Lamin Deen steps out of the firing line to target a Team GB bobsleigh medal at Winter Olympics

Hold tight: Lamin Deen, a Grenadier Guardsman, pilots Great Britain’s Nixon 64 on a training run in PyeongChang
AFP/Getty Images

When you have had petrol bombs thrown at you, driving a bobsleigh at 80mph with three people tucked in behind is not so daunting.

This weekend Lamin Deen is one of two pilots driving British ambitions for a medal on the ice in what will almost certainly be the 36-year-old’s last Olympics.

It is 20 years since Deen accompanied a friend to the Army recruitment office in Manchester and got talked into joining up himself “by a very persuasive recruitment officer”, with whom he remains in contact. Following two tours in Northern Ireland and one in Bosnia, the Grenadier Guardsman has been no stranger to volatility.

“I was 18 when I went to Northern Ireland during the Troubles,” he recalls. “Manchester when I grew up was bad — it was nicknamed ‘Gunchester’. But Northern Ireland was crazy, on a new level. One minute, I was at home with my mates, the next minute you’re having petrol bombs, nail bombs thrown at you, people are trying to rip your head off from behind a shield.”

The military transformed Deen. In five years he went to what he calls an “A-star person” from a Z. “I’ve friends that have been in prison since school and I’m sure I would have at least served a term in prison,” he says. “You make decisions in life, some are right and some are wrong. Thankfully, I’ve picked the right ones.”

Deen’s path to the sport began when he was spotted at an athletics meeting 10 years into his military career. He has climbed up the ranks to find himself driving the sled Nixon 64, named after Britain’s Olympic bobsleigh gold medallists Tony Nash and Robin Dixon from Innsbruck 54 years ago.

Brad Hall, who like Deen has achieved a World Cup podium this season, will drive Britain’s other sled. When he was a student at London’s Brunel University, Hall had a failed attempt at skeleton — “I couldn’t keep my head off the ice” — but was given a second chance at the bobsleigh.

His rise has not been without setbacks, including severing four tendons in the back of his hand in November in a crash in Whistler. Then there was the minor stroke suffered by crew member Bruce Tasker last month, ruling him out of the Games.

“I get quite emotional about that as Bruce and I started on the driver programme together four years ago,” he says. “But unlike other crews we have five members and he sends messages saying he’ll be helping to push the sled. It’s good to have big Bruce at home cheering us on.”

At an elementary school in PyeongChang, which has been temporarily turned into a gym for the bobsleigh crews, the mood is buoyant.

In Pictures | Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018

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It is a far cry from the “toxic atmosphere” at British Bobsleigh that was spoken about last summer. Some athletes made allegations of bullying, racism, sexism and discrimination, prompting an independent review.

Deen remembers a time when crews would square up to each other, but says the spirit is now “fantastic”. “Through all that pain from the season before and the summer, that drives us on,” he adds. “We’ve got it really good now.”

Meanwhile, Hall says: “The atmosphere is so much better and it’s reflected in the most successful bobsleigh season in years.”

Despite being ranked just outside the top 10 this season, both crews believe a medal is possible when the two days of competition conclude on Sunday.

Both still want to get the edge on the other over four high-adrenaline runs. Deen likens it to “having to be a calm, fast-thinking jet pilot”, while Hall talks of g-force throwing your body around and “having your head bashed around 10 times in a corner”.

Neither, though, would have it any other way. “It’s what we signed up for,” they both say.

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