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Ben Simons (born 13 November 1986) is a British bobsleigher and former athlete. He qualified for the
2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...
in the 4-man discipline as part of Great Britain 2 team, behind pilot
Lamin Deen Lamin Deen (born 17 June 1981) is a British bobsleigh pilot and Grenadier Guardsman. He qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in both the 2-man (in which he raced with John Baines) and 4-man disciplines. Deen was born in London into a family ...
, performing as the brakeman.


Biography

Simons was born in 1986 in Broseley, England. As a boy, he was a talented athlete, and he represented Wenlock Olympians at the age of eight. Simons progressed to competitive athletics, joining Telford Athletics club where he initially specialised in the long jump and triple jump. In 2008 he was accepted into University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) and joined the University's athletics club. While at Cardiff, he began to concentrate more on his sprinting competing in the 60m and 100m events. He achieved some success as a sprinter, becoming Welsh 60m champion. Simons attended
William Brookes School William Brookes School is a mixed secondary school and sixth form located in Much Wenlock in the English county of Shropshire. The school is named after William Penny Brookes, a surgeon, magistrate, botanist, and educationalist from Much Wenloc ...
. In 2012 while at UWIC he replied to an advert from British Bobsleigh who were searching for 'future Olympians'. He was accepted into the team, and was soon competing at international level. It was announced on 22 January 2014 that Simons would be competing in the bobsleigh for Great Britain at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in the four-man bobsleigh; racing in the second team (GBR2) along with John Baines,
Craig Pickering Dr Craig Keith Pickering (born 16 October 1986, in Crawley, West Sussex) is an English retired sprinter and bobsleigher. As a sprinter, he was based at the Marshall Milton Keynes Athletics Club; however, he also ran for the University ...
and pilot
Lamin Deen Lamin Deen (born 17 June 1981) is a British bobsleigh pilot and Grenadier Guardsman. He qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in both the 2-man (in which he raced with John Baines) and 4-man disciplines. Deen was born in London into a family ...
. Commenting on the news, Simons said that "It means the world to me to be selected to compete for Team GB at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games". It was his debut Olympics. In the process of qualification for GBR2, Simons said that there was a nervous tension, but that they got through to competing at the Olympics. In the run-up to the 2014 Olympics, Pickering was forced to pull out of the event due to a back injury and was replaced at short notice by Andrew Matthews. In the finals GBR2 finished in nineteenth place.


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* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simons, Ben 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Shropshire People from Broseley Olympic bobsledders for Great Britain British male bobsledders Bobsledders at the 2014 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2018 Winter Olympics