(Reuters) – Six years after Great Britain’s bobsledders competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the team members have yet to get their official bronze medals after they had to return the first ones they got because they were inscribed with errors.
Team GB finished fifth in Sochi but were moved up to third in March last year after two Russian teams that finished ahead of them were disqualified for doping offences.
Denied their chance to get medals on an Olympic podium, the British team were officially presented with their medals at a ceremony last month but they soon realized they read “bobsleigh 4-men event” instead of ‘Bobsleigh four-man event’.
“Receiving the medal nearly six years after the medal ceremony in 2014 was a relief,” Team GB pilot John Jackson told BBC Sport.
“To then realize there was a typo on (them) just summed up the whole farcical situation we had been through.
“After all of the waiting for one of the most prized possessions of any Olympic athlete, when it came to it, the IOC still couldn’t get it right,” he said, referring to the International Olympic Committee.
The United States team, upgraded to second, were forced to return their silver medals because they read “Four-man’s bobsleigh”.
While the U.S. team has received new silver medals from the IOC, the British team is expected to get theirs later this month.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Robert Birsel)
