Winter Olympics 2026: Meet Axel Brown - Yorkshire born, American football player, Trinidad and Tobago bobsleigher at Milano Cortina

Axel Brown is a man of many talents. American football player, taekwondo athlete and a man with an incredible ability to reinvent himself.

In 2014, then 21, Brown was at a crossroads, watching Sochi 2014 from his sofa. His American football career had just stalled, having been released by the Colorado State Rams, the American football team of Colorado State University. The future seemed uncertain.

Then the bobsleigh competition came on TV and the commentator's words caught his attention.

"I thought, 'Maybe I should give that a go'," he said.

That was 12 years ago and now he has made a full career out of it, and is set to represent Trinidad and Tobago at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, his second and ultimately his last Games for the Caribbean nation.

Axel Brown's journey from Yorkshire to Trinidad and Tobago

The 33-year-old Brown was born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, to a British explorer and a Trinidadian mother.

When Brown first switched sports to bobsleigh, he competed for Great Britain for seven years before changing nationality to Trinidad and Tobago.

By then, the Trinidadian bobsleigh programme was dormant, following its sprightly era when the team qualified for three consecutive Winter Olympics from 1994 to 2002. Brown’s mission was simple: revive the programme.

There were inevitable echoes of Cool Runnings, the 1993 film inspired by Jamaica’s men’s bobsleigh debut at the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the comparisons soon followed.

“I don’t see the Cool Runnings comparison as a negative thing at all,” Brown told the PA news agency.

“Some think it implies amateurism, but I think we owe a huge debt of gratitude because this kind of story might not exist without that movement. We’re living in the shadow of that legacy, so I think we should embrace it.”

Together with brakeman Andre Marcano, whom Brown had met on Instagram just weeks before Beijing 2022, he made history in the two-man bob. They finished 28th out of 30 teams, ahead of Jamaica and Brazil, and in doing so brought renewed attention to Trinidad and Tobago’s bobsleigh programme.

"We're on 'Operation Don't Come Last'" - Axel Brown

Milano Cortina 2026 represents another chapter for Brown to write his name into the history books — and to fulfil a dream that seemed out of reach just 12 years ago.

“You don’t grow up in Harrogate thinking you’re going to be an Olympic bobsleigher, that’s for sure,” he said of his journey.

Now he is one, thanks to sheer hard work, courageous decision-making and a deep connection to his heritage.

Brown’s dual nationality comes through his mother, Carolyn, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago in the 1950s. Her family later moved to Barbados, where she lived until 1966 before emigrating to the UK and starting a family.

After winning silver and bronze medals at national level in taekwondo, Brown joined Great Britain’s bobsleigh development squad as a brakeman in the four-man bob.

He narrowly missed out on selection for PyeongChang 2018, a setback that ultimately prompted his switch of allegiance.

While qualifying for Beijing 2022 was a significant achievement, Brown admits that the road to Milano Cortina 2026 felt like the real gold-medal moment.

“We now had to qualify in the two-man and four-man bobsleigh, and they removed two nation spots,” Brown said.

“We had to be in the top 17 nations in the world just to qualify, which for us was right at the limit of what was possible,” he told the BBC.

“We’re on ‘Operation Don’t Come Last’ — let’s see if we can beat somebody else.”

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