Meet Leon Greenwood, the Batley sprinter who became a bobsledder

As a member of Spenborough Harriers, Greenwood was lightning quick and building a head of steam towards the Summer Olympics.

An ankle injury meant he never got there, not through that route anyway.

For Greenwood could still become an Olympian – in the bobsleigh.

Because the 26-year-old is a modern day Cool Runnings story.

“It was one of my favourite films, but I never watched it thinking I wanted to be a bobsledder,” laughs Greenwood of a film that depicts four Jamaican sprinters who turn to bobsleigh when their track careers flounder.

“I’m always asking the coaches, do you know the Jamaican team? They’ve got a few stories. It’s crazy to think that I’m doing it now.”

Crazier still that he is a month out from appearing in a world championships only a year after first climbing into a bobsleigh.

And continue this fast-track trajectory and he could be an Olympian in Milan-Cortina in February 2026, having not even taken up the sport when the last Winter Olympics were held two years ago.

The career change came in July, 2022. Greenwood – who dabbled in all sports growing up but stuck with sprinting and played basketball up to 21 – had been rehabilitating an ankle injury that had slowed his momentum on the track.

Through a two-year process of rehabilitation, in which he was indebted to a support network including his partner Nicole Cockburn, a former Scottish lacrosse player, strength and conditioning coach Warren Beattie, and sprint coach Emma Hooper, he never lost his discipline or his resilience.

He even returned to set a personal best of 10.60 seconds in the 100m, but something that had been mentioned to him about trying a new sport kept nagging at him.

“Before I had the operation, there were quite a few athletes mentioning bobsleigh to me,” says Greenwood. “‘You’re quite tall, quite wide,’ they’d say, ‘you just need to put on a bit of weight’.”

“When the ankle started feeling better I thought right I’ll give this bobsleigh thing a go.”

He turned up at a talent ID day at Bath University 18 months ago, made it through two rounds of trials and decided to turn his attention to the bobsleigh.

It meant spending last summer putting on weight to get to 90 kilos.

What he likes about the bobsleigh is the fusion of individual and team principles, something that was lacking in athletics.

“To get into the team there’s a lot of individual testing, as a sprinter it’s just you, you’re just working on yourself and I like that,” says Greenwood.

“The aspect of the team when you start competing is like basketball; I used to love that team camaraderie.

“So I like the intense individual training, the speedwork, power lifting to get individually better, but then also you come together as a team and if you all click it’s just a great feeling.”

Throw the adrenaline rush into the mix, and Greenwood has found his sporting heaven.

“It’s a different feeling to sprinting. It’s the danger,” says Greenwood, who serves as the brakeman on Great Britain’s two- and four-man bobs.

“Without the brakes the bobsleigh’s gone. I’ve seen it where the brake wasn’t pulled and the sled ended up in a car park.

“So the brake man has to learn the track like the pilot does, know where you are, when to hit the brakes.

“You can get up to 95mph. Imagine tipping it over at that speed and you land on your head. I’m actually touching wood that it doesn’t happen. So the adrenaline is crazy. I don’t know what could match it. Pushing the sled as fast as you can down the hill, jumping in, holding on for dear life.”

The Olympics is not just a pipe dream either. Together with Harrogate-born Royal Marine Adam Baird, 33, in the two-man bob they achieved a place on the wider podium (top six) at a Europa Cup race last month.

“I’ve come from a little town in Batley and there’s two Yorkshire lads doing well out in Lillehammer,” laughs Greenwood.

“For a British bobsleigh team, there’s a push track in Bath but that’s it. If you’re a pilot, like Adam, there’s no tracks, so that’s why we’re in Europe and North America all through the winter. We just jump in the van and travel round Europe with our bobsleigh in the back. We did Oberhof to Norway the other week in the van – 17 hours.”

To get that van through the season and towards the 2026 Olympics, they need sponsorship.

“The Olympics is the long-term goal,” says Greenwood. “Any struggle I get into now, the two things I think about are my family and the Olympics. I’m so much closer to it now than I ever was as a sprinter.”