Harrogate bobsleigh ace Axel Brown's Winter Olympic experience with Trinidad & Tobago felt 'like a win'

The 33-year-old, who captained the Trinidad & Tobago team in Milano Cortina, was successful in completing "operation don't come last" in the two-man event, finishing just ahead of Israel with an overall time of 2:51:05.

Ending up in 25th place in that 26-pair event meant that the Yorkshireman and his team-mate De Aundre John failed to progress to the final heat, but Brown was still absolutely thrilled with how the pair fared.

"It's absolutely mission accomplished," he told BBC Sport. "Me and Dre [John] have been able to do something special together.

"It was very special to stand at the top of the track with Dre.

"And I had my dad on the start line with me, and my coach Lee Johnston, who has been the cornerstone of this team and helped us make a team out of a bunch of misfits.

"For little Trinidad & Tobago to do this with no state funding is huge. To beat another nation at the top of their game as well, that feels like a win - it is a win."

A former American Football player and accomplished martial artist, Brown began his bobsleigh journey at the age of 21.

Having been very much in the picture as far as the Team Great Britain set-up was concerned, he eventually opted to switch allegiance and represent the Caribbean republic instead.

Eligible to do so as a dual-passport-holder thanks to his mother Carolyn, who was born in Trinidad & Tobago in the 1950s, Brown created a squad from scratch which then defied the odds to qualify for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games within six months of its inception.

They finished 28th out of 30 teams four years ago, ending up ahead of Brazil and Jamaica.

Qualification for this year's Games was even more tricky, with Trinidad & Tobago attempting, and successfully managing, qualification in both the two-man and four-man disciplines.

Things did not go quite so well for Brown and his team-mates De Aundre John, Shakeel John and Xaverri Williams in the four-man event as they were unable to finish the heats after a "fluke accident" left them without steering.

The German quartet of Johannes Lochner, Thorsten Margis, Jörn Wenzel and Georg Fleischhauer ended up taking gold in the four-man competition, with the European heavyweights also completing a clean sweep on the two-man podium, where Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer finished first.