Bobsleigh Brad - the man behind the mask

BBC News

07-02-2025

Hurtling down a frozen track of ice at 90mph isn't most people's idea of fun, but for British bobsleigh pilot Brad Hall it's an adrenaline rush he can't live without."If I'm pushing the sled I want to be driving, I want to be responsible," Hall told BBC South Today."I wouldn't say I'm a control freak but if things don't go right, I like to be the person to blame."You have to react instinctively to what's happening in front of you, every decision is taken in the smallest split second."At the most-recent World Cup leg the freezing temperatures of St Moritz, an alpine resort in the East of Switzerland, were matched by the ice in Hall's veins.Having produced the fastest time of the teams in Heat 1, the 34-year-old from West Sussex knew a repeat performance would clinch his four-man bob crew another gold.It was never in doubt though as the team produced a typically clean and clinical performance."When I'm on the block I am looking to give that sled as much energy and as much aggression as possible," Hall added"But as soon as my bum's on the seat that's when things switch, my mind just clears."I calm myself down and then I'm only thinking about how I'm going to get down this track as fast and smooth as possible."
Power to podium
For Hall, who was born in Chichester and grew up in Crawley, sport provided a focus from a young age."I was always the kid who was up to trouble at school," he said."In detention or getting suspended, so I definitely had way too much energy. My dad eventually got me into playing rugby and I soon also started athletics which put me on the right track."When I was doing athletics I was always a very good accelerator so over the first 10-20 meters I was really fast but my top end speed wasn't so great."Whilst at university, Brad attended a UK Sport talent ID day called 'Power to Podium' that tested athletes on a whole range of exercises to best match them to a sport."I had a brief spell trying Skeleton which didn't go too well," Hall added. "Then I got a call from a guy doing the talent ID saying Bobsleigh are doing their trials and if I fancied going for that. Since that moment I haven't looked back."
A David and Goliath Story
Gold at the St Moritz World Cup leg was the team's fourth medal in a row.Preceded by a bronze and silver and a memorable gold in Winterberg - the first time since 2012 that a team from Germany had not won on the track.After five of eight World Cup legs in the 2024-25 season, the team is in second place overall."As Great Britain we've got some funding but we're fighting against the Germans who have countless numbers of pilots, and they've got the best equipment in the world," Hall said."It's a real David and Goliath story which means when we actually get up onto the top of the podium and we're winning races It's like we shouldn't really be there, we're there against the odds."In 2019, Hall launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise money to hire a two-man sled for the World Championships. This coming March he'll head to the Worlds in Lake Placid as a medal contender in both the two-man and four-man events.The numerous medals won to date are a testament to his perseverance."It's going really well at the moment," he said. "We had a breakthrough season in 2023 where we were medalling in pretty much every race."We were European champions, silver medallists in the world champs - we were on a massive high – but then we had a number of major injuries within the team that crippled us last season."So we've come back this year and picked up where we left off, we've won medals in pretty much every race bar one in the format this year, and we're getting back to where we want to be."This weekend the British team go again in Lillehammer, Norway and Hall is on track to be on the podium in both the two-man and four-man sleds.There he'll stand proudly alongside team-mates Taylor Lawrence, Leon Greenwood, Greg Cackett and Arran Gulliver."It'll be an incredible achievement to do that, especially after the last year that we had," he said."To come back and do that will be a great achievement, It's definitely a fun challenge to have."