Brad Hall’s bobsledders hope their Olympic exploits can inspire the next generation of athletes, despite falling short of the medal they hoped for.
Hall, Leon Greenwood, Greg Cackett and Taylor Lawrence finished seventh in the four-man event having arrived at Milano Cortina 2026 with high hopes of a podium finish.
The quartet won a medal at the past two World Championships and were European Champions in 2023 but were unable to add an Olympic medal to their collection.
They remained upbeat upon their return to the UK, as they were met by friends and family at Gatwick Airport as Team GB celebrated its most successful Winter Olympics.
And Cackett hopes the renewed interest in winter sport from the British public can help lay the foundations for future successes.
“It would have been amazing to win a medal but the journey we have had over the last four years has been stunning,” he said.
“We have won pretty much everything there is to win, not many British bobsleigh teams can say they’ve done that. I will always be proud of that.
“It seems that people are really on our side and really understand the scale of what winter athletes are achieving. They see it is more than Cool Runnings and that we have got phenomenal athletes.
“Our female pilot [Adele Nicoll] is the British shot put champion. We have got multi-talented people developing a special sport and it is worth tuning in for."
Part of Cackett’s hopes is an expansion of mainstream coverage for winter sports, after record-breaking viewing figures during Milano Cortina.
“The YouTube stream could be massive if you invest a bit more into it," he said. "You could have a studio with a host and a pundit – maybe someone called Greg Cackett when he retires – doing what Ski Sunday, Match of the Day does to get people interested.
“Tell people the characters, the rivalries. It could be so much more than it is.”
Hall added: “It is about televising it. The more easily accessible it is, a lot more people will tune into it if it is available.
“It is an interesting sport, so if it is on TV people will watch it. That’s what needs to happen to increase the interest in the four years in between.”
Team GB won three golds, one silver and one bronze to mark its most successful campaign, with the 2026 edition the first time it has won more than one gold at a Games.
And while his own event did not go to plan, he lauded the feats achieved across the board by Team GB athletes.
“We are not a winter sports nation, we don’t have the ice and snow but we go out and punch above our weight,” he said.
"We are going up against people that live in these places and grow up on the snow in the shadow of a halfpipe.
“We didn’t grow up in the shadow of a bobsleigh track, we transferred from other sports.
“It’s a miracle we win anything but it is the strength of our camaraderie, our hard work, our tenacity to go and win. That’s what makes it so difficult when we do fall short.”
Sportsbeat 2026