Irelands first ever womens bobsleigh team of Aoife Hoey (pilot) and Claire Bergin (brakewoman) nearly didn't make it to the track at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. This was due to the Australian team lodging a complaint of unfair geographic representation even though our team had qualified as part of the top 20 teams in the world. Having failed to remove the Irish team it was thought fair to allow both the Irish and Australians both compete at the games.
The Irish Womens Bobsleigh team for The 2010 Vancouver Olympics
And so to the competition we went and after the first two runs we were behind the Australian team. With only 20 teams allowed for the fourth run it was going to be a tough job for the girls to make it but with a superb effort in the third run we managed to squeeze through over the Aussie pair by less than half a second. And so while not challenging for any medals we did manage to finish in 17th place overall, beating the Australians into last place and even finishing ahead of Russias second pair. A great achievement, vindication for actually being there after all the protests beforehand, and yet another moral victory for Ireland at a Winter Olympic Games.
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