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Team GB star Dasaolu aiming to compete in TWO Olympics in just SEVEN MONTHS – sprinting in summer & bobsleigh in winter

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THRILL-SEEKER James Dasaolu wants to compete at two Olympic Games for Team GB — within the space of just SEVEN MONTHS.

The 33-year-old, the joint second-fastest man ever in British sprinting, is hoping to qualify for the 100 metres in Tokyo this summer.

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James Dasaolu is Britain’s second fastest ever man – and is hoping to compete at both the Summer and Winter Olympics[/caption]

Then he will turn his attention to the four-man bobsleigh at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics next February.

Just a handful of Brits have appeared at both the summer and winter Games, and Dasaolu said: “I’m always about putting myself up there. I’m all about different experiences.

“It’s the chance to make history — the summer and winter Olympics in successive years.

“I want to go to Tokyo then Beijing the year after.

“Also, I  believe this winter’s bobsleigh season will help my track-and-field career.

“The catalyst was when Covid hit and track and field wasn’t around. I thought, ‘Why not learn a new skill and challenge myself in a different way?’.

“All the ingredients seem there to be able to mingle with the world’s best in the bobsleigh.

“It will mean 13 to 14 months of getting my head down and trying to achieve something special.

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In good company

IT IS a small list of Brits who have competed at both the summer and winter Olympics.

History books suggest that only seven people have achieved the extraordinary feat over 125 years.

Derek Allhusen competed in two Games 20 years apart (in the demonstration sport of winter pentathlon and three-day eventing) but notably won team gold at Mexico City in 1968.

Former athletes Marcus Adam, Colin Campbell, Phil Harries and John Herbert made the transition from track-and-field to the madness of the bobsleigh.

Allyn Condon, 46, ran at the 2000 Sydney Games in the 4x100m relay – and 10 years later he was 17th in the four-man bobsleigh in Vancouver.

Percy Legard, a former British Army officer from Cornwall, competed in the Nordic Combined event at the Winter Olympics in Germany in February 1936.

And six months later he was 19th in the modern pentathlon at the controversial Berlin Summer Games in front of Adolf Hitler.

Britain’s greatest Olympian Steve Redgrave, a five-time rowing champ, tried his hand at bobsleigh but never made it to the highest level.

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Dasaolu has competed against Usain Bolt[/caption]

“In terms of the 100m, medals are definitely up for grabs.”

On a hot day in July 2013, Dasaolu — who ran at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games — clocked a blistering time of 9.91sec in Birmingham.

It remains second behind Linford Christie’s 9.87 in Stuttgart in 1993 in the national rankings but is the quickest ever by a Brit on home soil.

An Achilles injury  halted Dasaolu’s progress in recent years and, in the lockdown in March, he spoke to his wife about trying his hand at bobsleigh with respected pilot and Grenadier Guardsman Lamin Deen.

The first time it’s kind of jump in, hands in, brace yourself and be knocked about like a human being in a tin can

James Dasaolu

His brother-in-law is Joel Fearon, one of a number of sprinters — like Mark Lewis-Francis and Craig Pickering — who have ditched the running spikes for the thrill of the ice track.

Dasaolu said: “The first time it’s kind of jump in, hands in, brace yourself and be knocked about like a human being in a tin can! But you do get used to it.

“My first run was a really rough experience but I was in the safe hands of an experienced pilot. Now I’m starting to enjoy going down it.”

Dasaolu will compete this month in St Moritz in two-man and four-man action. Selection trials for the Winter Olympics are due in October.

He added: “When you’ve been on the big stage, it helps. I lined up against Usain Bolt in London.

“I made it through, so the experience is there in terms of having to deal with pressure at a high level.”

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