John Baines (born 26 September 1985) is a bobsledder who competes for

Team GB Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their British Olympic team. The brand was developed after the nation's poor performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA. I ...

, and a comms specialist in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

. His Olympic debut was at 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 two-man and four-man bobsleigh events, participating as a brakeman.

Biography

John Baines was born on 26 September 1985 in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

, England. He went to school at Ormesby Primary School. In his youth, he competed locally in 100m and 200m track events. Baines joined the Royal Air Force at age 20; he works as a communications specialist. His first bobsleigh experience was on an RAF bobsleigh team; a few months later, he tried out in the Team GB trials and was accepted. The RAF gave him two years of support so that he could train for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Baines has competed in bobsledding since 2008. He worked with British bobsleigh 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 ...

on the Americas Cup circuit, where they competed as GBR2.

Olympics

The

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

Olympics is Baines' first Olympics. He originally planned to compete only in the four-man bobsleigh team, but after a "career-threatening" injury to

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 ...

– a slipped disc – Baines was picked to replace Pickering on the two-man bobsleigh. This was announced 12 February 2014, four days before the event. Baines said that although he was sorry for Pickering, "on the other hand, I get to do the two-man as well as the four-man, so I'm quite happy". Baines' race in the two-man bobsleigh began 16 February 2014, where he was partnered with Lamin Deen. Deen said of his new partner that "I have worked closely in the summer with John though and I'm quite confident that he can put in a great performance". They finished in 23rd place. The four-man bobsleigh was on the final weekend of the Olympics; Baines's team, GBR2, finished in 19. At both events, Baines acted as brakeman.

Personal life

Baines and his wife have a son and a daughter. He has one sister, Laura, who works for the National Health Service.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baines, John 1985 births Living people Olympic bobsledders for Great Britain British male bobsledders Sportspeople from Middlesbrough Bobsledders at the 2014 Winter Olympics