Montell Douglas column: Life at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

Montell Douglas is a Team GB bobsleigh brakewoman, set to race with Mica McNeill at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She is also a former sprinter for Great Britain, competing in the 100m and relay at the 2008 summer Olympics, also in Beijing. This is her fourth BBC Sport column.

We've been in China for nearly three weeks now, but our competition doesn't start until Friday.

This time has been important for my team-mate Mica McNeill and I to adjust to the time zone, adjust to the evening race schedule and get our bodies and minds prepped for what is to come.

But it also meant I could go to the opening ceremony, and it will forever be one of the most memorable moments of my sporting career.

Walking out onto a lit floor towards those Olympic rings, in my favourite stadium in the world, was indescribable.

Fourteen years ago, in the very same stadium, I walked at the closing ceremony and helped Great Britain welcome the Olympics to its new home for London 2012.

That was breathtaking, but to be back experiencing the beginning of a journey for this Games and many athletes, but the end of my journey, was emotional.

In 2008, I never got to go to the opening ceremony as we weren't in the village yet, so it was important for me to go this time in the same stadium I ran the 100m in at my first Olympic Games.

Back then, I had no idea I would be attending another Olympics, let alone a winter one. The journey up until now has been a whirlwind - full of ups, downs, injuries and celebrations. It is not easy as one can imagine.

The percentage of those that make an Olympic Games is very small. Those that go to two is even smaller. Then there are those that get to go to both a summer and winter Games. And finally, those who go to a summer and winter Games that are held in the same city. I am those. Those are me.

I think there is only one other woman, Brazil's mountain biker turned cross-country skier Jaqueline Mourao, who went to 2008 like me.

The odds for this occurring are so low, I daren't work it out. I'll leave it to the statisticians,

But the odds for me, a black South London girl, born to teenage parents in the 1980s, with no family background of higher education or sporting elitism, to even have had half the experiences I have, were also not favourable. Yet here I am, so I'm soaking it all in.

Pizza, pins and race plans

Our races are at 20:00 local time (12:00 GMT), so as an athlete who has been racing at 09:00 week in, week out for three months, it's been important preparation for Mica and I to reset our bodies into being active 12 hours later than it's normally accustomed to.

Along with the eight-hour time difference, that means shortening the days by having midday wake-ups and training well into the late afternoon or even night.

We had training sessions in the afternoon a few days after we arrived in China, so that didn't really help that rhythm initially, but with us being first into the village and last out, we've had plenty of time to readjust.

Now we're well into enjoying our Olympic village experience, with the dinner hall open all hours. It is often buzzing with athletes returning from training or competition well into the night.

The village has a very small community kind of vibe. With there being three zones at these Olympics and therefore three villages, there are only a third of the athletes around, which for social distancing works very well.

The village comprises a lot of amenities, including a hair salon, a shop, 24-hour Pizza Hut and KFC, and a gift shop in which I've been able to bag myself a beautiful Bird's Nest necklace in honour of my times in Beijing.

I managed to go to the women's alpine skiing slalom event, which was incredibly exciting. Seeing the buzz and the vibe of another winter sport, which we haven't been able to do before, was quite thrilling.

There were bobsleighers there from other nations also cheering on their slalom team-mates, and the experience of being part of an Olympic competitive setting was a momentous occasion.

Pin-trading is a big thing at the Olympics and I got bombarded. The Team GB 'gold lion' is in high demand.

I must have swapped around 10 pins that day, sometimes for pins that I wasn't really looking to acquire, but I felt bad for some people who seemed desperate to get their hands on that golden lion.

I'm so excited to race on 18 and 19 February and have only one plan. To do my very best.

The results will come whatever they may be. As a team we've prepared and are as ready as we'll ever be.

Let's go!

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