KRISTAN BROMLEY, the British skeleton veteran, is convinced he still has every chance of crowning his career with an elusive Winter Olympic medal as he prepares for his fourth Games in Sochi this month.
The 41-year-old has swept the board of honours in his sport except for the most prestigious one of all, with his best finish a fifth place at the Turin Games in 2006. Bromley admitted he seriously considered retirement in the wake of a relatively disappointing performance in Vancouver four years ago but says he is now more driven than ever to give the Olympics one last shot.
"After 2010 I just didn't feel ready to walk away, I knew I had to give it another go," he admitted. "It's still there within me and I just felt if I back out now I will always regret it.
"I always say to myself that so long as I'm still challenging in or around the top six I'll continue and I feel like my form and preparations are coming good at the right time."
Despite enduring a difficult Olympic season, Bromley stormed back to form in the final race of the regular season in Konigssee last weekend when he climbed 10 places after a poor first run to earn a final finishing position of sixth.
It was Bromley's best result of the year and but for a single bad mistake on the first run it would have been enough to move him into medal contention, proving that he still has what it takes at the top level.
"I feel like I'm in the best place I've been for a couple of years but I have to be realistic about these things," he said. "I am 41 and although I'm still getting personal bests in my weights and my sprints it's not happening every day and some days I'm having to back off and take a rest.
"But I have an inside drive to do better and I don't feel I've shown my best in an Olympic environment."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article