Harrogate's Adam Baird on icy road to Winter Olympics

But that tells only half the story of Adam Baird, the 34-year-old from Harrogate, who over the course of the next 14 months hopes to qualify for the Winter Olympics as a bobsleigh driver.

It has been a circuitous route to get there, and on the drive to Altenberg in Germany last week in a van containing his team-mates, their sled and all their belongings, he tells The Yorkshire Post there remains a long way to go.

But there is a determination from this driven individual to seize what could be his only shot at sporting glory in Milan-Cortina in 2026.

“The Olympics is the goal for everyone, we’re not here to just have fun, we’re here to compete and try and win medals,” says Baird.

At 27 he would never have believed he would become a bobsleigh driver. “It was actually because of my sporting background - playing union as a youngster, then rugby league in the Navy and through powerlifting as well - that this opportunity came about,” begins Baird, who was raised in Knaresborough.

“One of the coaches said: why don’t you give bobsleigh a go?’.

“I actually said “no” the first time, but when they asked me again a year later I said yes and ended up in Lillehammer. That was 2017.

“I fell in love with it straight away. It’s the speed and the adrenaline, it’s just really good fun.”

It has remained fun for Baird whenever he is stood at the top of an icy shoot in either the 4-man or 2-man bob.

The skills he learned from other sports made the transition easy, and his calm demeanour fits the role of the driver.

“That’s why I got poached, playing on the wing with my speed and the strength from powerlifting,” says Baird, who in the summer months trains on the GB’s dry track at the University of Bath.

“You have to be able to run fast and have a certain amount of strength behind you, but I look at pushing a bobsleigh as like learning to be at Olympic weightlifter.

“You get these smaller guys who can lift a lot of weight and it comes down to working the sled to your body type. You have to learn first of all how to push a sled with what you have physique-wise.

“And as the driver you’ve got to be cool, calm and collected. You have to rely on the brakeman to not be the aggressive, pumped-up people, because they’re the ones controlling the speed. The driver has to as well, but he’s the one who has to jump in and be cool to navigate the sled. Because if you don’t, you’ll crash.”

A crashed sled also means a bigger dint in the budget, which is where the stress of Baird’s sporting career comes in.

For as fun as travelling between the sliding centres of Europe and North America each winter in a van full of your mates sounds, it is a very hand-to-mouth existence for Baird and his crew.

They are GB’s No 2 team. The No 1 team includes Batley-born former sprinter Leon Greenwood. They had a good Winter Olympics in Beijing, unlocking funding for themselves and a fraction for the second squad.

“Our funding covers coaching, but the rest we have to find,” says Baird, who is forever on business networking site LinkedIn updating, interacting and trying to attract sponsors.

“I reckon it’ll cost about £50k to get us through the second half of the season,” he warns. “It could be as much as £16k just to fly the 4-man over to Lake Placid for the world championships at the end of February. For the season it’s a minimum of £75k.

“It’s stressful because it’s taking my athlete time away from me, I’m having to work hard in the background to get more money in. If I had the money I wouldn’t have to, all I’d have to do is focus on being the best athlete I can possibly be.”

If the money runs out - and one sponsor did pull out recently - would he dip into his own savings?

“If I can’t raise it I’ll just go home,” he says. “No one has that cash available and I always said if I have to start using my own cash that would be it: done.”

But there are positive signs and strides being made. Because of the funding for coaching and with sponsors already in place, Baird’s 2-man and 4-man crews are in a much stronger position than they were a year ago.

They began the IBSF World Cup series in Altenburg with an 18th-place finish out of 23 teams, not the finish Baird was hoping for, but he already reports an upgraded 2-man sled for the next race in Latvia this weekend. Over the course of 16 races in the next 14 months, they need to finish inside the top 66 per cent six times across 4-man and 2-man, including once in Olympic year.

“It’s not a tall order for us,” says Baird, confidently. “There’s three things you need in bobsleigh; the start, the drive and the equipment. This year we now have all three of those things.”

Being a bobsleigh driver has become a full-time job for Baird. As a serving marine he could theoretically be called back to duty at any time, but he says with the Olympics so close, that is unlikely to happen.

He and his mates in their van just have to get there.

An icy road to the Winter Olympics...

Harrogate’s Adam Baird and his 4-man and 2-man GB bobsleigh teams have 16 more races over the next 14 months to try and secure a spot at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.

The World Cup season began in Altenberg, Germany, last week. This weekend it’s Sigulda in Latvia, then Igls in Austria and Winterberg in Germany.

The 2025 World Championships take place in Lake Placid, upstate New York.

The end goal is the Winter Olympics in February 2026 with a purpose-built sliding centre being built in Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Italian Dolomites.

To support Adam and his team achieve their Olympic dream, find him on the business networking site LinkedIn.