Nicola Minichiello hails FIBT's decision to allow mixed gender teams

Former world bobsleigh champion Nicola Minichiello has welcomed the decision which will see mixed genders competing in the sport in the future.

The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (FIBT) announced on Thursday that men and women will be able to compete together in four-strong teams in the forthcoming season.

And Sky Sports mentor Minichiello, who became world champion in the two-woman bobsleigh event in Lake Placid in 2009, hopes to see more sports follow the FIBT’s lead in the future.

“I think it has been coming for a while but it is a really brave and bold decision to implement it straightaway for this season,” she told Sky Sports News HQ.

“It’s a phenomenal step forward and one that I think a lot of other spots can take notice of.”

Women have only been competing in bobsleigh at the Olympics since the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City and Minichiello is impressed with the swift progress the sport has made in terms of gender equality.

“Women have only been competing in the sport since 2002 so it’s an absolutely massive achievement,” she said. “12 years is only three Olympic cycles which is a relatively short space of time.

“What the international federation have done is a really great step forward.”

Currently, there is no four-woman Olympic bobsleigh event but Minchiello, who retired in 2011, hopes its introduction is one step closer following the FIBT’s latest announcement.

“It’s still really early days,” she said. “Literally the decision was only made last week so now everything has got to fall into place.

“The actual qualification criteria for Pyeongchang (2018 Winter Olympics) and 2022 is still to be decided. So who knows? We’ll still pushing for it and hopefully it will be an Olympic sport very, very soon.”