Montell Douglas on switching from the Olympic Summer to Winter Games – and hopes for Brad Hall in the four-man bob

A career change is always a daunting prospect. No matter how strong those transferable skills may be, you still need to make leap of faith from world to another. Montell Douglas knows the feeling.

Her CV is varied, to say the least. The Lewisham-born star boasts strong experience in sprinting and went the distance, representing Team GB at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, but her legacy is one of adaptability.

Douglas shifted from the athletics track to the bobsleigh track, adding the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, also in Beijing, to her sizzle reel, and becoming the first British woman in history to compete at a Summer and Winter Games.

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If that’s not enough, Douglas re-honed her skill once more upon retirement to feature as ‘Fire’ on the hit BBC reboot of Gladiators and competed on the 2024 series of Strictly Come Dancing, during which she finished in sixth place.

Speaking exclusively to Radio Times, Douglas explained her pride at transitioning from the track to ice and her hopes for Team GB at the Winter Olympics 2026.

She said: "It’s really difficult to be the first at something because you don’t even know if it’s going to fly. For me, I look back with such fond memories. It was the toughest journey ever – with injury, with illness. It was a really tough time in the world – like, going through that stuff going in 2021 and 2022 – it was really tough.

"Honestly, it’s the one thing that I’m super-proud of myself because it was the clearest process of: 'There’s this goal that is very far away from where I am right now. It’s something that no-one has ever achieved before. And I don’t know if I can do it.' If it doesn’t scare you, you’re probably not doing it right – as they say.

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"So I was like, 'I don’t know if I can do this.' I probably fell 10 times over, but the journey that I went through to go from being a reserve at the prior Games to then going and being the first woman to do that – this is why I’m so proud of it.

"Not even because of the title, but also because of how it’s going to lay the path down for those that come after me. Because I know that once you achieve something, people then start believing that this is achievable."

But how did Douglas make the transition in the first place? "I was duped," she joked.

"Basically, it’s almost a talent ID process. One of the coaches from the sport, knew me from athletics. He was like, 'We need bigger, faster, stronger girls.'"

"I say that because often we struggle to sometimes find sports that feel the best towards us, like how our bodies are made up, and what feels good.

"Being 5ft 10 at the time – I’m one of the tallest sprinters in the world – there aren’t many tall sprinters generally. I always felt out of place, actually, in that space.

"But when bobsleigh said: 'Try and come bobsleighing' – I was like, 'Oh, this is great' because it really helps with it being a gravity sport.

"I broke the testing record for bobsleigh. And then within a few months, I was on ice. I didn’t love it at the beginning. The first run down is intense, it’s wild, and then I loved it.

"I got to see places that I’ve never seen before ever in life, mountains I’ve never experienced before and snow. There are temperatures I’ve never come across, like -26c, in my first Olympic Games. It was unreal."

Douglas is backing Brad Hall and his four-man bob team to bring medals home and believes the crew would be disappointed with any less than gold, silver or bronze.

"I definitely think the four-man is a great catch for us. Brad has worked so hard over… I mean, since I’ve been in the game – he’s been there longer than before I was there.

"Brad is an excellent driver, without a doubt, and we’ve got great equipment. But now we have a team that want to deliver on those starts. It’s what you want. He’s going to be… well, I know he’s absolutely going for a medal. That’s what he wants without a doubt. He was in contention in the last Olympics cycle as well and did amazingly well there with his finishes.

"But I know he’ll want a medal, because, for him, when you’re looking at what you’ve produced over the last few years – consistent medalling in the World Cup – week in, week out – they’re in a great position.

"Anything else for him, he might feel like that’s not what he wants. But he’s got to be proud of where he has come to be in contention for a medal. And I think that it’s well within them. That’s what they want.

"And I think they’re actually going to do it. I’d love to see that."

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