Winning medals without sacrifice doesn't mean anything

A loss of funding in 2019 led to Britain's bobsleigh captain Brad Hall raising money privately before enjoying a period of historic success, he tells Yara El-Shaboury

- Yara El-Shaboury

For most athletes, a loss of all funding would signal the end. But for Brad Hall, Team GB's bobsleigh captain, it was the beginning of a remarkable comeback story.

The 34-year-old speaks about the financial shakedown of British bobsleigh with remarkable calm, as if it was a hurdle most professionals faced.

"I'll have to take you back in time a little bit," he says, reflecting on a period that could have ended his career. "We got a year of transitional funding until the 2019 world championships where we were told if we got top three we're able to maintain our funding. But we finished fourth."

It was a moment that would redefine not just his career but the structure of British bobsleigh. In 2019 UK Sport withdrew funding for the programme, leaving the team in a precarious position. It led Hall, who found out in his bedroom from a news article, to take matters into his own hands, launching a crowdfunding campaign.

The grassroots effort blossomed into Team Bobsleigh Brad, a self-funded entity operating with no official funding or support apart from private sponsors and donors.

"It was very disappointing at the time, but it was the best thing for us because it allowed us to rebuild the programme until the 2022 Games where I was pretty much running everything myself," Hall says of the Beijing Winter Olympics. "I was planning the season, the logistics, the athletes, the selection. It was very stressful going into those Games.

"We finished sixth, which was disappointing at the time, but it was enough to bring back the UK Sport national lottery funding. That was key to our success in the following years. It allowed us to bring in coaches who could do most of the jobs I was doing beforehand so I could focus on my performances."