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Lee Johnston (born 16 June 1972) is an English bobsledder who debuted in 1995. Competing in three Winter Olympics (1998, 2002, 2006), he earned his best finish of tenth in the two-man event at Salt Lake City in 2002.
Johnston also finished fifth in the four-man event at the 2007 FIBT World Championships in St. Moritz.
Johnston's brother, Karl, was a crewman for the event. Both brothers come from Whitby, in North Yorkshire.
Johnston and his crew were not selected for the squad at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, despite winning the trial races in Germany and Switzerland in 2009.
Johnston has competed in over 10 world championships, three Olympic games, over 60 World Cup Races, and he is a 12-time British champion.
Johnston finished his competitive career in 2010. Having not been selected for Vancouver 2010, he then became a development coach for the British Bobsleigh team with his focus being on the first Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck 2012 where the Team of Mica McNeil and Jazmin Sawyers finished in Silver medal position.
Johnston then assisted at all levels over the next 4 years from senior and Junior World Championships and then assisting with the coaching team for John Jackson and his team to a bronze medal in Sochi 2014 in the four-man event.
He had the pleasure of coaching his oldest son, George Johnston, along with five other talented athletes, while doing the second Youth Olympics. This program had huge success finishing before the Youth games ranked 1 -2 - 3 in the females and 1 -3 - 4 in the males in their series of races. Kelsea Purchall, the number one ranked female in the world heading into the 2016 Lillehammer Youth Olympics, finished in 3rd Bronze medal position, and George Johnston, the number one ranked male in the world at the time, finished 6th.
He also coached Mica McNeil and Mica Moore to a gold medal in Winterberg at the Junior World Championships in 2017
Johnston was made the head coach in September 2017, 22 weeks before the Pyeongchang Olympic games where Mica McNeil and Mica Moore also finished the Olympics with the best ever female result- after having their funding removed earlier that year.
Johnston has been the head coach through a difficult time from 2017 to 2019, but over those two seasons on the World Cup, Lamin Deen, Brad Hall, and Mica McNeil have all gained their best ever results with their teams.
Due to funding, Johnston was released by British Bobsleigh in July 2019 but was re-employed in October as a Consultant Coach and Manager, hoping to carry on the work that has already been done with the senior three pilots.
On a side note, his youngest son[ clarification needed ] has been selected for the 3rd Youth Programme, making him the fourth member of the Johnston family to represent Great Britain.
Skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled, down a frozen track while lying face down and head-first. The sport and the sled may have been named from the bony appearance of the sled.
Pierre Fritz Lueders is a Canadian Olympic, world and World Cup champion bobsledder who competed from 1990 to 2010. He piloted both two-man and four-man bobsleigh, retiring after the 2010 Winter Olympics. He was named to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
Allyn Condon is an English former sprinter and bobsleigher. At the Vancouver Olympic Games in 2010 he became the seventh person to have competed for Great Britain in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games having already competed in the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Kristan Bromley is a retired British skeleton racer who has competed since 1996. He won the gold medal in the men's event at the 2008 FIBT World Championships in Altenberg, Germany. This was Great Britain's first gold medal at the FIBT World Championships since 1965.
Gerda Weissensteiner OMRI is an Italian luger and bobsleigh pilot who competed from the late 1980s to 2006. Competing in six Winter Olympics, she won the gold medal in the women's singles luge event at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, and together with Jennifer Isacco she won the bronze in Turin in the two-woman bobsleigh at the 2006 Winter Olympics. She was the first Italian sportsperson to win Olympic medals in two disciplines.
The Israeli Bobsled and Skeleton Team is the official bobsleigh and skeleton team of Israel. The team is the competitive wing of Bobsled/Skeleton Israel, which Aaron Zeff, former National Football League player John Frank, and David Greaves founded in 2002.
Raimund Bethge is an East German bobsledder who competed in the late 1970s. He took up the sport in 1975. He won a complete set of medals at the FIBT World Championships with a gold in four-man (1977), a silver in two-man (1978, and a bronze in four-man. He also took a silver in the European Championships in 1978 in the four-man event. Bethge also competed at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, finishing fourth in the four-man event and seventh in the two-man event.
Giulio Zardo is a high performance athlete. In 1996 he was World Junior Champion in powerlifting with the WPF, having set a world record in the deadlift with a 600lbs at a body weight of 208. Giulio went on to play football for four years, where he was league MVP for defence with the League Champion Midget AAA St. Leonard Cougars in 1997, was part of the International football tournament championship team for Canada during the 1999 Super Bowl. Zardo then went on to be an all star and was part of the league champion Champlain Cougars team in CÉGEP AAA in 1999 and 2000.
Nicola Minichiello is a retired British bobsledder who competed between 2001 and 2011. She won two medals in the two-woman event at the FIBT World Championships, winning a silver in 2005 and making history with a gold in 2009 partnering Gillian Cooke, to become the first British female bobsleigh driver to win a World Championships. Competing in three Winter Olympics, Minichiello earned her best finish of ninth in the two-woman event at Turin in 2006. This was also the best ever Olympic result by a GB women’s bobsleigh team.
The FIBT World Championships 2008 ran February 11–24, 2008 in Altenberg, Germany for the fifth time, having done so in 1991 (bobsleigh), 1994 (skeleton), 1999 (skeleton), and 2000. It is the first time Altenberg has hosted all of those events at one championship, and also includes the mixed team event that debuted at the 2007 championships. Training for the events took place February 12–14 for two-man and two-woman bobsleigh, and February 19–20 for skeleton and four-man bobsleigh.
Chris Lori is a Canadian bobsled driver who competed from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. Competing in four Winter Olympics, he earned his best finish of fourth in the four-man event at Albertville in 1992. Lori won the Bobsleigh Overall World Cup four-man championship in 1989-90. He won nine Crystal Globes for top three finishes in Overall World Cup final standings and totaled twenty two World Cup medals and fourteen Canadian Championship titles. He Lori was instrumental in establishing Canada as a world power in the sport of bobsledding.
Kaillie Humphries is a Canadian and American bobsledder. Representing Canada, she was the 2010 and 2014 Olympic champion in the two-woman bobsled and the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist with brakewoman Phylicia George. With her victory in 2014, she became the first female bobsledder to defend her Olympic title and was named flagbearer for the Olympic closing ceremony with brakewoman Heather Moyse.
John Napier is an American bobsled driver and a soldier in the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program. He won the two-man event at the 2009 U.S. National Bobsled Championships with Cory Butner. At the 2009 FIBT World Championships, he placed 17th in the two-man event with T.J. Burns and 11th in the four-man event with Jesse Beckom, Jamie Moriarty, and Nick Cunningham.
The four-man bobsleigh competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was held at the Whistler Sliding Centre in Whistler, British Columbia, on 26–27 February. The German team of André Lange, René Hoppe, Kevin Kuske, and Martin Putze were the defending Olympic champion in this event. America's team of Steve Holcomb, Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler, and Curtis Tomasevicz were the defending world champions in this event. The test event was won by the Latvian team of Jānis Miņins, Daumants Dreiškens, Oskars Melbardis, and Intars Dambis. The last World Cup event prior to the 2010 Games place took place in Igls, Austria on 24 January 2010 and was won by the German team of Lange, Hoppe, Kuske, and Putze. Holcomb of the United States won both the four-man and the combined World Cups.
Dan Money is a British bobsledder who has competed since 2006. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, he finished 17th in the four-man event while crashing out in the two-man event whilst in 8th place.
Ivo Ferriani is an Italian sports official and bobsledder. In September 2010, he was elected president of the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT), ending the 16-year presidency of Canada's Robert H. Storey. In 2016, Ferriani became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Kimberley Bos is a Dutch skeleton racer who competes on the Skeleton World Cup circuit. She started competing internationally in 2009, originally in bobsleigh, and was selected to the Dutch national team in 2010; she switched to skeleton for the 2013–14 European Cup season. Her personal coach is Urta Rozenstruik, and she rides a Bromley sled. Away from the track, Bos is a physiotherapy student, occasionally serving as "unofficial physio" to the other athletes. Bos was the only woman named to represent the Netherlands in skeleton at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, where she finished eighth. Bos returned for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where she won the bronze medal and became the first Dutch skeleton athlete to win a medal.
Mica McNeill is a British bobsledder. She won a silver medal at the 2012 Youth Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and at the 2021–22 Bobsleigh World Cup event in Sigulda, Latvia. She competed at the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics.
Mica Moore is a British women's sprinter and bobsleigher. She competed for Wales in the 4 × 100 metres relay at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, and competed in the 2-women bobsleigh event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The Romanian national bobsleigh team represents Romania in international bobsledding competitions.