Team NZ grinder switches to bobsleigh
Olympic rowing gold medallist and America's Cup winner Joe Sullivan is trying his hand at bobsleigh.
The human power supply will join pilot Andy Williams in New Zealand's two man bobsleigh at the next North American Cup event in Calgary, Canada on January 10.
Williams, who has been contesting the icy downhill event since 2015 has just enjoyed his best result, a 10th placing at Lake Placid in mid-December.
He has had various partners but has now enticed Sullivan to join him.
The Rangiora-born, Picton product Sullivan teamed with Nathan Cohen to win the double sculls gold at London on 2012, a result that came on the back of two winning efforts at world championships.
In 2014 Sullivan stepped away from rowing to try his hand at yachting with Emirates Team New Zealand, looking to transfer his immense power to a grinding role.
But Sullivan faced a double challenge at Team New Zealand as they radically changed their approach, turning their grinders into ‘‘cyclors'' with a pedalpowered approach to their 50-foot foiling catamaran.
Sullivan helped Team New Zealand win the 2017 America's Cup in Bermuda and has hopes of being involved in the 2021 defence in Auckland where a more traditional grinding role returns on the 75-foot foiling monohulls to be used.
A big fan of the movie Cool Runnings that portrayed the unlikely Olympic dream of the Jamaican bobsleigh team, the 31-year-old Sullivan suggested he could pursue a 2022 Winter Olympics dream after the next America's Cup.
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