BOBSLEIGH: Seven athletes will make their Winter Olympic debuts in Bobsleigh, having already represented their country at the Summer Olympics.

The athletes to make the switch all come from Athletics backgrounds and include Australian two-time Olympic hurdler Jana Pittman. 

Part of this uptake in the sliding sport is the transferral of skills between Athletics and Bobsleigh. While the training is different, including the use of equipment, both require a need for speed and power.

Many of the athletes making the change have represented their country in relay events and that team aspect is continued in the sport of Bobsleigh, competing in either pairs or teams in the men’s or women’s 2-man or the men’s 4-man events.

Pittman will become the first Australian woman to compete in the Summer and Winter Olympics when she slides in the women’s 2-man Bobsleigh at Sochi. Pittman was fifth in the 400m hurdles at the Athens 2004 Olympics and also competed at Sydney 2000. Injuries ruined the 2003 and 2007 World Champions attempts to compete at Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

Pittman is teamed with experienced bobsled pilot Astrid Radjenovic, who has featured in every women’s Australian Olympic Bobsleigh campaign. The pair used to race and train together as teenagers on the athletics track.

Other athletes making the transition include Britain’s Craig Pickering, Americans Lolo Jones and Lauryn Williams and Hannah Emilie Marien of Belgium.

Pickering is a former sprinter who won bronze in the 4x100m relay at the 2007 World Championships and competed at Beijing in 2008. Injury prevented him from going to London in 2012 and 12 months later he took up bobsleigh as a brakeperson. Pickering made his competitive bobsleigh debut at the World Cup event in Germany five days after he had pushed a bobsleigh on ice for the first time.

Jones finished fourth in the 100m hurdles at London in 2012 and plans to compete in hurdles again at Rio in two years. Looking for a new challenge in the meantime, she switched to Bobsleigh for Sochi and will be the brakeperson for the USA women’s team.

Jones also encouraged her teammate Lauryn Williams to make the switch, with the multi-medal winning sprinter also competing in Bobsleigh in Sochi. Williams already has a gold medal from the London Olympics for the 4x100m relay.

Told to quit running by her doctors after undergoing three knee operations in 2002, Hanna Emilie Marien will become Belgium’s first athlete to compete in Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The 31-year-old won silver in the 4x100m relay at the Beijing 2008 Olympics and has said she plans to retire from competitive sport after Sochi.

The Bobsleigh competition kicks off at Sanki Sliding Centre with the first of the men’s 2-man runs on Day 9, while the women’s 2-man starts on Day 11 and the men’s 4-man on Day 15.