2026 Winter Olympics: Trinidad and Tobago bobsleigh ranks 25th

The Trinidad and Tobago bobsleigh team said it was “mission accomplished” in their “no come last process” as they placed 25th out of 26 in the Olympic duathlon event in Cortina.

Harrogate-born Axel Braun said in January the aim was to not finish last in the standings at the Games and finish second from bottom, ahead of Israel, with a total time of 2:51:05.

The 33-year-old, who raced for Team GB for seven years before moving to compete for his mother’s home country, drives the sled with brakeman De Ondre John.

“Totally done. Me and Dre [John] “We were able to do something special together,” he told BBC Sport.

“For small Trinidad and Tobago, to do this without government funding is huge. And to beat another country at the top of their game feels like a win – it is a win.”

Their top 20 finish, despite having their fastest round in heat three, meant they did not progress to the final round, but Brown and John will also compete in the four-man event later this week.

It was a clean German sweep of the double podium finish with Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer winning the gold while legendary pilot Francesco Friedrich and Alexander Schuller took the silver and Adam Amour and Alexander Schuller took the bronze.

Brown said the team “won gold” when it qualified for the Games, representing Trinidad and Tobago in its second Olympics having also competed in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Brown, a former American football player and national taekwondo medalist, took up bobsled at the age of 21 and switched sides from Britain with the aim of reviving Trinidad and Tobago’s bobsleigh programme.

The Caribbean nation qualified for three successive Winter Games from 1994 to 2002, but Brown led them to the Games in China four years ago, their first appearance in 20 years.

They eventually finished 28th out of 30 in the duet event, above Jamaica and Brazil.

Qualifying for the Games in Italy was more difficult as they had to qualify for both the two-man and four-man events, which they managed for the first time.

“Standing on top of the track with Dre was pretty special,” Brown said.

“My dad was on the starting line with me and my coach Lee Johnston, who was the cornerstone of this team and helped us build a team out of a bunch of misfits.”