| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | (1981-02-12)12 February 1981 (age 44) Glasgow, Scotland | ||||||||||||||
| Years active | 2011–2014 | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 103 kg (227 lb; 16.2 st) | ||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Sarah Benson | ||||||||||||||
| Website | www | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Country | Great Britain | ||||||||||||||
| Sport |  Bobsleigh | ||||||||||||||
| Event | Four-Man bobsleigh | ||||||||||||||
| Club | GB Bobsleigh, Bath | ||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Dominik Scherrer Peter Gunn Michael Khmel | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Stuart Benson MBE (born 12 February 1981) is a formerbobsledder who competed forTeam GB, and an avionics technician in theRoyal Air Force. His competed at the2014 Winter Olympics inSochi in thefour-man bobsleigh, competing withJohn James Jackson,Bruce Tasker, andJoel Fearon, where they finished fifth. With the disqualification of both Russian bobsleigh teams who finished ahead of them, they officially finished third.[1]
Benson was born 12 February 1981 inGlasgow, Scotland.[2] He grew up inTroon.[3]
Benson is in theRoyal Air Force, working as an avionics technician[2] since the age of 20.[4] He currently holds the rank ofChief Technician.[5][3] Whilst in the RAF, Benson competed with the RAF Athletics Team in the long jump and triple jump.[3] Benson moved into sprinting, running in the fastest Scottish relay team for 16 years; and competing in theCrystal Palace Diamond League.[2][3] However, the relay was not fast enough to qualify for the2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.[2] This led him to try out at a bobsleigh "talent identification" event in 2011, where he was discovered in bobsleigh.[2] 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.[6]
In 2011 Benson won the Royal Air Force Sportsman of the Year, mainly for his track sport achievements.[7]
Benson is married toSarah Benson, who is a long-distance runner.[4]
In 2013 the four-man bobsleigh team won a silver medal at theEuropean Championships.[8]
Benson's debut Olympics is set to be the2014 Winter Olympics inSochi,[2] and he was given special dispensation for time off from the RAF to attend.[6] Competition there for the four-man bobsleigh event began on 22 February 2014.[5] 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.[6] Benson competed withJohn James Jackson,Bruce Tasker, andJoel Fearon; of whom only Jackson was experienced; Tasker, Fearon and Benson were all comparatively new to the sport.[6] 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 theOswald Commission investigation.[1] TheCourt of Arbitration for Sport upheld the ruling in February 2018.[9]
