Bobsleigh duo make top 10 just months after funding blow
AWelsh competitor has become one of the most successful British athletes in Olympic bobsleigh history – months after her team’s funding was cut.
When Newport athlete Mica Moore and team-mate Mica McNeill had their funding withdrawn the pair resorted to creating a fundraising page to get them to the winter Olympics.
Now the duo have earned the highest-ever standing by a British team after finishing eighth in the two-man bobsleigh final in Pyeongchang.
Competing yesterday, the women’s team finished in the top 10 out of the world’s toughest competition after originally placing sixth in the final’s first heat.
But a few mistakes saw the team fall behind other teams including Germany, Canada and two American teams to place eighth.
Quickly becoming stars of the show in South Korea, the self-funded team replace Nicola Minichiello’s and Jackie Davies’ record as the most successful British bobsleigh team after the duo’s ninth position in the 2006 Turin Games.
The pair also beat the funded British men’s bobsleigh duo, who finished 12th in their competition.
Speaking after the competition, Ms Moore said: “It feels amazing. I am so happy. We came into this wanting to enjoy the experience because it is both our first Games and we have come away with an eighth. It is more than we could ever have hoped for.”
For Mica her success comes two years after taking up bobsleighing in 2016 after representing Wales in the women’s relay during the 2014 Common Wealth Games. After failing to qualify for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Australia, she decided to focus on the Winter Games.
But in May 2017 Mica and her team-mate were left devastated when their funding from the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association (BBSA) was withdrawn just five months before the Games.
With £10m funding for this Olympic cycle, the BBSA supported three men’s teams at the Winter Olympics.
Setting up their own online fundraising page, the women overtook their £30,000 goal to reach more than £40,000.
Following their success donations have continued to flood in, with the current total at £47,531.
Speaking before the Olympics Mica vowed to do “everything possible” to win under the guidance of her coach and father, Lawrence.
She said: “You have to do everything possible. You can’t leave any stone unturned. You have to try.”
Mum Lolita, 52, said: “For me it’s surreal. She was right at the front at the Opening Ceremony and really took it all in. It was really weird to think ‘that’s my daughter’.”
Lawrence, 51, said: “Anyone who steps on that ice is a brave person. She’s still our little girl, but she’s a tough lady.”