Nikki McSweeney

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Nikki's website at www.nikkimcsweeney.co.uk/ Nikki now has her very own website with news, photos, contact details and more.

Previous news

At the World Junior Championships
The 2012 New Year brought a long journey starting at 5.30am New Year's day to St. Moritz in Switzerland. This is a new track for me so I was excited to leave. The first week was planned as a training week followed by the continuation of Europa Cup. The first week went well. Although training started very early in the morning with 5am wake ups, the track and scenery was worth waking up to! St. Moritz is a natural track so as a brakeman it feels very smooth compared to any man made track.

I competed in the Europa Cup, with an amazing 7th place finish, beating some of the teams that compete on World Cup circuit. The next week my team stayed out to experience the World Cup. It was a great experience, and great to be with some of the top teams in the world. Following St. Moritz I drove over with the Junior team to Igls, Austria, where the World Junior Championships was to be held. I was partnered with the junior driver Kirsten Emery and we managed a top five start time and finishing 12th overall. As it was both our first time at junior worlds we were both happy with the finish result.

Team Olaoye
After the junior worlds I returned home for two weeks before returning back to St. Moritz for the final training week. The local bobsleigh club (St. Moritz bobsleigh club) held competitions at the weekend which me and my driver Vicky Olaoye entered. We finished an impressive second in the womens competition! This was a fantastic result for the last race of the season.

The 2011-2012 season has finshed now and have a two weeks of rest before returning to the gym to get fitter stronger and faster for next season.

Nikki in action in Latvia
As pre-season training had started to get underway, an open event at Jersey saw the GBR team travelling over to compete in the Jersey push championships. Although funded as an athlete I had got picked to push off the driver's handle, with my team mate, Kelly Denyer, as my brakeswoman. We finished 4th which wasn't bad as it was the first time I had pushed off the driver's handle.

The beginning of July involved a team trip to Texas where we had ten days at the Michael Johnson performance centre. I thoroughly enjoyed training there even though it was a high intensity training trip. I learnt a lot off the high level coaches there which I hope will help improve me over the next part of the season. I saw some of the NFL men training there, and also met Michael Johnson himself.

Having come back from Texas, I temporarily moved down to Bath to enable me to train full time at Bath University, before I completing my last placement as part of my physiotherapy degree. The month where I was down in Bath training saw me improve my standard greatly. With trials in August, my 30m time improved by 0.20 seconds and my push time by 0.13 seconds. Having completed my placement in August and attaining a degree in physiotherapy, we had selection trials at the beginning of September. Unfortunately due to a rib injury I was unable to sprint and complete some of the testing that was required. Despite this I was able to complete a push and shave another tenth of a second off my personal best, which saw me being selected for final selections which would take place in Latvia.

I have just come back from Latvia after a week of trials. After this the selection team had a meeting yesterday and it saw me being selected to represent GBR on the Europa Cup circuit this year. Currently I go into this circuit as the fastest brakes woman. I'm looking forward to the season, and can't wait to race with my team mates and hopefully achieve podium finishes!

Before the 2011-2012 season starts I'm going away to bobschool at the Austrian track at Igls. There are also plans to enter me into the American race track at Lake Placid for bobschool as well. This is going to kick start my career as a driver.

My first race is as a brakewoman is in Austria the week beginning Monday 14th November 2011. During this week the first two races of Europa cup will take place.

Nikki (left) and Gillian competing in the Europa Cup for Britain at Igls, Austria.
Nikki and Gillian arrived in Winterburg on Friday 3rd December 2010. They had four training runs scheduled on the track on Monday 6th December 2010. They didn't complete any of the first three successfully, and on the final run they crashed and Nikki came out of the bob and hurt her shoulder.

Nikki then had to sit out any training runs and the reserve brakeswoman went down instead. On their third run they crashed again, so the GB coach scratched them from the Winterburg competition

It seems the track wasn't in the best of condition after a recent luge event and there were over forty crashes in the two days. As Nikki put it, even the Russians were crashing.

It was a big disappointment for Nikki. Sporting life has its ups and downs. Nikki and Gillian had a few downs this week.

Nikki (left) and Gillian (driver)
Nikki and Gillian completed the third race in Cesana, Italy on Wednesday 24th November 2010.
Result

Nikki and Gillian completed their second Europa Cup race on Saturday 20th November 2010. They finished 13th, a slight improvement in position. Nikki was pleased that their start times were improved from the first race. The coach is very pleased with how they have done considering this is Nikki's first races and Gillian's first as a driver.
Result

Here is a newspaper article about the race.

Nikki and Gillian came 14th in their first Europa Cup race on Thursday 18th November 2010. They had a good start on both runs, with times in the top six, but couldn't keep the speed all the way down.

It was Nikki's first competition so she was naturally nervous, and it was Gillian's first competitive drive. Nikki was quite pleased as the start was good, and that is her main job.
Result

Nikki and Gillian went to Germany on Thursday 4th November 2010 in a Transit. They crossed the channel by ferry, and drove to Germany to pick up the bobsleigh they are using (nicknamed 'Bumbles' because it is black and yellow). They then went on to arrive in Igls in Austria, where their first event will be.

The quiz night on Friday 17th September 2010 to raise funds for Nikki's training was a sell-out. Thanks to all your great support.

Nicki attended the first selection weekend at Bath University from Saturday 31st July 2010 to Sunday 1st August 2010, and was then pre-selected for the GBR squad time trials in Latvia along with four other athletes to attend the ice selection weekend from Friday 17th September 2010 to Monday 20th September 2010.

In late 2009 Nikki was selected for the Great Britain Junior Ladies Bobsleigh team.

See also Nikki's hello to North Marston.