#0042 THE BRITISH BOBSLEIGH TEAM - HARD WORK BEATS TALENT!

Welcome to the Creative Nowhere Land Podcast. 

It's always been my goal to use the podcast to have conversations with interesting and inspiring people from all walks of life. And for me, they don't get much more inspiring than the guests that we're very lucky to be joined by on this episode. 

Not one, not two, not three, but four Olympic athletes. Brad Hall, Greg Cackett, Taylor Lawrence, and Leon Greenwood, the British Bobsleigh Team. 

We've spoken before about creatives adopting more of an athlete's mindset when it comes to thinking about achieving their goals. Well, on this episode, we get a direct insight into the minds of some of the best in the world. 

We discuss each team member's route into the unconventional sport of bobsleigh and the hurdles they've had to overcome to achieve history-making success as a team. 

We talk about setting goals and the discipline needed to stay focused on them, and how it's not always the big things, but often the little things that you do every day that can make the most difference 

The boys also give us an exclusive insight into what it's like behind the scenes as a team. The brotherhood and the camaraderie, the ups and the downs, and the pressure that can arise between them despite the fact that they're all chasing the same end goal. 

We talk about the Olympics and the disappointment of not quite achieving everything that they'd wanted to, and the almost post-games grief that can come as a result. But we also go into the mindset, the strength, the resilience needed to keep pushing forward, whatever the future might hold 

As I've said before, there is a lot that we, quote-unquote, "normal people," can learn from these elite human beings. They're four Olympians. They're in the top 0.00017% of the world, and these guys have inspired me so much over the last few years of knowing them that I'm sure they're gonna inspire you too. 

I'm very grateful to be able to have these guys on the podcast, and I'm very lucky to be able to call them my friends. 

Hope you enjoy this episode of The Creative Nowhere Land Podcast.

Check out the links to the British Bobsleigh Team social media here:

THE BRITISH BOBSLEIGH TEAM INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/britishbobsleigh/

GREGG CACKET INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/gregcackett1

BRAD HALL INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/bobsleighbrad/

TAYLOR LAWRENCE INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/taylor_lawrence1/

LEON GREENWOOD INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/leongreenwood_/

Transcript

Welcome And Why Olympians Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Creative Nowelland Podcast. It's always been my goal to use the podcast to have conversations with interesting and inspiring people from all walks of life. And for me, they don't get much more inspiring than the guests that we're very lucky to be joined by on this episode. Not one, not two, not three, but four Olympic athletes. Brad Hall, Greg Kackett, Taylor Lawrence, and Leon Greenwood, the British Bobsleigh team. Now, we've spoken before about creatives adopting more of an athlete's mindset when it comes to thinking about achieving their goals. Well, on this episode we get a direct insight into the minds of some of the best in the world. We discuss each of the teams' route into the unconventional sport of bobsleigh and the hurdles that they've had to overcome to achieve history-making success as a team. We talk about setting goals and the discipline needed to stay focused on, and how it's not always the big things and often the little things that you do every day that can make the most difference. The boys also give us an exclusive insight into what it's like behind the scenes as a team. The brotherhood and the camaraderie, the ups and the downs, and the pressure that can arise between them despite the fact that they're all chasing the same end goal. We talk about the Olympics and the disappointment of not quite achieving everything that they'd wanted to, and the almost post-games grief that can come as a result. But we also go into the mindset, the strength, the resilience needed to keep pushing forward, whatever the future might hold. As I've said before, there is a lot that us quote-unquote normal people can learn from these elite human beings. Look, they're four Olympians. They're in the top 0.0017% of the world. And these guys have inspired me so much over the last few years of knowing them that I'm sure they're going to inspire you too. You can check out the links to the team and their social media while you're listening to the podcast, of course. But I'm very grateful to be able to have these guys on the podcast, and I'm very lucky to be able to call them my friends. So let's get into it.

Four Unusual Routes Into Bobsleigh

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Four Olympians, who I'm very lucky enough to have been friends with for the last few years, working on a multitude of different projects, an on and off documentary, lots of photo shoots and all sorts of things. But I thought I'd get you on because you've inspired me no end, and I think you could impart a lot of wisdom onto the creative Noeland listeners. So Bob Slay. It's not the it's not the most usual sport, and you've all probably had the most topsy-turvy route into the sport. So can we get a little bit of your backstory from each of you of how you found yourself in this crazy sport that let's face it, you're probably sick of it. Everyone just associates with cool runnings. So, Brad, can we start with you?

SPEAKER_03 3:49

Yeah, for sure. We might as well start with the one that's been involved in the sport the longest. I've been in here 14 years now, and yeah, I was back at university, I was doing decathlon. I was a rugby player before that at college, but decathlon was what I was doing just before I started Bobsleigh. I was getting a lot of injuries and I was thinking, oh yeah, there must be something else that I can do or something that my body can handle a bit easier than a decathlon because yeah, it just wrecks you. So I signed up for a talent ID programme called Power to Podium through UK Sport. So they were recruiting for seven or eight different sports at that time, and I went and did this whole battery of tests, and then they actually picked me up and said, Yeah, you can go and do skeleton. So I got through all the rounds of that, got down to the last stage, went out to Lillehammer in Norway, slid down the track, and I couldn't actually keep my head off the ice. So that was a fun experience. So that didn't go from very much further than that. But then a few weeks later, the guy who was doing the talent ID called me and said, Bob say I've got one. And that may be more suited to you, do you fancy giving that a go? I was like, Yeah, why not? So yeah, went to that, found out I was alright. And then uh yeah, I've been around for the last 14 years, yeah, three Olympics later. And you're the pilot of the sled, right? Yeah, pilot, driver. Some people laugh when you say pilot, they think you're gonna be like flying a plane or something, but uh yeah, so pilot sounds sounds a bit more dramatic, so that's what I use. And yeah, so I'm at the front of the sled, we all push it, I jump in, then pilot it down.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

But how do you find yourself in that position from someone who's not been able to keep their head off the ice doing the skeleton? Is it just a case of working the ranks and being there present?

SPEAKER_03 5:27

Yeah, definitely. So yeah, being a cathlete, I like to do a bit of everything, so I don't like just to do one thing. So as soon as I got into the sport, I was like, I'll actually become a pilot as well. So I don't want to just push the thing, I want to be involved with everything about it. So I think after my first like few weeks away, I was like messaging the performance director, the coaches. I was like, when can I get in the front seat? When can I do this? How do I do that? So yeah, that's what I wanted to do. And then two years later, after the Olympics in Sochi 2014, I wasn't good enough to go as a brakeman at that point in time, but they saw potential in me as a as an athlete to put into the front seat, and then yeah, kind of took off from there.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

And along with the rest of the team, you have steered the British bobsleigh team to some pretty amazing heights. First medals in 80 something years and Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

Yeah, we've broken a lot of records over the last few years. First European champions, first medal in uh four-man bobsleigh for eighty-four years, I think. And then we did that again and won another medal, and yeah, World Cup podiums and overall medals. Yeah, we've just done so much over the last few years, and it's something that we never thought we were able to achieve. And to actually go out there and do that is yeah, is quite amazing.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

And the person that's been there pretty much alongside for the whole of that time as well is also you, Greg, isn't it? Three Olympic Games later.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Yeah, no, it's my sins. Yeah, I've been here feels like forever. And I didn't realise it was 14 years, Brad. That's I thought I'm what, nine or ten? I'm I'm close to, if not a decade. Like you said, Matt prefaced already, this is Bob's did a transfer sport. Mine was transferred no more special than anyone else's. As much as I like to hate on cool runnings, my story was pretty much the plot of cool runnings. So sprinter gets injured, move sideways into Bob's late, and this dream come true, except infinitely less famous. But I was the late bloomer in sport, so I came in. I was 21 when I was spotted by a sprint coach. I was due to go to America on a football scholarship and felt a bit bulky at the time. I was a bit of a gym bunny, went to the track to try and improve my speed, had no idea what I was doing. Bumped into a coach. The Icelandic Ash Cloud went up that year back in 2010, and my flight to America was grounded. I'd always heard a what if with sprinting because I knew how fast I was when I was a kid because I didn't do sport through through secondary school. When I was in primary school, I was really fast. So I kind of had this weird what if. And I remember a PE teacher in my A-level PEs before I was I think it's just when I started playing football again. And this is the arrogance I had in the back of my head. He was like, I can't remember the context of what he was saying, but he went, you know, for instance, I could say confidently that, you know, no one in this room is ever going to break 10 seconds of 100 meters. And I was in my head, I went, speak for yourself, mate. I could even then I had no idea about it, but I always just had this weird little kind of niggling belief at the back of my mind that I could do something like that. And then yeah, a few years later, fell into it. Ran very fast, very quickly. My first attempts 100 meters weren't very good, and then did a bit of training, and then nine months later, I was I went from running 11.5 to 10.4, and then ran 10.3, 10.2, got better and better. Reached Usain Bowl with my that was my first GB vest, which was really cool. That was the anniversary games just after London 2012. And then 2014, when it seemed everything was on the up, I was in the Commonwealth Games long list. I was due to be going there, got on really well with the head relay coach, and it all seemed laid out ahead of me. And then from 2014 to 2016, just injuries, numerous injuries, and it all felt in such a condensed period, it felt too cruel. It was like, God, I've had this carrot dangled. I was a pub chef, I had no idea I could do what I could do. I was really fast on the Sunday League pitch, but I'm playing against Dave, who's 18 stone, so anyone would look fast next to him, right? So I didn't know. I used to have such such a sense of being a fraud, you know. I used to look at my legs all the time and go, God, can this can these legs actually do this? Can this body actually run? Sub 10 and everything. It turned out it couldn't, but yeah, it got close and tried really hard. And then anyway, that still stoked the fire. Moved across to Bob Slay with a view initially to put the sports together. So uh there's a lot of dual athletes in our sports. So Bob Slay in the winter, Sprint in the summer. Long story short, fell in love with Bob Slay, fell in love with the team environment. It was far more suited to my kind of outlook, and I just never looked back, really. And then, yeah, three Olympic games were here and yeah, very proud, particularly this last cycle, this last four-year quad, obviously, like Brad said, winning those world champs medals, being one of the world's top three nations consistently throughout, which made it heartbreaking how it finished in the end. Obviously, we'll get to that, but but no, my career as topsy turby, late blooming as it's been, it's feels I don't really like wanky purposey, oh things happening for a reason type things, sentiments, but it feels like maybe it did. Because I say, Oh, if I was younger and I've been picked up, maybe this would have happened even sooner, or maybe I would have represented at youth level, maybe I would have done something even better. But likewise, me coming into it late gave me a real dose of fear of regret. So I wanted to make sure that I never ever look back on this time and didn't make the absolute most out of it. Because as all the boys know, this is the one time in your life that if you're lucky enough to realize a sporting dream, it is the one time in your life you can do it before your body just falls apart, right? Which Brad and I are straddling right now.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

I'm sure you're not. And let's do this in chronological order. Go on then, Big T. You were next in the team. Sorry, Leon, to leave you till last, but I'm sure you'll give us the best story.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Best till last.

SPEAKER_04 10:38

Yeah, so I I came into the sport by accident, I think, like a lot of people. So I've always been a very sporty kid. I've always loved competing in whatever I can get my hand into. Football and rugby was mainly where I came from growing up. I've always been a sort of team sports kind of guy. And then I joined the military in 2016. And from there, I knew there was lots of sports you could do in the military. And I know there was lots of different sports you could do, but I had no idea about Bob Say. Bob Say was again with one of these sports that well, yeah, as horrible as it sounds, cool runnings is the only reference that most people ever had for the sports. But yeah, so played lots of football in rugby, and then one of the guys I was playing rugby with at the time through the Royal Marines was a development pilot for the G V program. And basically asked me if I wanted to come and give Bob Say a go. And we saw it quite big and quite quick, and we thought that some good attributes that you can use to be a good Bob Say athlete. And I basically said, Yeah, what's the worst that could happen? And the worst that could happen was you crashed in your first run. I got out of the way very, very quickly. And stupid enough of me, I said, he said, Do you want to go again? And I said, Yeah. What's the worst that could happen? We didn't crash again, so that was a benefit. But it's just it's one of these sports that's so unique and so different, and there is nothing quite like it. So I went away with him, came back just before Christmas in 2019, and I thought, do you know what? I really enjoyed that. I don't really know where it's gonna go, but I'm glad I gave it a crack. And then in 2019, a few days after Christmas, I got photos from Greg and their team at the time had basically just been decimated of injuries and saw that I did a little bit of obsolete and said, Look, we just need someone that's big to come on circuit so we can go and compete on the World Cup, because if we don't, then we're gonna be struggling for people. So I thought, okay, I'm gonna bypass the development, I'm gonna bypass your red cup from like the Lower League one and go straight into the thought. All red carpet. Yeah, proper baptism bugs. Yeah, proper red carpet, baptism by fire. And I remember just thinking on my first run, don't fall off the sled, because you hear about all these stories of people not being able to get in. And my main focus was to just get in the sled and then look back some of the first races, and I think, oh god, I was absolutely terrible.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

I think that would be interesting though, because obviously I know you, Big T, and I've always known you as this super composed you're a military man. So even on your first run, you still had that level of, oh fuck, what if I do fuck up?

SPEAKER_04 12:59

Yeah, well, I mean, the main thing was it was more of a personal pride thing. It was one, it was a pride thing, and two, it was like, look, these guys have opened their arms to me. What am I gonna do by repairing them by falling off the set and getting them disqualified on my first ever run? So it was more, yeah, a lot of it was personal pride, don't fall off because this is gonna go on YouTube and this is gonna be clipped for the rest of your life and this game over from here. But I know as soon as I had that first one under the belt, I was like, this is something I absolutely love. And what, six years later, still here, part of an amazing team, super decorated in terms of medal, medal hauls for us as a team, myself with a Brakeman, two Olympic games. So yeah, I've absolutely loved the sport. I feel like I've given it my all. It's given me so much, but it's also taken a lot, but I wouldn't change any of it for the world.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

And I think we will get onto a little bit about what it's taken from you guys a bit later, but come on then, Leon. He's got the nicest setup, the nicest microphone, he said the best for last. It's a good story though, yours, isn't it? Because obviously you came from a sprinting background, and uh, I'll let the man himself take over.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Yeah, man, sprinting background. I kind of as a kid, you want to be like the I wanted to be an Olympian. I always set out to be an Olympian. When I was 10 years older, I literally remember chatting to my granddad. I'm like, I want to be on TV one day. I want to be on. From that early on. From that early on, I knew. Yeah, I think I was when I was 10, that was 2008. That's when Usain Bolt won his hundred meter, first hundred meter gold medal. And that kind of just motivated me. That's the kind of role model I was like, I want to be like that. And then from there, it's been a it's been a hell of a journey. Building up as a sprinter, that's what I wanted to be. 100 meter sprinter, so that's what I did. And then it got to 2019, it's kind of like the year where I really felt like I I was knocking on the doors, creeping through the door in athletics, really finding my speed. I ran like a windy 10-4, windy 21-0, not much wind, and I thought, oh, this is the year, man. This is the year. And then in the summertime, July 2019, the summer, I ended up twisting my ankle. And then about six months goes down the line, and this pain in the ankle is getting worse and worse. I'm struggling to train. 12 months goes down the line. I can't even walk. Like the training's, I'm putting on loads of weight, I can't train properly. I said my coach at the time, Emma, she's like, okay, go and see a surgeon. I'm like, what, a private surgeon? She's like, Yeah. I'm like, I don't have the money to do that. So I remember borrowing some money off my mum and I ended up getting a scan on the ankle seeing this private surgeon. I think this man felt sorry for me because he told me like how much it would cost the operation. And he was like, if you have this operation, you won't be, you won't be able to sprint again. But basically we can do it for the NHS. I was like, Oh, okay. So this operation would have cost me like seven grand to have to have done. It's called an osteochondrial lesion, especially like key surgery in your ankle. They drill three holes in it and basically put fake cartilage in there so the ankle will heal. That's the nuts and lots of it.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

But they said you'd never sprint again.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And at the time I was angry. At the time I was angry as you can imagine. But uh having thought back on it now and looked back, there was no research out there to suggest I think there was like two papers out there at the time, to be fair. And again, there was nothing saying that you could get back like to that level. So it's pretty like hard news to take because you feel as a kid that's your identity. But you realize when you're older that it's not, it's nowhere near. That's like the smallest bit of you is your talent, right? It's everything else that you bring to other people. And I've learned a lot from that through Greg, to be fair. We'll probably get into that a bit later, but like how you treat other people, how just how you are as a person, that's the energy you bring to the people. That that's what life is about. But at that time, I thought my speed's my identity. Anyway, I had the operation two, three years ago down the line, and then I ended up having my first race again. I came back, ran a personal best, and then that's where Bob Say kind of comes into the picture. Went down to a talent identification day. Greg was there, he took me on his shoulder, we said this, and he yeah, taught me the ropes, man. And when you're around these guys constantly, you learn quite fast. So again, I learned quite fast. I was with a cohort of another four people, and then yeah, went to Germany to do my first like individual testing, and that would decide whether I was going to get onto team hall. And me and Aaron, me and another athlete who's who was part of the crew, it was me and him toe-to-toe with each other. The next day, I was getting into the sled practicing dry loading, and then I ended up smashing my toe onto the handle. I think to this day, no one's done it, no one's done it before, no one's done it after. I'm the only person. I yeah, I broke my toe and it put me out like it was 12 months essentially. 12 months I wasn't able to compete. And it was a difficult situation to be in because you're like, that could have been me. Let me give you some context, right? So these guys were winning medals after medals, world championship medals. And in my head, I'm like, that could have been me. So it was very hard to be the spare for that year and the and the year after, to be fair, but very difficult. Many times I wanted to quit saying, can I do this? Can I do this? But yeah, it's been a whirlwind. It's been a whirlwind, but I don't regret any of it. It's built some mental toughness for sure. And it all worked out in the end, I sat out to be an Olympian, you know, 19 years ago, and I did it 12 weeks ago.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

So yeah. Which is pretty amazing. Yeah, round of applause for you, dude. That is pretty, pretty spectacular. But all of you, none of you have had an easy road to where you've got to. You've all overcome these massive hurdles of injury and transitioned into different sports to continue your dream of being professional athletes, which I think is again, we talk about it, we've spoken about it before on the podcast. The discipline of athletes. I think a lot of people in the normal quote unquote world could do with taking some of these things from you guys, hence why I've got you on the podcast. But for Olympians, you are in the I don't know what the act of, but I'm gonna hasten to say the 0.00 something percentile of the world.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

0.01 7%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Yes, Leon. I knew Leon and know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had to look it up, man. I had to look it up for your podcast, mate.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Come on. Is that actually true? Yeah, it is, it is, yeah, yeah. Oh okay. There's variables to it though. Sorry, there's variables to this though. Because if you're looking at you're looking at British athletes, are you looking at the whole world? People from Batley. Let's just go with not point, people from Batley, yeah, there was zero percent. But yeah, not point, not not not one.

Olympic Pressure And Near Miss Grief

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Well, that seems like a good place to maybe go and have a look at the should we have a little reflect on the Winter Olympics just gone? Yeah, go for it. Yeah, it wasn't quite the result after such a you guys have worked so hard over the last few seasons to build British bobslade to what it is and achieve such incredible things. I bet you guys went into it so confident.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah, go on, Brad.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Went into the season.

SPEAKER_03 19:26

Yeah, well, to tell the story of the what actually happened at the Olympics, you've got to know what happened before that season. It was really we went into the season feeling confident. But we had so many challenges thrown our way, so that really took a toll on us throughout the season. But we were like, all right, let's get to the Olympics, let's try and put stuff together, and everything's gonna be alright in the end. Because obviously, at the end of last year, positive drugs test from one of our teammates. So he was out for the Olympic year. We had to find someone else to come take his place, give some strength in debt. Some of the guys were struggling with other little niggles, me and my back problems are always a problem, and then we get close to the season, and our most robust man Taylor gets an injury to his calf, and then he's gonna miss half of the season. So, yeah, all these problems come into play right at the time where we didn't really want them, but we tried to keep positive throughout the whole season and say that yeah, this is gonna all work out in the end, it's all gonna come together at the right point. But the results just weren't coming during the season either. So even without the starts that we knew we were gonna be at deficits to, we still weren't finding speed in the track or binding the medals when the odds were against us like we used to. So a lot was changing and it was just felt like uh yeah, things were getting away from us. But at the same time, we know we've still got more in the tank, and then yeah, obviously we got to the games and we thought, all right, this is the moment, this is gonna be when it all turns around, we're gonna throw everything at this, and then we're gonna be in the position that we want to be in. But we struggled to find speed in the track again, and whether it's that stuff was down to the equipment, the driving, or just a mixture of everything. It was yeah, just very difficult to be in that position and still tried to work things out at that late stage and uh still feel yeah, that you weren't as prepared as you wanted to be, but uh you knew that you're just gonna have to give it your best, and we'd won in worse situations, to be fair. Like we had more we had the odds against us so much more in the past, and we've still uh done well, so there was no reason why this couldn't be another one of those times.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

A difficult result, but then Leon, can I ask you? We spoke it's your first Olympic Games. That must be difficult because you're I'm guessing buzzing off being an Olympian, but yet the results aren't necessarily going how you guys had imagined.

unknown 21:42

No.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Double edged sword?

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Yeah, for me, these guys have been to Brad and Greg have been to three Olympics. Taylor's been to two. It was my first one. So I was taking it all in. Like every single moment I had, I was very emotional throughout. When you get put into third position at the beginning, the first race. I'm like, oh my God, we're gonna do it. We're gonna do it. We had a chat literally the other day, and he said, Brad, you can jump in on this, but you thought it was luck, right? Potentially luck. We don't think it was luck. We don't think it was luck as the brain man. We don't think it was. Look at all the results we've had in the past. Like, he's an amazing driver. We didn't think it was luck. We felt like we were in it, and there's something went wrong. Things go wrong. And they did for us. But from my point of view, it was just man, I don't know. It just just even reflect on it now. And I do these school talks, and like kids are asking, how was it at the Olympics? I'm like, yeah, it was amazing. And then they asked me, Oh, what did you come? Did you get a gold medal? I'm like, no, he comes seventh. But they always say gold medals, though, don't they? They do. I think even if you said bronze, they're like, oh, really? But honestly, just that whole experience, man, is out of this world, man. It is out of this world. Like, we're there four weeks. It can get a bit repetitive. It can get a bit. People don't really know. They just think Olympics and they just see it on the TV. But we're there like three, four weeks. And the food was shit. The routine, we had to walk really far. We're not used to walking really far. We're all getting Achilles pay. We all got this nice gear, but they're not sorted for our feet. All these things. But overall, man, it was for me, it was the best time of my life, man. Honestly. Yeah, I had a great time. Really emotional about it. Really emotional. But yeah, it's not like a double-headed saw for me, man. It's not, it's I really enjoyed my time. And yeah, I don't regret any of that.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

And for all of you, it must be don't get me wrong, you're representing the country, but proud moments for all of the people, friends, family close to you. We've known each other a while, and I was so proud watching you all out there. It's incredible. That wasn't a question, so I don't know, there's no one to ask.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

No, no, it's it's there's a I talked about this after the thing and wrote about it a bit, this sense of the near miss grief thing, like being so close to something you worked so hard for, and this ultimate setback. And that, like you said, there, Matt, that was one of the things that was hard to reconcile with this whole thing because when you're trying to all we're feeling it, except for Leon, who's the energizer bunny in this because it was his first games, whereas, say me and Brad are all jaded, old, cantankerous like blokes just want it there for one thing and one thing only. But it's that how do you frame such disappointment when everyone that loves you is telling you what an achievement is, and that's a really thing to navigate because everyone's saying how amazing is what you've done, and we're sitting there thinking, Oh, it isn't, and then you thought, like, well, who am I to say that? How can I speak on it? Obviously, I can feel we're all entitled to feel what we feel about it, and we will have our feelings because we're the ones in it, but you're basically saying to your mum, to your wife, to your brother, to everyone, I disagree with you, you're talking rubbish when it's like actually their experience is just as valid, and the Olympics is a like Leo said, it's a minor stat for getting there. It's an incredible thing to do once, let alone twice or three times, and there's been lots of things that have fallen our way to be able to do that. And unfortunately, on this time, the ultimate goal fell away slightly, but there was so much more to be grateful for and so much more to reflect on positively. But I think the sting of not winning that medal probably you frame stuff around it and you get on with life and stuff, but I think the sting of that will probably be there ultimately, sure, probably the rest of my life, certainly.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

And and Brad, when you're all going through this as a team, what have you guys learnt about each other as individuals, as a team? I mean, what people are forgetting, this is something that requires you to be so in sync, it's milliseconds that make the difference in this sport, isn't it? You guys have to be really attuned. So, obviously, you've been with these boys for a long time. What is it that you've learnt about them over this time, training with them, being teammates, that you think is makes them quite exceptional human beings?

SPEAKER_03 25:39

To be a part of the team and to be a part of a successful team like we have, you

Building Trust And Real Team Culture

SPEAKER_03 25:44

there's so many elements that you need. We've had so many times in the past where we've had the worst teammates that you could imagine. And yeah, when we were self-funded, I knew I wanted to build the team, this team full of guys that were not just out for themselves, they were there for the team. They understand that they're doing something that's bigger than themselves. It's not just about them wanting to get a place on the sled and to do what's best for them. And you want people on the team that's gonna want to do the best for those that are around him, his teammates, the country back at home and everything else. And that's what I feel that we have. You put so much more in when you do something for someone else than you do just for yourself. And I feel that to have these guys that we have here is a yeah, is a massive honour. It's definitely over the last four, six, eight, ten years, if it's great, to be alongside these guys and to give up everything just so that we can have for those short moments where we're celebrating on the top of the podium or yeah, we have our friends and family out there cheering us on. And so, yeah, it fills me with great pride to know that every time on top of the block, we're all there together. It's we're there as a team, it's not just one person thinking, I want to do this or you want to do that. It's like, no, how can I get the best out of myself? How can I get the best out of everyone else on there and we do it for each other?

SPEAKER_04 26:59

Sorry, Matt, I was just saying, just a risk from what Brad was saying, like, yes, we have these amazing friendships and stuff when we're around season, that's what you see. But what a lot of people don't see is obviously when we come back home, we spend a lot of time with each other when we're away. And the fact that when we come back home, we still spend, we still make the time to go and spend it with each other says a lot, like we've all been groomsmen at each other's weddings, get on holiday together, intertwined in each other's lives in terms of everyone's partners get on. Everyone just wants the best for everyone. I think that what I think that's what makes us such a good team because it's not just what you see when we're away on season and we're competing. When we come back home, it's all that the friendship, the brotherhood, just the love that we have for each other outside of the sport. That's something that you can't fake, and that's one of the things that I'll carry with me for the rest of my life. It's very much like a military standpoint, people think about when they join the military and they lose this sense of identity and brotherhood and camaraderie. But I've got it in space, I've got it from my military context, and then also from Bob's Day as well. So I've got kind of that double-ended sword of I've got friends from military, friends from Bob's A that I'll keep for the rest of my life and memories that I'll have for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

And does that help you guys with this? No, I keep harping on about the disappointment of the Olympics and Greg talking about the post-games grief essentially, but having each other to bounce that off because no one else has experienced it apart from you. So, like you say, you could go and see the best sports therapist in the world, or you could sit and talk to your partners for hours, but no one's experienced that apart from you guys. So, does that help? Maybe Leon, does that help you guys having that as a newer member, these older statesmen of the team to to bounce all this stuff off? Do you know what?

SPEAKER_02 28:39

We had a chat a couple of days ago, to be fair, but we haven't really had the time to have that big discussion. We kind of had it the other day. But because our families are so involved, they are that they I know we're out there, but they're here when we're not having a good time, they're here when we're happy, they see absolutely everything. But as much as we sacrifice, they sacrifice a lot more. Our families sacrifice so much more than we do. Because we're out here having fun, competing for the country, having time with the boys, going out for coffees, training, when they're at home holding the house down, they're at home holding the house down, so they sacrifice so much. So they understand it, they understand exactly. So when we're when we're talking about our feelings to them, they know exactly what it feels like, man. They just know because they're part of it.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

You've all got it seems loving partners that must be supportive because it can't be easy. As Leon says, you guys, especially not only all the training, but you're away on season a long time, and you've got young families. A lot of you've Greg re married, Brad, great partner, Taylor and Leon have got young families now.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

That must be tricky. That almost sounded like the Greg remarried. Greg that as well. Re is my my my wife, Rhiannon. Yeah, and so she's a gem. I mean, to be fair, no, yeah, we're all either married or engaged to or with absolute gems. Every one of our girls are are so supportive, are so into it. Re wants me to keep going because she wants her trips to go out to watch Bob Slate and wants to go and watch me race, so it's more about her at this point than it is. She doesn't want you at home, mate. She doesn't want you at home. That's why she'll still come out and watch me anyway. So yeah. No, I think I've already made peace with that, but that's what I'm looking forward to in retirement. I get the house to my herself for a week. So she's very welcome to go out and watch you live.

SPEAKER_03 30:23

But you're coming out and watch your hair staying at home.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Oh, you are joking. You think I'm coming out? I'll tell you what, two years' time, two years' time, I'll start coming out again. Right now, not interested. I'd rather do that. You're coming out to Altonberg first year. Oh, yeah, lovely. But you take me to the fog. I I think as well, just to talk about your previous point as well about chatting about it. Like Leon said, we haven't really sat down properly as a as the four of us debriefing about our personal fields. We've talked about it in general and in passing and stuff like that. But what is nice about us, particularly with Leon being so new and me, Brad, and Tay, haven't been in it longer and been part of building this thing for so long, is we do there's a through line of shared experience and similar commonalities and how we feel about it, but there's also our own individual takes on it. That's also been something that's quite useful to not just be like a hide mind and think and feel the exact same way about this thing. Like Leon can be an amazing source of positivity and inspiration when he's seeing how just how excited he is about it. He's he's done all these school talks and he looked more excited than the kids are. Like it's that's a really lovely thing. And that comes through and it's teaches us to be more maybe appreciative of what it is we've done. So so there is a degree of that sounding board thing. But I do think it'd be interesting as well to dive into Matt. So, like Leon said, we had this chat a couple of days ago, this R review thing. And what I think would just be interesting for people to hear about is that we talk about the Brotherhood and things like that, and it's true, and it's absolutely true. But we did have a really difficult situation we've put into. If everyone's happy, you can you can I don't know, you can cut here maybe Matt. Leon, are you happy to talk about this as a thing to talk about?

SPEAKER_00 31:54

Oh, are we gonna get are we gonna get an exclusive here on the Creative Noel on podcast?

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Only if Leon's comfortable to talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Yeah, I wouldn't have brought it up, but just if you want to say it as a it's not like an hour and a half, it's not you, Brad. Don't worry, mate. We ain't gonna get into you again. You had enough of that the

The Selection Call That Hurt

SPEAKER_02 32:10

other day.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

No, no, no. Okay, this is interesting, guys. I feel like we're getting an inside, a real inside scoop, and I might leave some of this in because it's some cryptic stuff going on. I don't want you to feel like you have to decompress the Winter Olympics on the podcast. If there's stuff that you think would be interesting, because I think if you're comfortable, I'm very comfortable.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

It's only if Leon's comfortable, and not because it's anything to hide, but it's just I think it's a really interesting take on, and it's an honest take on there's a there is a brotherhood here and brothers butt heads and things like that. And there were different perspectives on a situation Leon was thrust into, was thrust into it in a way that's made him feel a certain type of way, and we did for a way that was not in any way personal, but was in a way for us as performers who've been in this for so long, with this massive thing to come, we needed to see another variable. So he said he's okay with it, so let's you can edit this back in or start for now, whatever. I'll just say it's a riff on before, talking about the brotherhood of this team. Brothers don't always get along, obviously, and Olympic seasons, Olympic years are fraught and tense, and take a different level of resilience and perseverance and pressure and everything. And Leon was thrust into a really high pressure situation, a situation that for myself, Brad and Taylor were really angry about feeling like we were forced into as well, because we'd got to, so you know the context, Taylor was injured all year, a massive loss, not just for his exceptional ability, but also his weight. That is also a big loss. And the start was compromised a lot. We'd had a great performance at Winterburg when Tay came back. Start was looking great, and there was a situation we had another Breakman called Ben, who's a great guy, great athlete, and he was put in a situation where the management had decided they thought that Leon's performance was good enough to go, right, that's it, through to the games, which was a shock to us because we thought it was going to be Leon had the Winterburg race, then we had the next race, which Ben would do, and then the last World Cup race would be whoever did better, and that would go to the games. But Ben was being just sent home, and we thought Ben's not even getting a chance, not even getting a race. And it wasn't from loyalty to Ben or anything like that, it was from loyalty to the result and to the goal, to the thing we wanted to do. And and I literally realized this in Lifetime, and Leon, I'll get off in a sec so you can jump in to give your perspective, which is interesting and valid. You can see how emotional this got. Because for myself and Brad and Taylor, what we wanted to see was we won an Olympic medal, and we know Leon's good enough. But we have Ben, we don't know if he's good enough, but we know he's good, and it's a variable we had to check, we had to squeeze every last ounce out of this thing because we were uncertain about the equipment, we were uncertain about other areas, and we'd had this terrible season, and then suddenly we're faced with Taylor's back, we're already nearly in the medals, and now we're not going to use this potential other world-class variable, and we needed to see. And that was our take on it, and it was horrible because it was putting us in a situation where Leo's been given his chance, and it looks like we've come in and taken that from him. And for that, I'll pass to you, Leon. Then you can uh I think it'd be really interesting to have your insight on that.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Okay, sorry, just to get so there was there was someone else competing essentially for Leon's place, and they were very close. And right, sorry, just for layman's term, I just had to get that clear in my brain. Okay, wow, yeah. I mean, as a team, that must have been really tricky. And like you say, as a brotherhood, you don't always get along. So, Leon, how did that make you feel? What does that feel like for you?

SPEAKER_02 35:35

So, my kind of take on this was so throughout the season, we had the testing and stuff like that. So that's we do the testing in September, October time. Went to Lake Placid, we tested well, Ben tested well, I tested well, Greg tested well, everyone tested amazing. Whoever was on gonna be on that sled would have done the same job. Do you know what I mean? It that's how close it is. And then Ben got injured. Ben got injured. It was me, Greg, Ollie, Alex throughout the season because Tay was injured. Doing obviously rubbish starts, all that kind of stuff. And then it got to a point where in Winterburg, the three races left. Three races left. It was the first time Tay got back, me, Greg, Tay, Brad in the race. And they said to us in the week just before the race, they said, if you push a world-class time, that'll be the squad. And then I asked the question, what is a world-class time? They didn't give us that. So then already that makes everyone think, what's enough? What's not enough? Even for Ben as well. We push and push the fastest we have all season, obviously. There's the crews back together, we're hyped up for the race, Tays ready, everyone's really hyped up. We're in Winterburg. Last time they were there, they got a gold medal, everyone's hyped up. We push, and then I'm like, oh, push pretty well. We pushed pretty well, was it four, fifth start, something? Something like that. I can't remember exactly. It was in fourth or a fifth start. And then I got wind that Ben was going home. Chatting outside to Greg in the corridor in the hotel, heard them chatting to each other. Ben's like, I'm going home. And I'm like, taken back by it, because I'm like, oh my god, I've done it. I'm going to become this Olympian. So then I had to go back to my room. I go back to my room, and I can hear kafuffle in the corridor. And I remember talking to Cole, my partner, and I'm like, this decision's going to be overturned. I don't know who's going to overturn it. I just know that they've said Ben's going home. I reckon he's going to stay. About an hour goes by, and I was right. He came into my room, Ben came into my room and he said, he said, I'm so sorry, Leon. I'm like, there's nothing to be sorry about, mate. There's nothing to be sorry. He said, I'm staying. And then he said, I'm sorry again. And then he said, Me and you are going to be going head to head against each other. And I'm taken aback by it. I'm like, okay, alright. So anyway, I got to sleep. Obviously, you can imagine. I'm very upset, very frustrated. How has this happened? How has this all happened? And then obviously it came to light that the lads have had a conversation with a coach and overturned that decision. And straight away, and I've told the lads this already, so this is nothing new. This brotherhood that we spoke about absolutely destroyed that for me. It absolutely destroyed it. It did, it destroyed it. I thought they've just they've again this is we've spoken about this, but I thought it was I thought it was personal. I thought they didn't want me on the sc on the crew. It absolutely destroyed me. And then for the next two, three weeks was the the worst two weeks of my whole life, man. I'm not even gonna lie. People might think, you're just going for the Olympics, man. You're just going for the Olympics, it's just the Olympics, there's nothing too like detrimental to your life, but that's something I worked towards my whole life. Since, like I said, since I was 10 years old. And the carrot was there, got dangled in front of me and taken away by by my brothers, got taken away by them. And it was me and Greg were sharing a room for the next two weeks. I spoke unto all individually, and I was crying quite a bit. I was upset, and then from that and then needed to perform. It was a head-to-head against me and Ben. I had to perform. All my scores were down and the jumps. I normally jumped like a 67 centimeter. I was jumping a 57. It was ridiculous. I'm like, how am I even supposed to perform? And even looking at that score, I'm like, oh, he regards me to just get my head. The stress I was under, man. I was under extreme amounts of stress. My eye was twitching. I wasn't sleeping. I wasn't eating. And it was just, it was awful. It was awful. I'm getting, you can probably hear it in my voice right now. Every time I talk about him, it upsets me. But I competed and I did what I needed to do. I did what I needed to do under them extreme amounts of pressure. But only because only because I did it, that still caused a problem in my head against my brothers, right? That still was very raw to me. Very raw. And only until a few days ago, when we all spoke and I got their perspective on it, made me understand it a lot more. And I understand why. I understand why. And I do, lads. And I do accept your apology, you know what I mean? So yeah. And you're hearing it from here right now, do you know what I mean? Exclusive.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

I appreciate you guys sharing that because it's gonna be a rarity that people would see behind that curtain inside a team as such. And most people would, like the world we live in, you get the highlight reel, don't you? Oh, look at us, we won medals, we did this. But yeah, thank you for sharing. That's that must have been that must have been tough, Leon.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

Very honestly, Leon dealt with a pressure cooker there. That's every athlete, every Olympic athlete isn't the pressure cooker, man. Everyone is stressed and struggling and tense. And even us who were looking more, even for Brad, who's in the seat no matter what, you're still stressed, you're still tense. Anything can go wrong. You could pull a hammy anytime, or you could kick a sled and break your toe. Or you could anything could happen. It's always until you get to that start line. But for Leon being put in that situation with the feelings he had that we had let him, or we taken something from him, which again we apologize for the fact that he ended up in that situation because he didn't deserve to be. And he was also very unlucky by with by the way of Tay's injury, that he was right to the end of the season, that he was the one that was being forced into the head-to-head. And it just, I think it's awesome that you were okay to talk about that, Leon, because I think that sometimes people get this romantic view of this, did I say we brotherhood and things like that, all just sink cumbyar and make daisy chains together the whole time. We don't. We're real people, real men, real athletes, with real desires and hopes, and and a real approach to sacrifices and what we need to do. Yeah, we're infallible as well. But we do the best that we could and we did the best that we could, and thank God Leon was the man up to the task because I think plenty of other people would have crumbled and that would have been and that would have been awful. But also credit to him for understanding our perspective too, because like I said, in that meeting the other day was when I realised, because we said it was like it sounds like oh, you know, athletes we've got this power. It's a bit of a misnomer with that as well. We were passionate about that because and I was like, why were we so passionate? It's because for us who've been to numerous games and it's fallen apart of the last hurdle. This year's not in the way we need it to be. We have to know that this is the tippy top best crew that's going through the thing, and we had to test that variable, and it put us in a horrible position to have to make that request. But we owed it to the goal, we owed it to that, to the last 10-15 years of Brad's life to do that.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

I was gonna you guys, Brad and Greg, especially Ante, obviously, you've come into this when this was a completely unfunded sport. Brad, you've been an advocate trying to get the sponsor. You all have, obviously, but you know, you've been in this the longest essentially and pushed this team forward, which is a credit to you, all of you guys, but was that difficult, obviously, to have to try and make that decision between the three of you about Ben and Leon? When realistically, like Greg says, you're looking at the greater goal, it's not a personal thing, and you guys have been in it for such a long time that you don't want to leave anything on the on the block, as Greg says.

SPEAKER_03 42:43

Definitely, and you just hit the nail on the head pretty much there. None of this is personal. I was trying to explain this to Leon the other day, and everyone makes it into the team with part of that brotherhood, and then once you're in that, then every decision is based on merit and performance. So there's nothing that's ever personal. Yeah, it may be a bit personal whether you get into the team or not, because yeah, you need to work with us, and it's a prerequisite to be in the team. But from that point onwards, everyone needs to prove themselves, everyone needs to show that they're the best. And if there's a question mark above anything, then it has to be tested, and we have to find out why. So it's it's a very difficult thing to do. And that's the way that when Leon first came into the team, and yeah, we try to instill this sort of this culture within everyone, the team that's the most important. That is the most important thing. If anything takes away from that, then that then that's not what we want. But yeah, obviously, still very difficult to think when you're in that sort of situation that Leon was in, that is not personal, really difficult. Yeah, you have the angel and devil on your shoulder, one's telling you like the guys are there for you, the other one saying no, they just want to get rid of you, and it's really difficult to battle that. And yeah, I unfortunately haven't been in that position myself for a very long time, but I've definitely been in that position before, and it's a very dark. Dark and horrible place to be. And yeah, performance trumps everything. And at the end of the day, and it's sport can be ruthless. But yeah, I'm was very happy to hear that when Leon did succeed in the end and managed to get through. Because yeah, me and Greg have spoken about a few times, just thinking like, well, if he doesn't get to go to the game, then it's like we're the ones who pulled the trigger and and to have that on our conscience. And yeah, but luckily he was the one who managed to do the job at the end of the day and managed to go to the games, and he performed extremely well, especially in the two-man when he when I called him up last minute. He seemed to forget it was me who called him not coach. Me who called him to say get his spikes ready to because he's gonna make his two-man world debut at the Olympic Games.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

That's pretty impressive. And again, thank you guys for sharing that very personal insight into you guys as a team. And that seems look, we've spoken about the heaviness of the Olympics. What about there must have been some fun moments where you were away as a team. What's some memorable moments between you all as a team when you were away at the Olympics that was just either ridiculous, funny? I mean, Leon was saying the food was shit. As I say, we're sat at home thinking Olympians, they must be getting the best meat, the best protein, catering the law.

SPEAKER_04 45:10

Yeah, I think one of the best moments was obviously we're at the Games, and for us at doing Bob Save, Bob Slay is basically one of the last sports that gets televised at the Games. So we're in the village the whole lead up. We can't really go and have any sun, we can't go and go out

Village Life And The Fun Bits

SPEAKER_04 45:24

because you're still training. So we basically have to just wait around the whole time, focus on the job at hand, and then perform in the last couple of days and then literally leave straight after. So we've been in the village, what, just over a week at this point? And the game just started and the sliding sports have started, so loser started. And when loser on the track, obviously, you can't have any bobtail skeleton on the track, we can't train, we can't do anything. So basically, we're just sitting in the Olympic village, doing nothing, eating shit food, not having a great time. So luckily, the management had basically booked this Tucker hotel in in Kennigsey, a beautiful place in Bavaria. Um we left the village for what four days, four or five days? We're out there, and this hotel was lovely. Yeah, the food was unbelievable. The day we got there, I think they had a an all-you-can-eat buffet dessert, which everyone made full use of. Yeah, like just but the contrast in food from the games being so bad to then go into this amazing hotel, great spa, infinity pool, saunas, the full works, eating amazing breakfast, lunch, dinner. That was probably the highlight of my game, so it wasn't even out of the game, it was the hotel round the corner.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

It's like we'd been in the desert for a week. It was something like we were so malnourished.

SPEAKER_00 46:42

And then we're mentioned it, all of your faces suddenly went, Wow, god, yeah. Do you remember those desserts? Yeah, yeah. It must have been like The Miracles in the Desert. Doesn't sound like very disciplined athletes, though, guys. Just chowing down on desserts.

SPEAKER_03 46:57

I think we were so when you haven't eaten any calories is good calories. Well, you should see how many McDonald's we destroy over the season just from driving from one venue to another and having absolutely no options. So sometimes something is better than nothing. Yeah, we were in such a deficit point.

SPEAKER_01 47:12

We were just drinking from the chocolate fountain, it was no stress at all.

SPEAKER_04 47:15

But I guess all jokes aside, like for me, being my second games, obviously, my first game was Beijing, it was COVID. So I got none of the Olympic experience that I should have had the first time around. No kitten out, no friends, no family, no fun little things that they do around the village. Like even the athlete lounge and stuff in Beijing, it was they did the best of what they could, but you just didn't really have that feel of oh my god, this is in the Olympics, whereas Cortina was completely different. So I actually got to enjoy an Olympics for what it is. You get to do all the fun little bits and pieces that they have going on. The village in Cortina was amazing compared to lots of the other villages that were based around Italy, because the way Manal Cortina games worked were there were six different hubs, and Cortina just happened to be the biggest one with the biggest village. So for us, we had, in my opinion, the best sort of Olympic experience. So for me, just being able to not be deprived of that, because obviously with Brad and Greg, they got to enjoy Pyongyang, so they got all of that. Whereas for me, I did Beijing, and I was like, oh okay, not it was a great honour to go to an Olympics. I was like, okay, this is cool, it's just another race. Whereas this, I actually felt life in Olympics, so actually getting my Olympic experience, having my friends, family, just soaking it all in was an awesome feeling.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

Amazing. And Brad and Greg, this was your third games, and Brad, you were actually the flagbearer for this Winter Olympics, right? So for you guys, how did it differ for you being the third experience? Like Leon, he's like you said, he's so excited just to be at the Olympics. Taylor's had the experience of COVID, which was obviously very bizarre, I can imagine. So what's the third time like for you guys?

SPEAKER_03 49:29

So, like Taylor said, the last games was very strange without having all the having COVID on at the same time. So we didn't have any anyone there watching, any friends and family. There was literally no one in the crowds, and yeah, all the build-up to it, there wasn't that sort of excitement building, and we still had to wear masks all the time, and yeah, is it was just all didn't feel like it should. And even when think back to talking to me and my Money Greg's first games back in South Korea, yeah, it was very exciting and everything, but it was still out in Asia, we didn't have any friends and family out there watching. So to actually have something in Cortina was felt like a home Olympics to us. It was in Europe, so it was the closest thing that we were gonna feel to having home soil. So we had massive friends and family out there all on the sidelines. Remember, before the four-man race, we got there extremely early. So did all our friends and family, so they're up in the stands, and we're like, We've got so much time, we we we've got to go and say hello. So we went over there, said hello to everyone, and yeah, found that my mum broke her wrist a couple of days before she'd fallen over and broken her wrists on some on a bit of ice, but she didn't tell me, so she was like kind of had a flag draped over her. I was like, What's wrong with you? Nothing. It's like, yeah, so managed to get it sorted without telling me which was the right decision, so I didn't worry, but glad to see if she was alright. But yeah, just having all of that around it was great. Not my mum breaking her arm, but her and everyone else being there. It's yeah, that made it extremely special. And obviously, the surroundings, being in the dolomite mountains, the sunshine, the scenery, the people, and yeah, it wasn't. I'm presumably the honour of normal experiencing around.

SPEAKER_00 51:03

Flagbearer must be pretty pretty exciting.

SPEAKER_03 51:06

Yeah, that was uh massive honour, as you can imagine. It's something that you see every time you you go to an Olympic game, someone gets chosen as a flagbearer because of their not necessarily because of their cheat achievements, but because of what they've done or what they mean to the sport. And now it's was my turn. I got asked by our chef de mission, who like she was going to tell me some more bad news, but she's very sheepishly asked me if I wanted to be a flagbearer. So obviously I bit her hand off and said, Yeah, I'd love to do it. Yeah, that was also an amazing experience to be able to lead Team GB out onto the field of play and to start the 2026 Olympic Games as a as the flag bearer. And also the opening ceremonies were dotted around all the different venues, and they had always been in stadiums before, so you're so far away from the crowd, and it's kind of like you're walking to stay. It's a massive, it's fun experience, but you're not really immersed with the crowd. But we're in the streets of Cortina, we were messing around with the flag before, getting all the crowd hyped up, and then you go through with to start your walkout, and then there's just people lined up all over the side of the streets, you're giving them high fives, and everyone's just screaming. I think it was the best opening ceremony I've had out of the three, and it was uh yeah, really privilege to be a part of.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Amazing. And Greg, as I say, Brad, probably similar experiences, but the COVID sounds weird for all of you, and then obviously being such a distance away in Korea. Did it feel similar to you, this sort of home vibe?

SPEAKER_01 52:34

Yeah, I was just sitting there thinking about what exactly it meant because I knew the second games was horrible for me as well. As I had personal stuff going on at home, it was weird. The COVID thing, the brain scrapes up through the nose, all this sort of stuff. It was a spectacle. The track was instead, it was like football stadium architecture, absolutely massive, but just this empty crowd. So it looked incredible, but then there was no substance, there was no fans, there was no feeling, there was no energy there. Whereas, as Brad just said, I was gonna actually say this again, the opening ceremony was amazing because you were you we were flying through the streets, people either side, you're high-fiving everybody, just thousands of people lining the streets. We've never experienced that before. And even in Milan, where they had the other opening ceremonies, that was in the stadium, I think. So they did have the stadium, which was probably all great and lovely for them, but for us, it was real close fan interaction and real kind of family atmosphere just in general. I was saying if you think of it visually, it's almost like Beijing was like a big air airplane hanger, empty, one guy at the air, like that was Beijing. And then Milan was like little pub with folk music blaring, everyone in there, cheering, shouting, your friends and family are there, and all surrounded around a little, I don't know, Bobstay simulator. But it just there was just the love was in the room and it was close and it everyone was engaged, and that we saw that at home, millions of people tuned in to watch because the time zone was right for it, and the TV rights were there or whatever. Five and a half million people tuned in for the curling final. My god. Um, so it was there for great sport, but it's no, it was all absolutely incredible, Milan, just for that close family vibe, it was very special, yeah. Korea was cool, it was probably the last real one before that, but that was our first one, and we came 17th, so we don't talk about that one.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

Fair enough, fair enough. Okay, you're clearly all very disciplined human beings, and uh as I've said before, massively inspiring. I wondered whether we could have a little chat about how you do stay so disciplined, how you do maintain, and I'm gonna start with Taylor, because obviously you're a military man, it seems the discipline and consistency seems to go in the nature, but do you have any pointers or things that you do that can maybe pass on to the listeners to help them with their discipline and motivation?

SPEAKER_04 54:51

I wouldn't say there's secret formula or anything like that. For me, when I started in 2019, I had the goal of Beijing is two years away. That's my goal. How am I gonna get to Beijing?

Discipline Goals And Daily One Percenters

SPEAKER_04 55:02

What am I gonna do to get there? And Manan was exactly the same, and Beijing was great because obviously we are unfunded in the lead up to that, and the whole point of going to Beijing and she wanted to meddle, but the sixth place there brought back funding. So that was me gone to the games, funding secured, Olympian status done, cool, big picks. My goal was to go to Beijing, achieved. And then for me, I know I wanted to do another four years, and in that build-up to four years in Milan, 2026 was like the goal is a medal. So, what am I doing to make sure that in Milan we can try and achieve the medal? So for me, it was I set my kind of big main goal, and everything and the lead up to that is just making sure that everything is in place to achieve that medal, so I can go to Milan, I can compete, and I can go, did I do everything possible in my power? And the result was just the result. And if I can say yes, I did all those things, then I can't be too mad. So, yes, you have to have this main goal and you have to remain focused towards that goal, but also you need to enjoy the process. Because if you don't enjoy the process, then by the time you get there, even if you did achieve it, a lot of people talk about like achieving their own goal, and then they're like, Okay, what's next? I've achieved it. Where do I go from here? But I've enjoyed the whole process in the lead up to becoming an Olympian, going to the games, competing. So, yeah, set your one main goal and make sure you do everything in your power to get there, but enjoy it. Because if you don't enjoy it, then by the time you achieve that goal, it might feel a little bit underwhelming.

SPEAKER_00 56:31

Love that. And then Leon, you have you you are at the moment, Greg touched on it before, you're going in doing a lot of these motivational speeches and talks for the schools and kids and stuff. What about you? It seems a bit silly of me asking professional athletes how to stay disciplined because it's what you've lived. But what about you? What would you say giving advice to some of the listeners?

SPEAKER_02 56:54

Yeah, it's always the goal. So Tay touched on that. That you need a goal for a start, whether it's a small one, whether it's a big one. Because obviously the big goal is the Olympics, but that's every four years, so you need to have a goal each year what you want to achieve. How do you do that? So firstly, like when you begin, what are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Your strengths, yeah, touching them a little bit. Your weaknesses, they're the thing you need to double down on. And that's exactly what I do. That's every year, that's exactly what I do. I double down my weaknesses, and then by six months down the line, suddenly they don't become weaknesses anymore. They become strengths. And it's the exact same thing, not just in Bob Slay, it's anything that you're trying to achieve. Look at your strengths, look at your weaknesses.

SPEAKER_00 57:34

But you see that sometimes that people who often it's the classic gym metaphor, isn't it? The guy that works only the upper body and forgets leg day. It's not easy to work on your weaknesses sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 57:45

So is that just a if you want to be successful, you need to work on your weaknesses. It's as simple as that. If you don't work on your weaknesses, you ain't gonna be successful. By failing over and over again, that is when you become successful. Anyway, as soon as you've got that, as soon as you've got your strengths, as soon as you've got your weaknesses, then you need to look at your priorities. What are the non-negotiables? So for me, the non-negotiables is what my nutrition. So this year, I've never doubled down on my nutrition so much. Because I wanted to, like Taylor said, you want to get to the Olympics and you want to be like, if I didn't get it, have I done everything I could to get there? I could tell you right now, if I didn't get it, I did. I did. I doubled down on my nutrition. We made that non-negotiable. My sleep was kind of hard because I have a daughter, but I did everything I could to make sure I had good recovery, stretching, mobilizing, doing all these little one percenters, one percent coaching club, doing all these little one percent, all these one percenters are the things that are gonna get you better. And that's exactly what I did for sure. Because if you don't achieve it at the end, then it's tough. It's hard, it is hard. But if you can just say, I did everything I could to get there, I did everything I could to achieve that goal. But if you don't get it, you can't hold on to it for years and years because you did everything you could to get there. So that's why for me, anyway, in this Olympic cycle, I have done, I worked my ass off to get it, and I'm proud of that. You know what I mean? You learn a lot on the way as well. You learn a lot on the way, and that's that keeps you disciplined. Every time you do something wrong, you learn from it. Yeah, man, that's been in a nutshell what I would do to keep disciplined.

SPEAKER_00 59:11

So they like you say, these 1% bits every day, habits to keep you better, get you better. T says setting that long-term goal and just working almost backwards to go, how do you get there? Let's engineer it, reverse engineer it, see. And this is something that I feel is applicable to everybody with any goal, I don't care what the goal is. Yes, yours might have been Olympic medals. For someone, it might be painting a picture, writing a poem, starting a business, whatever. So come on, then, Greg, what about you? Anything to add to that in terms of how you guys stay so disciplined and some suggestions of stuff that people can implement into their world?

SPEAKER_01 59:49

Yeah, I mean, I'll I'll try to. The guys are they letting it on the head pretty much. I'm a difficult case, I think I'm a bag of neurotic self-doubt spiralling all the time about how what a piece of shit I am and how good I'm constantly battling.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:04

At least we'll get the full human condition across all four of you then.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

That's it, there you go. So here's the neurotic speaking now, thinking he's to blame for everything and he's rubbish and he's useless. Yeah, so I'm constantly battling and dealing with bat and that away. So I really do have real time every day, what shuts out the noise and what helps keep me on track. And Taylor said the goal, the North Star, talk about the North Star. What's the ultimate goal? You've got tons of goals. You want to go to the Olympics, you want to win a medal and things like that. I think what I've tried to do, because I'm like you, Matt, trying to go into you're already there, other. I'm trying to go into creative spaces, writing and things like that. And sharing creative endeavors, especially when you've been a sportsman, you feel an incredible fraud doing all that sort of thing, and really sharing kind of something incredibly personal about yourself. So every day I'm like, oh my god, no one's gonna want to read this. This is rubbish. But keep doing it, you keep dealing with the savagery, you keep dealing with the feedback and the people telling you it's crap, or even telling you it's good or whatever that might look like. But I tried to try and battle against the feelings of Potter syndrome or the other such self-doubt, spirals keep me on track, discipline, all that sort of thing, keep me writing. I try and make that North Star not as not like, you know, oh, I want to sell a script to Apple, anything like that. My North Star and I try to bed down in values rather than physical output. So by values, what is it I actually want to do in this world? What do I actually want to achieve? What do I actually want to be a part of? And I know that a big part of my kind of people call it their why or whatever, the purpose or the goal of the North Star, a big part of mine is that I, and it sounds incredibly wanky, but stay with me, is I feel like I want to move people. And by move people, I mean make people laugh, make people cry, make people in a good way, not in a not be horrible people. Write stories basically, share stories, share human experience and something cool and different, and that might be inspiring for the Olympics, it might be inspiring for stories or writing or creative endeavors. But if I'm if that's my North Star, if I'm just trying to do a bit of good, I want to have positive impact, then it keeps me on track for being like, oh, I'm not gonna be absolutely pulling myself apart for doing this writing thing. I want to write, I love it, and if I can make people laugh with it, then that's great, and I'm achieving the goal. So it keeps me it at least when I'm being derailed every day, it does bring me back to centre. So I think, yeah, it's that north style goal that is outside of my specific technical goals of whatever I'm trying to do in sport or writing, it's a more values-based goal of what I actually want to achieve from this life, and that can bring me back quite nicely.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:23

But I think that's a very interesting point for the listeners to hear, bearing in mind most of the audience probably are creative, and as you say, that I will call you on something imposterism isn't a syndrome, it's just the human condition. And like you say, it's interesting for especially what I would imagine is mostly creative listeners, to hear someone that's very prepared to throw themselves down a mountain at 100 miles an hour being worried about whether they should share a piece of their writing. So again, very human, and this is what a lot of creatives, a lot of people, a lot of people have spoken to already. We all battle with that. But is anyone going to value what we do? So that's a but that may be an interesting conversation for a different time, but yeah, that feeling like an imposter when you're on the world stage, you guys, that's quite an interesting one. And then Brad, finally, God, I think these boys have left you quite a tricky task there, because they've it's like they've been practicing. But what about you? What about how do you stay disciplined and focused? Because I guess you, in some respects, have a different your mindset has to be a bit different. You've got to remember corners, turns, all these different elements. Does that require a different level of discipline for you? Or is it still the same end goal, and I've got to do my part to get there?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:38

I think so. I think Greg mentions it quite often, you've got a special type of brain to do or uh to be a pilot, a special sort of mindset. It's like you don't really have an off button most of the time because you're always working and trying to figure out things. Yes, there's one thing to get up and train for a few hours a day and then get on top of your diet and stuff like that. But then, yeah, after all of that, I don't really switch off. I've still got to keep on with all the driving stuff, or else I'll get it in the neck when I have slightly more than normal tap down the track and someone bruises their hips. Yeah, there's a different sort of mindset, but for me, it's what keeps me motivated, is or disciplined at least, is is the sort of pursuit of perfection, but it's like a pursuit of reaching your potential, and that's always been something I've always strived to do. And you told me to come up with a quote, and I'm I'm gonna use that quote a little bit earlier than at the end of the podcast. One that I've thought about earlier in my career when I was a beginner pilot, and I wasn't as fast as the other athletes that were coming through as a pilot at the same time. I just didn't think that I had the talent to ever be a world-class push athlete. So I was always going to make sure that I was the hardest working person in the room and that I was always going to be yeah, maximizing absolute every element of everything that I do. And the quote that I was going to say is hard work. What was it? I've forgotten it. Hard work beats talent. That could have been so perfect. Exactly. And that's my quote, and that's that's what I was always go for, is that I wanted to work the hardest that I could, and I found out the the longer that I applied that and the longer that I did that, I did become talented, and I did become one of the fastest pilots in the world. I did become one of the best pilots in the world who understands equipment, understands tracks, and yeah, it takes a lot of time and effort to get there, but I wanted to make sure that I reached my potential and every single area that I worked on, and to leave no stone unturned. And that's some of what like keeps me in the sport at the moment because I've had a lot of injuries and problems over the last ten years. I yeah, but anyway, yeah, that kind of one thing that kind of keeps me thinking like, is there something more that I can get out of myself? And if the question is yes, then that's what makes me want to stay and then makes me want to find out what that is, because I don't want to leave this sport knowing that there's something more that I could get out of myself, and yeah, that's what motivates me to keep moving forward.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:08

Is that a good time to potentially speak to you all as a team, looking ahead? What is the big next goal for you guys?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:17

I think everyone's goal is slightly different. Um some people have got goals of going on to the next four years, some of us it's just one year, some of us it's we'll wait and see. But yeah, I think everyone's goal is slightly individual, but I think everyone is ready for the next steps in lives in whatever capacity that looks like. Like. So whether that is trying to build on the last six, eight, ten years of Bob say moving to the next four years up into the Olympics, if it is trying to move forward with Greg with his writing and his comedy families for like myself and Lil and the little ones. I think yeah, everyone's goal is slightly different,

What Comes Next After Cortina

SPEAKER_04 1:06:53

but I think everyone is ready to move on in the next stages of their life in whatever capacity that looks like.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:59

So is that a bit of a sitting on the fence? Are we all a team going into the next thing? I'm not going to push you for anything because I understand this is you know, you're not that far off being from the Winter Olympics, are you? So there's a lot of stuff to decompress from, I'm sure. But Lee, I'm imagining being the fresh Olympic Games tattoo, I'm sure the goal for you must be the next one, right? Yeah, you know what?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:25

I was when you've achieved your dream, there's a lot of things you think about. There's a lot of things to think about. Like I've got a little girl and she's two now, she's communicating a lot more, and want another kid. And can I do it again? And I was in my head, I was so unsure, man. So unsure, kind of not really knowing what I wanted to do. But having spoken to my partner, Cole, she's and I'm worried about being present. That's the biggest thing I'm worried about is not being present as a dad. I didn't have a dad growing up, so that's my biggest fear of not being there for her. And she says, her words, you worrying about that is a good thing. You worrying about that means you're a good dad. And that kind of thing, that led on to her saying, You don't want to give it up, dear. You don't want to give it up. And I've been putting it at the back of my head, trying to support my family and stuff like that. And she's saying, You don't want to give up, dear. And she keeps saying, I'm like, I just finally said it. No, I don't. I'm not finished. I'm not done. I feel I've got so much more potential. I really found that this year was the year I really stepped up. And I just want to just keep building on that. So yeah, no, I'm going for another four years.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:25

Good man. And Brad, let's talk to you. Yeah, so for me, I'm still thinking about putting off the next stage in life at the moment. So it's yeah, like I say, I still feel there's more potential. There's still hunger to do it, there's still there's still a will there to keep going and keep pushing on. And there's a lot of things changing with the program at the moment, and a lot of exciting things are happening with the way things are run and the way that we're going to be supported over the last few years because we haven't had that sort of support before. And I I see that there's so much potential left to gain, and that's what's keeping me around at the moment. So yeah, I'm approaching the next year like I'm going for the next four, but it's going to be on a year-by-year basis for me. So as long as it still makes sense, and as long as I still see there's a path forward to be successful, then yeah, you'll you'll be seeing me in the next four years. Good news.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:13

And Greg, you've spoken much more about taking the avenue down, you want to go into this creativity. I mean, we have had lots of conversations about your creativity, and we will sure have many more because you're a very talented writer, but where are you in your mind at the moment, or is that quite a big question? Because you're now teetering on the edge of do you continue Bob Slay, or do you maybe potentially visit this other aspect of you?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:43

I was I was teetering on the edge, and now I feel like I'm bungee jumping a little bit because it's I was in the I was like, nah, I'm gone, fuck that shit, I'm out. And I speak about it in jest, I've it's been amazing, no matter what, great ride, I've loved it. I do feel very affected by Milan Cortina, but I do also I've got these three who I love to death and that we've been through a lot together, and when you go through those sorts of experiences, it's not something again I I readily give up. So I do speak quite in jest. We were talking the other day about this in our Airbnb. I'm like 98%, I'm out, but the 2% is bright, it's a bright 2%, and it could shift back. And we trained this week. And before the thought of pushing a trolley made me want to throw up in my mouth, and then I actually did it, and I was actually I was like, oh, quite enjoying this, it's quite nice. And yeah, so I'm I'm I really am on the Taylor wrapped it up pretty succinctly. Some of us are looking at a year, some of us taking it a year by year, or Leon he wants to do it as well for the rest of the four years. So I am I'm probably a year by year. For me, it's probably the end of the summer. I'll really there'll be shit or get off the pot kind of type thing. I I'll keep the writing going anyway, because like I hate it's funny, you're very kind, but I hate I don't think I am a talented writer whatsoever. I love writing and I enjoy it and I want to get better and I want to be good at it, and I'll keep doing it until I get good at the same as sport, right? I was a crap bobsledder when I started, but I was a good sprinter, but I was a crap bobsledder and I became good through the training, and that's what I'm doing in the writing. So I'm getting paid work and just steadily, and I'll I'll keep doing that, but it's just not quite ready to pay the mortgage yet, so that's something to consider.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:12

I would also remind you that there's many writers out there that have never been paid for a single thing in their life, and there's I would also argue I didn't know shit when I was a photographer, and I was to be fair, I'd probably still argue I don't know shit now, but it's a learning curve. And I think again, it's that feeling like an imposter is just you stepping out of your comfort zone.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:32

So credit to you. I know we all do this, I know, but I'm terrible for it. I've put all these mental barriers up, all these mental hurdles that only I'm putting up, really. There's no one else really saying you people might tell me I don't like your script or I don't like your work or whatever and keep trying, but no one's really gone, you can't do this or just give up. Only me and my head's doing that, so I need to reconcile against that. But yeah, that's probably where I'm at. So year by year, month by month, second by second.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:58

Amazing. But I think that's also an interesting place because you know, you're all individual personalities. Greg, you're pursuing the creativity stuff. Taylor, you've got your military and your family stuff. Brad has seemed to have gone full-on DIY house man and can throw himself to every creative aspect of building a house. And Leon, you have gone full on, you mentioned it before, the 1% coaching club. This is where the whole thing about inspiring others even more directly than you do as a bobsleigh team. This is something that's quite interesting. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing more on a personal level with that?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:33

Yeah, so I kind of created this 1% coaching club because there's two aspects to this. So the first aspect is the 0.00017% chance that I've got myself in. So on that road, I've learned a lot, a lot of mental barriers I've had to overcome. And there's a roadmap to that. There's a roadmap to it. And the second thing is I mentioned it a little bit earlier, doing these one percenters every single day, these little things, you don't have to focus on everything all at once to be successful, to lose weight, to build muscle, to just be successful, whatever you choose. You don't have to do everything all at once, but doing these little things very often, you suddenly you'll reach that goal. That's the biggest thing. People

Coaching Club And Learning From Each Other

SPEAKER_02 1:13:14

put too much pressure on themselves straight away to to be successful. And it doesn't happen overnight, man. It doesn't happen overnight. It happens by doing something little every single day. And then by that 12-month point, man, you've already achieved so much more than you would have dreamed of.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:28

And this is part of the whole thing. You are all such motivational human beings, you know. You mentioned mentioned that percentage thing, but Leon, you're putting that into practice in into more of a content and helping lots of people, but you all embody that 1% better every day, just incrementally better. T says, setting the goal, enjoying the process, working out what your weaknesses are, valuing your time, and those non-negotiables. This is why I think, as professional athletes, all four of you, are just amazing examples. And people might look at it as a creative podcast and go, oh, yeah, but they're not creative, quote unquote. You all are massively in different ways, but also inspiring.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:10

So no, I would just have an opportunity to just kind of blow smoke up them all quickly. Like honestly, Leon is one of the most motivated and fearless grafters I've ever known. He will just throw himself into everything, he'll produce the content, he'll do it all himself, sing the theme to and write the theme to, and just go for it and get it out of there and try, fail, iterate, go again. He's just fearless. He is really, I've told him before, it's his positivity is expressional. He's helped me a lot. And on season, he's been amazing, even for me. Like when I'm having one of my catastrophic spirals, and he's just been like, nah, he's like he's like a little energizer bunny in my pocket. Taylor is the most ferociously organized and like capable person. Think shit runs largely because of Taylor, whether we like it or not, it will run. And he gets out, and he's gonna, whether he goes into corporate world and stuff, he'll destroy it, he'll literally destroy it. He's so big, he'll destroy it, and the building will fall down. We will be literally amazing in all those environments. And Brad is as much we all make fun of each other. Brad probably takes the most of it. Um, that he is again one of the smartest, logical, capable, driven people I know who I think one day when he's ready to move on in Bobstay, he'll be worth his weight in gold because I think every nation will want to employ him because of what he does as a as an athlete, as a as someone who's run programs, his understanding of the sport, he'll be like gold dust. So I think he'll be fine if he remains in the sport, but he'll be again amazing if he leaves because he's just smart. This is honestly a very talented crew, these three are. And we've also had other people on this team who also are very talented. And I see it in Bob Say as a whole, but it's a little bubble, a little as part of the car wanting to get out as well, because I just see internationally we've got people sometimes. Um it sounds horrible, terribly disparaging. I don't mean it to be, but I'm kind of like, you could go even bigger, you could break out of this. We've got coaches who are getting frustrated in the programs they're in internationally, who are so smart and so good. And I'm like, just but being taken for granted, I'm like, get out of this little world and go and show the rest of the world who you are because you're flying. There's loads of people like that. And yeah, so for context, this these guys are really amazing. So once the Olympic Dream's done, I'm excited to see what they do as well. Because we're all mates and everything, but I'm fascinated because all of them have the mindset and the skill set to just pivot and go extremely well.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:17

So this is what Greg likes doing, man. Greg is the let me blow smoke up your ass, mate. Let everyone knows what you're like. So, Greg, honestly, I don't think I've met.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:27

Carry on, Leon. This is yeah, daring.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:31

I've had so many, so many chats, man. No, honestly, I've had so many chats. He has a lot of self-doubt, man. And I'm constantly saying to him, you are good enough. You are good enough, you are good enough. He is, I don't know, you guys can jump in on this as well, but the amount of Greg could do, right? Greg could, I don't know, he's a jack of all trades. He's doing comedy, he can write, he can be a public speaker, he's got so many. And I don't know, like I've learned so much from him. Just but I have though, like, you are.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:59

And I'll learn there as well, too, Leon, if you don't mind, because they actually quote, I've said it on the podcast before, jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than the master of one. So by Greg, you throwing and you're all of you throwing yourself into these different elements of things. It's the best way to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:17

He is though, man. Like the this I've learned a lot from you, Greg. A lot. And I've spoken to you about this. I I look at life a little bit different just because I was in the police. I was in the police, look at life a bit different, more a bit, probably a bit more negative. Whereas Greg is just constant. I know I like yes, I'm positively all this kind of stuff, but I also look at things sometimes in a negative way. And he's been able to spin that around. So I look at things in a lot more, a lot more softly, I could say now, a lot more positively. And it's a good in its real good way now. I've learned that from him. I'm gonna take that, not just through my life now, and teach Ari that kind of way of mindset because you could call me a little bit stuck because the police just you see a lot of shit in the police, man. You get that mindset, and to get out of it, I got out of it because of Greg. So thank you for that, mate.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:03

Very nice thing to say, mate.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:04

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:04

Caitlin, I think we've gone quite personal in this, but as a team, you must have the traits in each other that you respect, they must rub off on each other. And as I say, you're all wonderful human beings, wonderful men. And I think that's important to say as well. Me and Greg have had some quite heavy conversations where he's allowed me space to talk about all sorts of things, and I feel very comfortable with all of you in that sense. And I've known you a long time, and again, I'm gonna rant on about it. This is why I wanted to get you all on. You're inspiring human beings that people can take so much from, and not just the discipline of being athletes, but I think Brad hit the nail on the head of looking at four people that are just trying to reach their own potential, and that's what we could all with having a bit of motivation behind us to reach our own potential, not giving up on ourselves and taking some of these attributes that you guys have got moving forward into everyday life. There was my monologue, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:04

I was there was gonna weigh in. No, I yeah, thank you, mate.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:07

And I just want to say from a personal level, I've known you guys for a long time now, and each of you individually and as a team have inspired me in so many different ways. And yeah, thanks for being part of my journey as well. It's been amazing. And thank you for doing the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:22

Thanks for having us on, and yeah, all the time that we've known you as well. It's great to hear from sometimes an outside perspective, just like what other people think of us, I guess. So being in the sporting world, sometimes we're very quick to get make fun of ourselves or make fun of each other and not really realize the gravity of our achievements. And uh yes, so having you around, it's just does make us take a second look at ourselves and actually to be grateful of what we've what we have and what we achieve and not just dwell on the things that that we missed out on, or the yeah, we didn't quite make that, or we didn't quite get this one. There's so much to be appreciative of. So yeah, thank you for that as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:00

There is a natural negative bias that us us humans we always go to, but I do want to remind you, you all of you are you're history makers. You're like Leon said, what's the statistic, Leon? 0. Nah, nah, 1-7. That's crazy. That's crazy. Yeah, so thank you. Thank you for everything that you've done for the British Bob Slay and for inspiring people, whether you know it or not. I think people are gonna take away a lot from this, even if they are creatives. This might be a tricky one. I don't know how we're gonna do this, because there are four of you. I do like to ask for a quote from each of you. Brad has given us his quote, even though I think everyone junk that he can't. So maybe, Brad, we should get you to do that again. But if all of you have got a quote, and then what did we decide about maybe each one of you suggesting someone in your world that you think might be an interesting person to come on the podcast, or would you like to do that as a team?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:55

But I think if everyone's got one, then everyone do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:58

Okay, go on then, Brad. As everyone took the Mickey out of you for for getting your quote. Do you want to give the creative no-analysters your quote again?

SPEAKER_03 1:21:05

Yeah, so my quote is hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work. So, yes, if you if you put yourself in into a room and you're the hardest one working in there,

Quotes And Future Guest Suggestions

SPEAKER_03 1:21:15

surely find that that you'll start to become talented yourself. Good work. Go on then.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:20

Who's gonna volunteer to go next? We go, go on, Leon.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:24

Your potential is decided by the room you choose to be in. Choose one that challenges you, choose one that demands more, but that's where your best is built.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:34

Oh, love that. Go on then, Greg, what about yours?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:38

I think this one is better I like because it actually is all in action, or something I'll try and do. And that's luck is movement. And that's basically everyone who you think seems lucky or seem to make their own luck or this sort of thing, there are people that are just moving. So they're people that say yes to opportunities, they might go to that networking event they can't go be asked to go to, they might go into that new cafe. They've put themselves in places, knowingly or not, where luck can potentially, you know, they might meet the right person, talk to the right person. And basically, the more you say yes to things, the more you're moving, the greater your surface area for receiving luck is. So lucky people aren't just lucky, lucky people are moving. So if you really think about those people in your life who seem to fall on their feet all the time or seem to have all these lucky things, you'll probably find that they're the ones who are the most active and the ones out there doing shit. So lucky's movement.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:27

Love that. And finally, big T.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:30

So mine was from a book that I read called Ego's the Enemy by Ryan Holliday. And it's you can't build a reputation on what you're going to do. And that was from Henry Ford.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:41

Very stoic, Mr. Holiday. I like that. Good stuff. And go on, then, should we do it in reverse order? You must all have quite diverse networks of people in your world. So uh, who's who's gonna go first with some suggested guests for future podcasts? Yeah, I've got one. Go on then, Leon.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:59

So she is the woman that has brought me back after being told I could never run again. She's a Cambridge University graduate. She's my sprint coach, she's like a second mum to me, and she's so knowledgeable, so motherly like that I've learned so much from her. I want her being in this position right now, how I am, my mindset without her. So a lot of things I speak about, I've learned from her, and she's called Emma Hooper.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:24

Emma Hooper. And do you think Emma Hooper would like to come on the podcast one day? Maybe if we can uh if I nudge her a little bit. Okay, we'll get you to nudge her a little bit then. Who's next? Greg? Yeah, go on.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:36

It'll be an ambitious one. I'll have to ask her. But she's she's someone I got to know a bit more recently. Her name's Miriam Batti. She's a very successful screenwriter. She's currently showrunning a major new Apple TV show. She very kindly had me up to shadow her on the set up in Watford the other day. It's all very fresh and secretive, but it's the next big show that's going to come out. Massive cast, really exciting. She's had a lot of success as a writer. She adapted this book and it got greenlit and it's now this enormous production. It was an incredible thing to go and see. And I was very grateful to her for allowing me up behind the curtain to see how that will work. So, Miriam, I think, will I if you get her on, she that would be a bit of a coup. She's very English about everything and very modest, but she's phenomenally talented and doing amazing things. So, yeah, I see her.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:19

Well, this relies on the people that's suggesting them giving them a little bit of a nudge, like Leon said.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:25

I profess zero persuasive ability in getting her on, but I will try, mate. She would be fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:30

Okay. Great. We can only send the message, can't we? That's who we can ask it. Brad, who do you think, mate?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:37

Well, yeah, still sticking with sort of Bob Slate theme, I guess. Someone who's it might be quite interesting to give a bit more maybe a bit more insight about our sort of journey, but then all from a different perspective, because obviously we've had a lot of troubles over the years, but typically with injuries, um, is Dr. Richard Wheeler. He's been with us for the last four years from the Beijing games, and he was our team doctor at the last games in Cortina, but he's also been our team doctor in Bobsley for the last four years, and he's been with us through all the ups and downs. And yeah, maybe he can give you some insight on how we seem to end up in these messes and how to get out of it and some of the psychology behind it all as well. So yeah, he's been he's very good and very important part of our journey as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:20

That could be hugely interesting. Yeah, very good guy, yeah. Amazing. And I think, well, if I've got all four of you saying he's a top guy, it sounds like it'd be very interesting. And then finally, Big T, what are you saying, big man? I'm gonna go and actually suggest Adele.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:34

I can have a teammate. I see the sort of journey that she's been on, not just in the Bob Say world, but her sporting journey in general, which is very interesting. She's I was actually speaking to her the other day, and I feel like she's like a cat in terms of you could drop her from any position and she will land on her feet. She's got an absolute incredible ability to just go with the punches and to make something happen. And yeah, every time I talk to her, she's always doing something, things in lots of different pies, and yeah, she's just an interesting person to talk to. Whenever we've had her on to talk to different people or talk to kids or just speak in presentations, interviews, stuff like that. I think she talks very well, and yeah, she's a very interesting person. So I'm gonna pop out and say another teammate.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:17

Doesn't sound like a cop-out to me. That sounds like a great one and goes hand in hand with Greg's one about lucky people are moving people. She's always moving, always doing something. I think all of these are great insights, and yeah, I look forward to trying to reach out to some of these people to get them on in the future. But for now, gentlemen, I just want to say again, thank you for allowing me into your world for the last couple of years. I know it's not gone how we all maybe expected it to go, but who knows? There's still potential for our Netflix documentary.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:48

Notflix, Netflix, maybe after here after the here about this, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:53

Yeah. But guys, thank you so much for being part of the Creative Noah Land podcast. You are the final episode of season two, and I just wanted to go out with some interesting and inspiring humans who've, as I say, been an integral part of my world for the last couple of years, and I think you will give the listeners a lot to think about and a lot to take away. So thank you very much indeed, all of you.

Support The Show And Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 1:27:17

Thank you, Matt. Yes, mate. Thanks for listening to the Creative Nobeland Podcast. If you found anything in this episode useful or inspiring, please consider subscribing or sharing it with a friend. You can also help the podcast by clicking the support the show link in the show notes or by grabbing yourself something from the Creative Nobeland shop. And here's the bonus. When you join the community through our website, you'll get a special discount code that gives you free shipping on all orders. So, before you buy anything, be sure to join the community. Every bit of support helps us keep sharing these inspiring stories. So, thanks again for listening, and until next time, explore, inspire, and create.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:07

Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way. And so, that boy is so important to consider this question what do I desire to do?