Taylor Lawrence hints at next season return as he looks to overcome Winter Olympics heartbreak
Royal Marine Commando Taylor Lawrence has told BFBS Sport that he wants to sign off his bobsleigh career on "a better high" following a disappointing performance at the Olympic Winter Games in Milano-Cortina.
LCpl Lawrence, along with Brad Hall, Leon Greenwood and Greg Cackett, finished seventh place overall in the four-man bobsleigh event, after they came into the Games expecting to challenge the Germans for medals in Cortina.
But after a difficult build-up to the Games for the team, with LCpl Lawrence battling through a calf injury, leading him to withdraw from the remainder of the two-man event as a precaution, the team struggled to find their form.
Reflecting on disappointment
Team GB's seventh-place finish in the four-man competition was a drop from their sixth place at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
The Germans dominated the bobsleigh events in Cortina as expected, with Johannes Lochner beating the 2022 Olympic champion Francesco Freidrich to the gold medal.
Speaking to BFBS Sport at the Inter Services Ice Sports Championships in Lillehammer, LCpl Lawrence said that the result was "quite hard to take".
He said: "The last couple of years in the lead-up to 2024, I mean, we've just been getting better and better as a team.
"And going there, a medal was what we wanted and anything less, I think, yeah, was a disappointment.
"So, to come seventh place, it was quite hard to take.
"But ultimately, the people that come away with the medal, they deserve the medal, they pushed well, they drove well, and it just wasn't our time."
Setting new goals
LCpl Lawrence came to the Inter Services Ice Sports Championships in Lillehammer to round-off what has been an up and down season, and with the Milano-Cortina Games now in the rearview mirror, the Royal Marine is now taking time to consider his future.
As Lillehammer gets set to host the 2027 IBSF World Championships, LCpl Lawrence is drawn to the idea of continuing next season to compete at a track that his team have been so successful at in recent years.
"Yeah, I think so", he says when questioned about continuing into next season.
He continued: "Lillehammer's a great track, it's a fun track to drive, it's a good track to push as brakemen.
"Brad [Hall] drives well here as well, and I think Lillehammer will put on an awesome World Champs.
"So yeah, I think there's at least one more season here because I'd like to sign my career off on a bit more of a high than a seventh place at the Games."
Another Olympic cycle?
But it is too soon for LCpl Lawrence to say whether he’ll be targeting the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps, where the bobsleigh events will run at the Olympic ice track in La Plagne.
"It's not quite on my mind at the moment", he said.
"Obviously, last time I went to La Plagne I think was five years ago, it's probably my first season?
"Brad tends to drive La Plagne quite well. With Beijing and Cortina, they were brand new tracks, so I don't know if it's something about how these sorts of new tracks are built, but La Plagne has been there a long time.
"So, it's not 100% 'no', but hey, that's four years down the line.
"I mean, although we do know how quickly four years goes, but yeah, I'm focusing on this event here first, back home with a bit of rest time and then decide what's next."
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