Leon Greenwood Called In with 60 Minutes' Notice as Team GB Chase Bobsleigh Gold
leon greenwood was summoned one hour before competition to make his Olympic debut, a late call that came after a Team GB athlete reported tightness and was withdrawn from the final runs. The sudden change came as the British crew chases a medal in Milan-Cortina, where start times and split seconds will determine the outcome across four heats this weekend.
Leon Greenwood's sudden Olympic debut
One hour before the two-man bobsleigh heats on Tuesday, Greenwood received a call to step in, after Great Britain sat eighth following the first two heats and Taylor Lawrence was judged too tight to continue. That decision to rest Lawrence for the final two heats produced an immediate effect: Greenwood was asked to make his Olympic debut with sixty minutes' notice.
Greenwood, 28, from Batley, later posted on Instagram: "Put me in any situation – I’ll thrive. " When asked about being at the Olympics he said it was not a shock and that he had "worked my ass off to get to this point. " His rapid insertion into the crew illustrates a straight line of cause and effect: Lawrence’s tightness prompted his withdrawal, the team moved to protect the sled and athletes, and Greenwood was called up to fill the gap.
Team GB four-man crew in Milan-Cortina
Greenwood is also a member of the four-man Team GB bobsleigh alongside pilot Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence and Gregg Cackett as the quartet aims for Winter Olympic gold in Milan-Cortina. The schedule puts Heats 1 and 2 on Saturday, 21 February, followed by Heats 3 and 4 on Sunday, with medals to be decided on the final day.
The team has framed its challenge tightly: earlier runs at the track produced a 4. 8-second push, and the group is aiming to reduce that to 4. 7 seconds — small margins that the crew believes will put them back "in the mix" for podium contention.
Sprint roots at Spen Valley High School and Spenborough Harriers
Raised in Carlinghow, Greenwood first made a name as a sprinter at Spen Valley High School, breaking records held by older pupils while only in Year 7. He trained with Spenborough Harriers and built up to a level in the 100 and 200 metres that outpaced his peers across West Yorkshire. He progressed to the final of the British Indoor Athletics Championships in 2019 before a cartilage injury to his ankle curtailed his sprinting career and derailed plans to pursue Summer Olympic ambitions.
That ankle injury prompted medical advice that he would never again sprint at a high level. Greenwood says the setback initially left him asking "Why me?" and missing family events and holidays, but over two to three years he shifted perspective, developed mental toughness and stopped defining himself solely by speed.
Path to bobsleigh: talent ID, debut and professional strain
Greenwood entered bobsleigh after attending a talent identification day in 2022, but further injuries delayed his progression and he had to wait until November 2023 to make his bobsleigh debut. He has said his early impressions of the sport were shaped by the film "Cool Runnings, " but the reality differed sharply: he did not know initially that the role would require spending four or five months away every year.
That commitment collided with his employment: he was a police officer at the time and learned about the time-away requirement only a month before his first trip, forcing him to negotiate leave with multiple people and creating a stressful transition into full-time training and competition.
Performance targets and the Usain Bolt comparison
Speaking from the Olympic Village, Greenwood described his mental approach: he is "pretty calm, " conserving energy, keeping training sharp and waiting for the day-of competition to focus. He said there is little room to improve physically at this stage — "I can’t get any faster, I can’t get any stronger" — so the emphasis is on marginal gains and timing.
Those margins are measured in hundredths of a second. The crew wants to shave start times from 4. 8 to 4. 7 seconds. One coach highlighted how downhill running with an accelerating sled produces start speeds that, in context, are "actually running faster than Usain Bolt by the time we get in, " underlining the unusual mechanics of a bobsleigh start compared with flat-track sprinting.
What makes this notable is the combination of Greenwood’s sprint pedigree, his short time in the sport since a 2023 debut, and the reliance on tiny improvements to alter medal outcomes across the four heats in Milan-Cortina.
