Personal information | ||||||||||||||
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Born | Glasgow, Scotland | 12 February 1981|||||||||||||
Years active | 2011–2014 | |||||||||||||
Height | 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) | |||||||||||||
Weight | 103 kg (227 lb; 16.2 st) | |||||||||||||
Spouse(s) | Sarah Benson | |||||||||||||
Website | www | |||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||
Country | Great Britain | |||||||||||||
Sport | Bobsleigh | |||||||||||||
Event(s) | Four-Man bobsleigh | |||||||||||||
Club | GB Bobsleigh, Bath | |||||||||||||
Coached by | Dominik Scherrer Peter Gunn Michael Khmel | |||||||||||||
Medal record
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Stuart Benson (born 12 February 1981) is a former bobsledder who competed for Team GB, and an avionics technician in the Royal Air Force. His competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi in the four-man bobsleigh, competing with John James Jackson, Bruce Tasker, and Joel Fearon, where they finished fifth. With the disqualification of both Russian bobsleigh teams who finished ahead of them, they officially finished third. [1]
Benson was born 12 February 1981 in Glasgow, Scotland. [2] He grew up in Troon. [3]
Benson is in the Royal Air Force, working as an avionics technician [2] since the age of 20. [4] He currently holds the rank of corporal. [5] [3] Whilst in the RAF, Benson competed with the RAF Athletics Team in the long jump and triple jump. [3] Benson moved into sprinting, running in the fastest Scottish relay team for 16 years; and competing in the Crystal Palace Diamond League. [2] [3] However, the relay was not fast enough to qualify for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. [2] This led him to try out at a bobsleigh "talent identification" event in 2011, where he was discovered in bobsleigh. [2] This led to his becoming part of the GBR1 bobsleigh team; at the end of summer 2011 he was selected into the four-man GBR1 team. [6]
In 2011 Benson won the Royal Air Force Sportsman of the Year, mainly for his track sport achievements. [7]
Benson is married to Sarah Benson, who is a long-distance runner. [4]
In 2013 the four-man bobsleigh team won a silver medal at the European Championships. [8]
Benson's debut Olympics is set to be the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, [2] and he was given special dispensation for time off from the RAF to attend. [6] Competition there for the four-man bobsleigh event began on 22 February 2014. [5] The British Olympic Association had qualified the GBR1 four-man bobsleigh team as on the "podium programme", i.e. that they have a chance of winning a medal. [6] Benson competed with John James Jackson, Bruce Tasker, and Joel Fearon; of whom only Jackson was experienced; Tasker, Fearon and Benson were all comparatively new to the sport. [6] The team finished fifth in the event, 0.11 seconds away from a medal. However, two teams that finished ahead of GBR1 were later disqualified as part of the Oswald Commission investigation. [1] The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the ruling in February 2018. [9]
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.
Alexandr Yuryevich Zubkov is a Russian retired bobsledder who has competed since 1999. Competing in four Winter Olympics, he won two medals with a silver in 2006 (four-man) and a bronze in 2010 (two-man). On 24 November 2017, he was found guilty of doping offences and stripped of his medals from the 2014 Winter Olympics.
The Jamaica national bobsleigh team represents Jamaica in international bobsleighing competitions. The men's team debut in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games four-man bobsleigh in Calgary, Alberta, was received as underdogs in a cold weather sport represented by a nation with a tropical environment. Jamaica returned to the Winter Olympics in the two-man bobsleigh in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2014, and 2022; a women's team debuted in 2018.
Dr Craig Keith Pickering is an English retired sprinter and bobsleigher. As a sprinter, he was based at the Marshall Milton Keynes Athletics Club; however, he also ran for the University of Bath and Newham and Essex Beagles. Following his retirement from professional sport, he became an academic researcher and gained a professional doctorate in sports performance from the University of Central Lancashire. He relocated to Australia in 2015 and currently works as director of performance sustainability at Athletics Australia.
Gillian Cooke is a Scottish track and field athlete and bobsledder. She was born and brought up in Edinburgh, and educated at George Watson's College. She began her sporting career in track and field with Edinburgh Southern Harriers. In 2001, she took fourth place in the triple jump at the Commonwealth Youth Games, and set a Scottish junior record for the pole vault. She set three Scottish senior records in the pole vault in two months in 2002, and was selected to represent Scotland in that event at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
John James Jackson is a former British bobsleigher and Royal Marines commando.
Paula Jackson is a British retired bobsledder who competed from 2007 to 2014. She originally started as a brakewoman for Jackie Gunn before taking up piloting.
Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and sent a team of selected athletes was officially known as Team GB. The team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom including Northern Ireland, whose athletes may elect to hold Irish citizenship, allowing them to represent either Great Britain or Ireland. Additionally some British overseas territories compete separately from Britain in Olympic competition.
Latvia competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, from 7 to 23 February 2014. The Latvian team consisted of 58 athletes in nine sports. These were the third consecutive games the country qualified to send 58 athletes.
Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, from 7 to 23 February 2014. The British team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom including Northern Ireland, whose athletes may have elected to hold Irish citizenship, allowing them to represent either Great Britain or Ireland. Additionally some British overseas territories competed separately from Britain in Olympic competition. A total of 56 athletes competed in 11 sports making it the biggest contingent that Great Britain had sent to a Winter Olympic Games for twenty-six years.
Joel Fearon is a British sprinter and bobsledder. He represents the Birchfield Harriers and he is recognisable in the National Trials for wearing a black vest and lycra shorts. His coach is Michael Khmel, who also coached British Sprinter Craig Pickering. His personal best for the 100m, 9.96 seconds, places him 6th on the UK all-time list.
The four-man bobsleigh competition at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia was held at the Sliding Center Sanki near Krasnaya Polyana, Russia on 22–23 February 2014.
Lamin Deen is a British bobsleigh pilot and Grenadier Guardsman. He qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in both the 2-man and 4-man disciplines.
Dominic Edward Parsons is a British former skeleton racer. He won a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and also competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He retired from the sport at the end of 2019.
Bruce Tasker is a British former bobsledder and track athlete. He qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in the 4-man discipline.
John Baines is a bobsledder who competes for Team GB, and a comms specialist in the Royal Air Force. His Olympic debut was at the 2014 Winter Olympics in the two-man and four-man bobsleigh events, participating as a brakeman.
Ben Simons is a British bobsleigher and former athlete. He qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in the 4-man discipline as part of Great Britain 2 team, behind pilot Lamin Deen, performing as the brakeman.
Rebekah 'Bex' Wilson is a British former bobsleigh brakewoman. She competed at the trials for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the two-woman bobsleigh at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Edson Luques Bindilatti is a decathlete and bobsledder from Brazil.
Great Britain competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, from 9 to 25 February 2018, with 58 competitors in 11 sports. They won five medals in total, one gold and four bronze, ranking 19th in the medal table.