KRISTAN Bromley remains hopeful that when it comes to the Olympics life could still begin at 40.

Former skeleton world champion Bromley is making his fourth appearance in Sochi and, at 41, he’s the oldest man in Great Britain's 56-strong squad.

While the Rossendale ace concedes it’s been some time since he dominated his sport, becoming the first man to sweep the World Cup, World and European titles during a memorable season in 2008, Bromley is remains cautiously confident.

He is looking to improve on an Olympic record that reads 13th, fifth and sixth and is taking some inspiration from others.

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen equalled the record of fellow Norwegian Bjørn Dæhlie with his 12th career gold in Russia and Great Britain’s Jenny Jones claimed snowboard slopestyle bronze, even though she was more than six years older than her fellow finalists.

“I don’t think it’s ever too late, Duff Gibson proved in Turin by winning men’s skeleton gold just before he turned 40 and I’m only 41,” said Bromley, who is the partner of fellow GB skeleton ace Shelley Rudman.

“I don’t get too hung up about how old I am. For me being in the right place at the right time, irrespective of age, is the really important thing.

“If I can maintain top sixes in events leading to the Olympics, and that has been the case, then I feel in a good position to have some influence on what is going to happen here.

“I don’t feel that age is much of an issue – it’s more the form and shape that I'm in and I’m feeling pretty confident about that.”

Great Britain have a proud record in skeleton, winning medals at the last three Games – Alex Coomber's bronze in Salt Lake, Rudman’s silver in Turin and a gold for Amy Williams four years ago in Vancouver.

All those wins have come in the women’s event but Bromley is upbeat about his chances.

And he claims an early medal for Team GB has given the skeleton team another shot of self-belief after some stunning results during the recently concluded World Cup season.

He added: “We put pressure on ourselves but the actual feeling within Team GB is that we can all go out and perform and challenge.

“We’re not a winter sports nation so being in the mix for medals is something fantastic for us.

“It’s just an amazing that we got off the medal mark on only the second day of the Games. It’s a great stat that we won our first medal in Sochi quicker than we won our first medal at London 2012.

“There’s just a great energy around the whole team, not just the skeleton squad. You can really feed off that.”

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