‘It does seem surreal’: Batley’s ‘proud’ Leon Greenwood back home in UK after realising Winter Olympics dream
He may not have returned home to the UK with a Winter Olympics medal, but Batley’s Leon Greenwood has still “achieved his dream.”
Leon, who was brought up in Carlinghow and attended Spen Valley High School, was part of the Team GB four-man bobsleigh crew which finished seventh in the two-day event in Milan-Cortina at the weekend.
The team, piloted by Brad Hall, had high hopes of a podium finish, but, despite clocking the second fastest start on the track, fell short of a medal position over the course of four heats.
Reflecting on his achievements from his Reading home barely 24 hours after the closing ceremony, Leon told the Reporter Series:
“I am feeling quite proud. To call myself an Olympian is something that I have always dreamed of. I can’t be disappointed in that. It does seem surreal. I keep having thoughts and keep looking back at videos and I get that tingling feeling again.
“My job is to get the bobsled off to a fast start and we did that. We were consistent throughout and we pushed a 4.78 on every single run. And then in the final run we pushed the top two start in the world. That is the best we have done for the last few years so we can’t complain.
“The push, we couldn’t have done any better. It was out of this world. We thought we had it, but we weren’t good enough for a medal. We didn’t bring our A** game. If we did, we would have got a medal.
“Did we put everything into this? We did and we can be proud of that. We did everything we could. It just wasn’t good enough on the day. We will have to live with it.”
Leon, who made his premature Olympic debut in the two-man bobsleigh event earlier in the week, is now “returning to normality” for a few weeks before thinking about his next plans - with another Winter Olympics four years away in his sights.
He said: “It’s been a long season, five months away from home, So I am glad to get back to some normality like cooking myself some dinner - I have not done that for five months.
“It has taken over my mind. It’s a weird feeling to achieve your dream and now I’m like ‘what am I going to do now for the next couple of weeks?’ I have no goal right now. I have nothing to work towards because I have done it.
“I will be focusing on what’s in front of me and that is my family. I am grateful I have got a really supportive, beautiful family behind me. I am glad I can come home and reflect on it and see what I want to do next.
“I know that I want to go to the next Olympics in four years’ time but I also understand that it is four years away and opportunities can come up left, right and centre. I am open to everything.
“The goal is still the same to me - to inspire the next generation. I hope these last few weeks have definitely done that.”
Speaking to directly to the people of Batley, Spen Valley and Dewsbury, he said:
“I have had so much support, especially people from Batley, Spen Valley and Dewsbury. It’s been crazy with people messaging me. I want to say thank you to everyone.”