Sliding for gold: Royal Marine Taylor Lawrence sets eyes on Olympic gold in Milano-Cortina
Team GB bobsleigh driver Brad Hall and brakeman, Royal Marine Lance Corporal Taylor Lawrence, will once again be the backbone of Team GB's Olympic bobsleigh team as they aim to overhaul the Germans at Milano-Cortina next month.
At the Team GB kit collection at the University of Bath, they've been talking about the challenge ahead in what will be their second Winter Olympics together.
Brad, who is set to compete in his third Olympic games, says: "It is what we have trained for all our careers.
"It is the pinnacle of what we do. Taylor and I have been there and done it, just to get there is a great honour to go to Italy and represent Team GB, but we're going there to win medals."
LCpl Lawrence adds: "This is what makes this one different. In Beijing, we thought we might have a chance of winning a medal, but this time there's a buzz, we are not just going to make up the numbers."
Recent results in two-man and four-man suggest they're at last coming good in what has been a tough year for injuries.
LCpl Lawrence was unable to start the season because of injury, and the most important event in his life so far, the birth of his son.
But since he has returned to the fold, the results speak for themselves, in both the two-man and the four-man.
The team finished outside the medals at Winterberg and Altenberg, and then they bagged a brilliant bronze medal in the European Championships in St Moritz. So, they seem to be peaking at just the right time.
Chasing perfection
LCpl Lawrence agrees, adding: "If you win an Olympic title or medal, no one remembers the races that have gone before!"
Stiff competition will come from South Korea, Switzerland, Austria, the USA, the hosts Italy and, of course, the all-conquering three German teams, driven by Adam Ammour, Johannes Lochner and Francesco Friedrich, surely the greatest of them all.
They have dominated this season with alarming regularity. But the new track built for the games at Cortina will, the British pair hope, be a great leveller.
Brad says: "They will have to be at their very best in all four heats in both two and four-man to challenge for medals.
"We have to be perfect, the fastest of starts, which I'm sure Taylor and the rest of the guys will give us, then it's up to me to get our equipment set up and driving lines as perfect as possible."
Taylor says track conditions at Cortina will be very different at the Games compared with when they were there in November, but ultimately it will be down to them.
"Brad needs to drive absolute stormers after we've given him the best start as possible," he adds.
Following a military tradition
Corporal Alex Cartagena from the RAF has been named as the travelling alternate member of the squad, with Leon Greenwood and Greg Cackett completing the four-man.
Taylor is very proud to not only be representing GB, but also his service and the British forces at the games, following in the track lines of the likes of GB's only Olympic gold medals from Tony Nash and Robin Dixon, and recently Stu Benson, Sean Olsen and the brilliant John Jackson. But he wants to better those recent achievements.
He said: "At least a bronze medal, but there's also that motivation to come away with something a little bit better, like silver or gold, and I can one-up them on that.
"But it is a huge honour to be following the military tradition in Olympic bobsleigh!"
Their campaign begins with the two-man heats on 16 February and the four-man on 21 February.
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