Royal Marine Commando Taylor Lawrence is prepared to push Britain to victory at Milano Cortina.
Taylor Lawrence has partnered Brad Hall, Greg Cackett and Leon Greenwood at his second Games in search of Team GB’s first Olympic medal in bobsleigh since Sochi 2014.
Lawrence, who only joined the sport in 2019, is a multiple-time European and World Championship medallist, including a win at the continentals at Altenberg 2023.
He was introduced to bobsleigh through the military and believes those transferable skills have proved decisive in his successful career so far.
“There’s always been quite a large crossover between the military and bobsleigh, with quite a rich heritage of personnel that came across,” he said.
“John Jackson was a Marine, Lee Johnson was too, Sean Olsen was an Olympic bronze medallist in Nagano.
“The mindset of soldiers is really transferable, especially in sliding sports.
“There’s lots of resilience and mental toughness that Marines have. They love their cheerfulness in the face of adversity.
“That’s definitely something I’ve brought into the team.
“The Marines have given me a lot and allowed me to have this full-time status to focus on sport.
“I am massively grateful for it because without them I might not have ever even found the sport.”
Lawrence missed parts of last season with a calf injury, but comes to Italy after a strong finish to the 25/26 World Cup, determined to make amends for the sixth-place finish in Beijing.
“I’ve got my own strategies and the way that I go about keeping myself as fit as possible," said Lawrence, who competing in the first two heats of the men's two-man earlier this week before a slight pain in his calf saw him rested ahead of this weekend's four-man.
“We just want to get to sliding and I can’t wait to get back on the track.
“I don’t even want this for myself. I want it for my teammates. I want it for my family, my friends, everyone that supported me and made sacrifices along the way.
“That is a more powerful motivator for myself to do well because everything they’ve done allowed me to be where I am today.”
The 29-year-old also highlighted the return of funding from UK sports as a key factor behind Team GB’s rapid improvement in the current Olympic cycle.
“The development of kit and development of coaching staff that we’ve managed to bring in from getting that funding back has been really pivotal.
“We’ve got a really good support network around us, not just within our box-a-circle, but also now with Nat Dunn as our exec PD in the Scan-N-Programme.
“Milan is a brand-new track, so the pilot and the teams that work the track out the quickest ultimately will be rewarded for that.
“Brad is one of the best at doing that, so I have no doubt that we’re as best prepared as we can be.”