Queensland bobsleigh athletes swap beach for ice chutes to conquer 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Racing down an ice chute in a bobsleigh at 130 to 140 kilometres per hour is not for the faint-hearted.

It is hard on the body, and on the hip pocket, but determined Australian bobsleigh athletes are taking their place on the world stage.

But its pull remains strong on athletes like Joe Williamson.

“There’s nothing that compares.”

From Switzerland to Queensland

Bobsleigh is a winter sport invented by the Swiss in the late 1860s in which teams make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled.