Consett’s Mica McNeill has set the bar for success at breaking her own British bobsleigh record at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The 28-year-old finished eighth alongside Mica Moore at PyeongChang 2018, the best ever result by a female Team GB crew.
Four years on and with former Olympic sprinter Montell Douglas in the brakewoman seat, McNeill won’t settle for anything but a better result.
“We have spoken about it and we want to go out there and make British history again,” said McNeill.
“We did it in 2018 and it's something that we want to beat again. A lot of work goes in in the past four years and we hope it's going to be reflected.
“Everyone's going to be striving for a medal but we'd be so proud to walk away with four amazing pushes, four amazing drives. T
“To walk off that ice and say we've given it everything, that's what we want to feel.”
The pair have made a confident start to life in Beijing, finishing third-fastest in the first two training runs to fuel hope of another historic result.
McNeill qualified her sled for the Games thanks to a last-minute World Cup silver alongside shot putter Adele Nicoll in Sigulda, Britain’s first top-level podium in 13 years.
Douglas was preferred when Games selection came around and makes her Winter Olympic debut having been an alternate in PyeongChang.
She is the first woman to represent Team GB at both Summer and Winter Games having competed in the 100m at Beijing 2008.
British sliders have struggled on the world’s only 360-degree track in Yanqing.
The four-strong skeleton squad failed to bring home a medal for the first time in the sport’s history and McNeill’s counterpart Brad Hall crashed in the men’s two-man event.
McNeill is confident that she has left no stone unturned to get the measure of conditions.
“We have spent four years and particularly the Olympic year preparing for this one race,” she said.
“We came to the test event in October and spent a lot of time learning the driving lines, getting the track gradient for the push, testing runners, testing set-ups.
“You just have to trust that you've done everything you can now and go out and perform.
“There are so many elements in bobsleigh and you need to put everything together to get that result we want.”
McNeill and Douglas first teamed up for a World Cup race in 2017 and the north-east star pays tribute to her team-mate’s drive.
“We both bring our own outlooks to the partnership,” said McNeill. “ We’re both just grafters.
“A lot of times you'll see brakemen and women just duck out at the end of a season but Monty will be there with me, when World Championships are over, going back to the plan and testing equipment and doing all of this extra stuff.
“We’ve built a team together and we've made sure we've done everything that we can.
“We've become amazing friends over the last five years and it's such a nice journey to the Olympics together.”
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