(Reuters) – London 2012 long jump champion Greg Rutherford has secured a place on Britain’s bobsleigh squad, the 34-year-old said, as he looks to become the country’s first athlete to medal at both a Summer and Winter Olympics.
Rutherford, who retired from long jump competition in 2018 because of injury, is aiming to help Britain qualify for next year’s Beijing Winter Games.
Local media reported he had impressed during tests at the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association headquarters and would take part in World Cup events beginning in Austria in November.
“A massive milestone has been hit in my bobsleigh journey. A few weeks ago we had our trials and I managed to qualify for the British team to compete this winter,” Rutherford, who began training for bobsleigh only in April, said on Instagram.
“The team now has to qualify for the Olympics by placing well on the World Cup circuit (as does every team).
“This has been a huge undertaking, going from a very retired former athlete, to retraining in a new sport and qualifying for the team.”
Rutherford, who also won long jump bronze in Rio, is looking to become the seventh athlete to win a medal at a Summer and Winter Games after Eddie Eagan, Jacob Tullin Thams, Christa Luding-Rothenburger, Clara Hughes, Lauryn Williams and Eddy Alvarez.
“We start competing in a couple of months time with the medal dream very much alive,” Rutherford added.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
