Winter Olympics 2026: GB men’s curlers’ semi-final hopes on line after shock defeat
British two-man bobsleigh team Brad Hall and Taylor Lawrence have had a disappointing start to their Olympic campaign, currently sitting eighth in the middle of the competition.
Their combined time of 1:51:54 after two heats leaves them 1.64 seconds clear of the German team of Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer, with two more German teams on the podium ahead of Tuesday’s medal-determining run.
Hall and Lawrence, who are serving in the Royal Marines, were unable to improve on their first-place position as a heavy crash near the top of the track on the second lap led to further errors and a scramble for time.
“It was definitely a very difficult day. It’s extremely difficult to be consistent on the track, especially in bobsleigh,” said Hall, Britain’s most decorated bobsleigh World Cup pilot.
“We didn’t do well enough in our second run, losing some time and gaining some. We need to go back to the drawing board and see what we can do better tomorrow.”
Pilot Hall will also lead the medal push in the four-man competition later this week. Germany’s Francesco Friedrich, currently third, is aiming for a treble double by winning two-man and four-man gold medals for the third consecutive Games.
Meanwhile, Adele Nicoll said she was “not talking” after her disappointing last run, where she finished 18th in the women’s monobob race.
The Welsh skier, who is also a three-time British shot put champion, produced three solid runs before completing 1:01:03 in the fourth round, which he described as “the worst run of my life”.
“I know everything that can go wrong goes wrong, and this is just one of those nightmare performances that I hope will continue. I have to put everything together for two women,” she said.
41-year-old American Elana Meyers Taylor won the gold medal at the Winter Games as the oldest Olympic champion, while German Laura Nolte came second and American Kaillie Armbruster Humphries came third.
