Ice Warriors

From Battlefield to Bobsleigh

Colin H Snowball

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
• Year: 2026
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781036142797
• Index: History

The Parachute Regiment's bold entry into bobsleigh fused soldiering grit with elite athletic pursuit, turning adversity into sustained, celebrated success across Army, Inter-Service, and Olympic arenas.

The Parachute Regiment experienced a certain amount of resistance when they first entered the sport of bobsleigh at the Army Novice Championship at Winterberg 1987.

The regiment applied the same ethos to bobsleigh as we do to soldiering, ‘’They have the highest standards in all things’’. Even for the Novice Competition, the Team Captain ensured all those applying to establish the Parachute Regiment Team met the athletic standards set by the British Bobsleigh Association and the Army Bobsleigh Association. When it was apparent the Parachute Regiment team were the only ones who met those standards and were outperforming everyone else at the start the Army Manager sought to change the rules of the competition to reduce the impact of the physical standards the Army had set.

As The Parachute Regiment teams journey progressed, dominating the Army Team for the Inter-services, seven of the eight team members for several years were Parachute Regiment, yet the non-Para member was inevitably the Team Captain.

This resistance eventually culminated into ‘’I would rather have NO medal than The Parachute Regiment Team winning an Olympic medal’’ Head of the BBA Selection Committee for the 1992 Winter Olympics.

Such barriers and adversity simply made the Parachute Regiment Team more determined to achieve at the highest level.

The Parachute Regiment has two Bronze Olympic Medals and has dominated the Army Team since 1989 and does so to this day.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Overview
• Foreword
• Prologue
• Chapter I Solace in Excellence
• Chapter II We Get Serious
• Chapter III We Become Independent
• Chapter IV Paratroopers First, Bobsleigh Athletes Second – South Armagh, NI
• Chapter V Gore-Tex Plus Allan Wells MBE & Margot Wells
• Chapter VI The Path to the 1992 Winter Olympics – ‘The madness begins’
• Chapter VII ‘An acceptable level of violence’
• Chapter VIII The British Bobsleigh Association & British Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association Over the last 40 years When dealing with the BBA and latterly the BBSA
• Chapter IX Re-engaging with the Parachute Regiment Bobsleigh Team
• Epilogue ‘The Adventurer Officer’
• Appendix
• Acknowledgements
• Plates