Beijing 2022 - From a back garden to the Olympics - how DIY helped Mica McNeill and Montell Douglas reach the Games

Every athlete has adapted to training during the coronavirus pandemic in different ways — but you can bet there is only one who built a bobsleigh push track in a County Durham back garden. That is exactly what Mica McNeill’s dad and brother did for her — and now she is preparing for the Winter Olympics with Montell Douglas in the two-woman bobsleigh. Ad/> With training already derailed by initial lockdowns at the start of the pandemic, McNeill took matters into her own hands and once the track was built, she invited the entire women’s squad to her home.

/> Beijing 2022Olympics Unlocked: How the Bobsleigh works ahead of Beijing 2022YESTERDAY AT 15:42 The track is 30 metres long and has a bobsleigh attached to it which has wheels, instead of runners, with a bungee at the end which pulls the sled back. “The idea came during the first lockdown and we thought, we've got no idea what's going to happen in the future but we need to be able to train for the Olympic Games, and we need to be able to push,” McNeill told Eurosport. «We couldn't travel abroad to any push tracks.

The facilities in Bath were closed. My dad and brother built it for me. “It's brilliant.

The girls have been up all summer, we've been pushing on them and having training camps and I just think it's been a huge help coming into this season. “We knew we couldn't come into a winter without pushing, an off season is eight months long. If you're not behind the bobsled for eight months, you're not doing your trade.