Greenwood & Weston among award winners
Leon Greenwood and Matt Weston were among the winners at the BBSA’s annual awards night in Bath earlier this week.
Greenwood picked up the Autohorn Bobsleigh Athlete of the Year award, while Weston won the skeleton equivalent.
Matthias Guggenberger and Daisy French were named PPWD Staff Members of the Year, with Kya Placide securing the Hand Picked Hotels Special Recognition award and Amelia Coltman claiming the Social Impact prize.
Bobsleigh Olympian Greg Cackett compered the evening, while former Board member, Ian Richardson, received special thanks for his years of volunteer service to British Bobsleigh and to the BBSA.
Close to a hundred athletes, coaches, support staff, Board directors, sponsors, partners and family and friends attended the event at Bailbrook House on Wednesday evening as the BBSA celebrated a sensational season and looked back upon a remarkable four-year Olympic cycle.
From November 2022 until February just gone, British Bobsleigh and Skeleton athletes won 88 World Cup medals and 34 World Cup golds; 18 Overall World Cup medals and six Overall World Cup titles; 12 European Championship medals; 12 World Championship medals and three World Championship golds; and then an historic brace of Olympic golds in the men’s and then team skeleton events at Milan Cortina to bring the cycle to a close.
Matt Weston added to his numerous wins this season
Weston’s double Olympic triumphs, together with his Overall World Cup and European Championship wins this season, meant it would have been a huge surprise had he not walked away with the top skeleton award, despite Tabby Stoecker also winning Olympic gold and Overall World Cup bronze this term.
For Greenwood, this season may not have brought the same level of success in terms of medals or accolades but he was the unanimous bobsleigh winner following a fine season that saw him secure his place in the Olympic 4-man sled, before debuting in laufs three and four of the 2-man event and then helping the team record the second and third fastest starts in the final two runs of the 4-man competition in Cortina. He did this while managing his business responsibilities as a personal trainer and while being an inspiration to his young daughter and hundreds of other schoolchildren to whom he gave talks to throughout the year.
Placide was recognised for the manner in which she put the team first despite the disappointment of missing out on being the No1 brakewoman at the Olympics and for the way in which she has since embraced every opportunity to better herself as she begins her journey to becoming a bobsleigh pilot next season.
Kya Placide won the Hand Picked Hotels Special Recognition award
Guggenberger’s award came after a stunning season in which he guided Weston and Stoecker to those Olympic glories and led a team that won so much, so often during the 2025/26 sliding season, and throughout the cycle as a whole.
For French, recognition arrives less than two years after she joined the BBSA as Performance Co-ordinator and is just reward for the way in which she has thrown herself into - and excelled at - a huge variety of tasks, both in Bath and on circuit.
Matthias Guggenberger was one of two PPWD Staff Members of the Year
Daisy French was the other staff recipient
Coltman, who had earlier spoken to the room thanking everyone for their support after she brought the curtain down on a fabulous nine-year skeleton career this summer, was celebrated for her tireless work in the community.
A staple part of the University of Bath’s outreach programme, Coltman has also played a leading role in the Set for Success programme encouraging teenage employability skills through sport, with feedback from both organisations nothing short of outstanding.
Special thanks go to event sponsors PPWD and to Autohorn and Bailbrook Hotel, who also contributed towards prizes for the award winners.
Amelia Coltman took home the Social Impact Award