Wales Will Have Two Women at Winter Olympics . . . In One Sport for Two Nations

Team GB hopeful for Milano Cortina, Adele Nicoll (Bobsleigh). Pic. Alamy

Two Welsh-born athletes will make Winter Olympics history in Milan-Cortina next month when they line up in the same discipline — monobo.

But the women will be wearing different colours, one for Great Britain and one for Jamaica.

British shot put champion Adele Nicoll and former GB bobsleigher Mica Moore will both compete in the women’s monobob at the XXV Winter Olympic Games, marking a remarkable moment for Welsh sport on the global winter stage.

For Nicoll, selection represents a landmark achievement.

The 29-year-old from Welshpool will become the first British woman to compete in the monobob at a Winter Olympics, just four years after the event made its Olympic debut in Beijing.

At those Games, Nicoll was a travelling reserve for the two-woman bobsleigh, but in Italy she will finally get her chance to race.

Nicoll will also serve as the pilot in the two-woman bobsleigh, partnering former GB sprinter Ashleigh Nelson, underlining her growing importance within Britain’s bobsleigh programme.

“I can’t express how proud I feel to be representing Team GB and Wales on the biggest stage possible,” said Nicoll.

“Competing at an Olympic Games is something I dreamt of as a child and my family have always supported me and encouraged me to chase that dream.

“Things like this didn’t really seem possible growing up but my family made me believe that there were no limitations to what you could achieve.

“It’s crazy to think that it’s been 20 years since I wrote on a piece of paper in primary school that I wanted to be an Olympic athlete one day!”

Nicoll’s Olympic journey is unusual even by winter sport standards. A three-time British shot put champion, she has balanced elite athletics with bobsleigh and could still feature in the field at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer.

Her selection highlights the crossover between power-based summer sports and winter sliding events, as well as the expanding opportunities for women within bobsleigh.

While Nicoll will compete for Team GB, another Welsh-born athlete will be lining up in the same monobob competition representing Jamaica.

Mica Moore, 32, from Newport, has qualified for the Milan-Cortina Games after switching international allegiance and securing Jamaican citizenship in December 2024.

A former Great Britain bobsleigher and track athlete, Moore previously achieved Britain’s best-ever result in women’s bobsleigh when she and Mica McNeill finished eighth at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Her return to the Olympic stage comes after a dramatic and deeply personal journey.

Moore left the British winter sports programme in 2022 after claiming she had witnessed “damaging and offensive behaviour” and stepped away from the sport for three years.

She resumed competition earlier this year, racing for Jamaica on the Europe Cup circuit in Lillehammer in January 2025.

Announcing her qualification on social media, Moore wrote: “I can't believe it, four years ago I watched from the side lines all my fabulous friends from around the world announce they were going to Games, but four years later I've booked my seat at the party.

“This is my greatest honour of my career to represent my heritage of Jamaica at the Olympics, a moment I have only dreamt of! I hope I can make you all proud!”

Moore’s Jamaican connection runs deep. Her grandfather, Venson Byfield, came to the UK as part of the Windrush generation and settled in Wales.

Before turning to bobsleigh, Moore represented Wales in athletics at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, forging a strong sporting identity that now spans continents.

Reflecting on the challenges she has faced, Moore added: “The journey was never going to be easy.

“This is the biggest message to myself to never ever give up.

“To keep going even when hurting. To keep going when tired. To keep going when others try to halt you. To keep going even when times are happy.”

Moore’s presence means Jamaica — whose bobsleigh programme became world-famous through the 1993 film Cool Runnings — will again capture attention in Milan-Cortina.

In addition to Moore’s monobob entry, Jamaica will also field crews in the four-man and two-man bobsleigh events.

Nicoll and Moore’s Olympic stories will unfold against a broader backdrop of British winter sport success.

Team GB’s skeleton squad will be led by reigning World Cup and European champion Matt Weston, who recently became the first British man to win three overall skeleton World Cup titles.

Marcus Wyatt joins him in the men’s event, while Amelia Coltman, Freya Tarbit and Tabby Stoecker compete in the women’s competition, with Stoecker having secured Britain’s first women’s skeleton World Cup medal in over a decade earlier this month.

In bobsleigh, six British athletes will race across the two-man and four-man events, with Brad Hall and Taylor Lawrence joined by Leon Greenwood and Greg Cackett.

Yet for Welsh sport, the monobob event carries special significance.

Two athletes born in Wales, shaped by very different journeys, will hurtle down the same icy track at the world’s biggest winter sporting event — one chasing history for Great Britain, the other embracing heritage for Jamaica.

The XXV Winter Olympic Games run in northern Italy from Friday, 6 February to Sunday, 22 February, and when the monobob competition begins, Wales will be represented in a way rarely seen on the Winter Olympic stage.