Adele Nicoll Makes Olympic History for Wales and GB

Adele Nicoll admitted her legs ‘felt like jelly’ at the top of the Cortina Sliding Centre but when the heat was on, she held firm on her Olympic debut.

Nicoll became the first British woman to compete in the monobob at the Winter Olympics.

The 29-year-old from Welshpool is 13th at the halfway stage of the women’s monobob competition, which is her second strongest bobsleigh discipline behind the two-woman event, which is still to come.

Nicoll was an alternate at the last Games in Beijing, so this marked her first appearance in competition, while she also became Team GB’s first-ever Olympic monobob athlete.

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And the special moment at the top of her first of two runs on Sunday caught the back of her throat.

“I think that I was more nervous than maybe I'd realised for the first run and I felt a little bit like jelly on the blocks,” she said.

“Standing on the block today and seeing the Milano Cortina Olympic rings was really surreal and actually emotional.

“It wasn't my usual start but to be honest, to be able to be down there but then still end up where I was shows that I had a solid run.

“For my second, I was just looking to improve on both elements. I did that and like you can see my reaction.

“Everybody always comments on how happy I am when I cross the line regardless of what position I'm in. The only time I'll be upset is if I've had a bad run, I don't really look at what anyone else is doing.

“I knew that was a good run, I felt the push was strong, so I'll always celebrate my own wins.”

READ MORE: Adele Nicoll Chasing Summer And Winter Olympic Dream

The Welsh athlete was 16th after the first run, clocking a 1:00.54s around the 1.2km circuit, but went 0.25s faster on her second to climb three spots.

That leaves her exactly mid-way through the 25-athlete field and Nicoll was pleased with how it went.

“It's a really reflective moment for me really looking back to Beijing when I was so excited to be a part of Team GB but also so disappointed that I wasn't racing,” she added.

“So I think these were all first experiences for me. I just wanted to do myself proud.

“Hopefully come back tomorrow, lay down two more solid runs and hopefully two good pushes and I'll be able to go away and proud of my performance.”

Speaking in the TNT Sports studio, former Team GB Olympic bobsleigh pilot, Lamin Deen said: "Adele improved her start. She cleaned up the areas that she was making mistakes on first run, it was impressive.”