rupture (my first injury in 6 years) which is thankfully almost better, Arran has had two surgeries on hernia/nerve related dramas, Taylor suffered with back issues and our fearless dicta… leader Brad has had to have surgery on a problematic disc. The latter causing us to miss the pre-Christmas competitive period.
We’re nothing if not gluttons for adversity, though. It would all have been terribly boring if we just picked up where we left off last year and kept winning stuff without any obstacles to overcome.
The decisions to have last minute surgeries, prioritise crew-health and sacrifice valuable World Cup points are all with the main goal in sight, that is, the 2026 Milan/Cortina Winter Olympics.
So far, the gamble is proving successful. Or the crew-health part at least. Moving the competitive goalposts has allowed the brakemen, myself included, to not feel pressured to return to top-level competition in the immediate term and it has given dear Bradley a chance to finally address the physical issues that have plagued him in recent years. We tend to make fun of each other a lot but there’s a lot of love and immense respect in our little crew. Brad is a sensational athlete as well as a world-class pilot and is influential in our start performances. I’m really pleased to report that his recovery from spinal surgery is going great. If this surgery proves to be the remedy for many years of challenging injuries, then we will be in a truly formidable position come Olympic year.
This year though…
So, what about this year? And what should you guys be tuning in for? Essentially there is a big fat asterisk on this season due to the injury situation and our delay in starting competition. But start we shall in Innsbruck on 16th/17th Dec with Brad likely ‘sitting-in’. This means our sled will weigh an extra 105kg with Brad’s svelte body already inside. The aim for this race is to get points, not to win. In the World Cup season, you are accruing points as you go race to race with a view to being ranked as high as possible come the World Championships in February. Our main goal this season is to build to a crescendo at the 2024 Winterberg World Championships and turn a challenging season start into another history-making finish.
If nothing else we’ll give it everything we’ve got, and no doubt regale you with more war stories at future networking events. Please keep following our journey as we endeavour to continue re-writing British history in sliding sports and thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support. It’s certainly never dull.
Greg Cackett OLY
For more information visit: https://www.teambobsleighbrad.com/
