British bobsleigh star Greg Cackett visualising Beijing 2022 win

Visualisation is a key component of an athlete’s life. Visualising the perfect run, the perfect race, the perfect performance – but not many take that visualisation to the extreme of writing a book about being an Olympic champion before they actually are one.

Meet Greg Hackett, Team GB’s bobsledder, in both the two- and four-man disciplines, and one of the team looking to win GB’s fourth-ever medal Olympic medal in the latter at the Yanqing Sliding Centre starting on Saturday 19 February. The medals are won on the last day of the Olympic Winter Games on Sunday 20 February.

In the two-man bob, in which the medals were won on Tuesday (15 February), the GB sled overturned in the third run of four, leaving pilot Brad Hall and Nick Gleeson (Cackett was the alternate) shaken but uninjured.

Despite finishing sideways, however, they still qualified for heat four as one of the 20 fastest sleds after three runs and managed to take their fourth run, finishing the event in 11th place. All of the medals went to Germany, with the legendary Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis top of the table.

Which leaves the four-man.

Brakeman Cackett will be alongside Hall, Gleeson and Taylor Lawrence in trying to win a medal, not such a far-fetched aim given recent results.

The squad have just finished the World Cup season fourth overall in the four-man claiming silver three times. At the 2019 World Championship they came fourth, the best result by a British bobsleigh in 53 years and the four-man finished seventh at the next World Championship in 2020. At the 2021 edition, having overcome a COVID outbreak in the camp, the four-man team had to withdraw after an injury mid-competition to Sam Blanchet.

So the ups and downs of athletes' lives have