Unfinished business: Alex Cartagena has one goal for 2030

Alex Cartagena has unfinished business with the Olympic Games.

He made the Great Britain bobsleigh team for Milano Cortina 2026 as a four-man brakeman. When an opportunity emerged to compete in the two-man event, Olympic rules meant he could not simply switch sleds.

It only added fuel to the fire. His ambition could hardly be clearer: he wants to finish his bobsleigh career with a medal at the 2030 Winter Olympics.

Spend time with Alex and it does not sound like wishful thinking. There is a striking certainty in the way he talks.

“These are our golden years. It will all slot into place now.”

A route that nearly ended before it began

Alex’s first encounter with the sliding sports came in 2020, when he was encouraged to try skeleton. “I wasn’t very good,” he smiles.

While he was there, he saw the bobsleigh team training. When he tried pushing a bobsleigh, something was immediately different. He was good at it – good enough to trial for the Great Britain programme – before life intervened dramatically.

Alex collapsed while on deployment and went through a prolonged period of medical treatment, including heart surgery. Bobsleigh went on hold while he concentrated on getting well. He was cleared to compete again in August 2021 and, just two weeks after his final surgery, took part in the final GB testing process and passed.

By October 2021, he was racing on the Europa Cup circuit, finishing seventh in his first series of international races in Lillehammer.

Into the World Cup

In 2023, Alex made his World Cup debut at St Moritz, racing with John Stanbridge, now RAF Bobsleigh Team Manager. They broke into the top 20, finishing 13th in the second race.

Over the following seasons, he moved in and out of the GB squad, constantly competing for his place. A run at Cortina in November helped put him in contention, and he was selected for the Great Britain Olympic team.

Building the next team

At the RAF Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton Association training day at the University of Bath Push Start Track on 19 August, we saw another side of Alex. He was giving up his time to coach others, hands-on with less experienced members of the RAF bobsleigh team, sharing technique and correcting movements.

“The team know and trust each other with their lives, especially when something goes wrong,” he says. “They become your family. It is hard to get back to normal life when you’re not with them.”

A full, full-time occupation

Alex has served as an RAF aircraft mechanic for 12 years and has spent the past three working towards elite-athlete status. Where operational circumstances allow, May to October is given over to physical preparation and push training, with October to March the competition season.

He estimates he spends only around two months of the year at home. “It is a full, full-time occupation,” he says, “and every day is different.”

Elite-athlete status would give him more of the time he needs for an ambition that has become very precise.

tlmNexus is proud to support the RAF Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton Association and the people who make days like the one at Bath happen. We will be following Alex’s road to 2030 closely.

“It has made me a better athlete. It probably hasn’t changed me as a person,” he says. “I’m someone who will always do their best.”