'I want to do what she did for me' - Brogan Crowley hopes to use Jessica Ennis-Hill inspriation to help others

Published 14/02/2022 at 20:42 GMT

“I’d love to champion young kids from diverse backgrounds getting into these different sports and be a role model," Crowley is the first black woman to represent Team GB at skeleton but is determined to make sure she is not the last. Watch every moment of Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on discovery+.

Crowley on wanting to inspire more people from diverse backgrounds and her Olympic experience

Team GB star Brogan Crowley has said that she hopes to encourage people from more diverse backgrounds to compete in winter sports.

Crowley, who took part in the skeleton at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, is the first black woman to represent Great Britain in the discipline and says her sporting journey was motivated by another famous British athlete of mixed heritage.

“Jess Ennis-Hill inspired me to want to push on in sport and achieve something near to what she has achieved," Crowley told Eurosport.

Beijing 2022

Crowley on wanting to inspire more people from diverse backgrounds and her Olympic experience

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14/02/2022 at 13:07

"So to have made that first stepping stone and actually got to an Olympics and represented Team GB is incredible.

“I hope that I can inspire a few generations of young children, especially from mixed and diverse backgrounds similar to me.

“I really hope I can do what she did for me, watching her compete in the heptathlon.”

Crowley, 27, initially hoped to follow directly in the footsteps of her hero, competing as a junior heptathlete until injury caused her to reassess her sporting ambitions.

Switching to winter sport, Skeleton proved to be her calling, culminating in her selection for Beijing.

She finished 21st overall in her heat but was still delighted with the experience of representing her country at the highest level.

“To be honest it’s been really overwhelming,” she added. “It’s been incredible just to even be here and to recognise the fact I’m now an Olympian is quite incredible.

“I don’t think it really hit me until part way through my race, and I got quite emotional when it hit me.”

'It's unreal, it's insane' - GB's Crowley on skeleton course at Beijing 2022

Crowley hopes her Olympic experience will now push others from a similar background to her to get involved.

“I’d love to champion young kids from diverse backgrounds getting into these different sports and be a role model," she said. "I don’t really think about it until somebody says to me, I think I’m the first black female to represent Team GB in the skeleton at an Olympics, which is incredible in itself.

“I just want to put the message out there that nothing really can stop you. We have so many talent ID programmes in this country that you can apply for and get into sports you don’t even really know existed, especially within winter sports.

“So if you think you’d do well at something and you want to put your heart into and your head says yes, just go for it. That’s the message I want to put out there.”

Watch every moment of Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on discovery+

Beijing 2022