Stuart Benson (born 12 February 1981) is a former

bobsledder Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

who competed 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 an avionics technician 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 competed 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 ...

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 ...

in the four-man bobsleigh, competing with

John James Jackson John James Jackson (born 11 April 1977) is a former British bobsleigher and Royal Marines commando. Career He took up bobsleighing at the age of 28 and in September 2005 he trialled at the University of Bath and won a place in the Europa Cup Te ...

Bruce Tasker Bruce Tasker (born 2 September 1987) is a British former bobsledder and track athlete. He qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in the 4-man discipline. Life and career Tasker was born in 1987 in Lawrenny, Wales. When young, Tasker was a talen ...

, and

Joel Fearon Joel Fearon (born 11 October 1988) is a British sprinter and bobsledder. He represents the Birchfield Harriers and he is recognisable in the National Trials for wearing a black vest and lycra shorts. His coach is Michael Khmel, who also coached ...

, where they finished fifth. With the disqualification of both Russian bobsleigh teams who finished ahead of them, they officially finished third.

Biography

Benson was born 12 February 1981 in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, Scotland. He grew up in

Troon Troon is a town in South Ayrshire, situated on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland, about north of Ayr and northwest of Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Troon has a port with freight services and a yacht marina. Up until January 2016, P&O Ferrie ...

. Benson is in the

, working as an avionics technician since the age of 20. He currently holds the rank of

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non ...

. Whilst in the RAF, Benson competed with the RAF Athletics Team in the long jump and triple jump. Benson moved into sprinting, running in the fastest Scottish relay team for 16 years; and competing in the Crystal Palace Diamond League. However, the relay was not fast enough to qualify for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. This led him to try out at a bobsleigh "talent identification" event in 2011, where he was discovered in bobsleigh. This led to his becoming part of the GBR1 bobsleigh team; at the end of summer 2011 he was selected into the four-man GBR1 team. In 2011 Benson won the Royal Air Force Sportsman of the Year, mainly for his track sport achievements. Benson is married to Sarah Benson, who is a long-distance runner. In 2013 the four-man bobsleigh team won a silver medal at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

Olympics

Benson's debut Olympics is set to be the

, and he was given special dispensation for time off from the RAF to attend. Competition there for the four-man bobsleigh event began on 22 February 2014. The British Olympic Association had qualified the GBR1 four-man bobsleigh team as on the "podium programme", i.e. that they have a chance of winning a medal. Benson competed with

, and

; of whom only Jackson was experienced; Tasker, Fearon and Benson were all comparatively new to the sport. The team finished fifth in the event, 0.11 seconds away from a medal. However, two teams that finished ahead of GBR1 were later disqualified as part of the

Oswald Commission The Oswald Commission was a disciplinary commission of the International Olympic Committee ("IOC"), chaired by IOC member Denis Oswald. It was responsible for investigating and ruling on doping violations by individual Russian athletes at the 2014 ...

investigation. The

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; french: Tribunal arbitral du sport, ''TAS'') is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its co ...

upheld the ruling in February 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Stuart 1981 births Olympic bobsledders for Great Britain Living people Sportspeople from Glasgow Scottish male bobsledders Royal Air Force airmen Bobsledders at the 2014 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in bobsleigh Scottish Olympic medallists