Bobsleigh bum-flasher still enjoys the craic about her racy YouTube clip
BOBSLEIGH bum-flasher Gillian Cooke still enjoys the craic about her racy YouTube clip.
And what a craic...
She explains: “It’s a good way to break the ice, especially with new team-mates — it always gets a laugh.”
We meet in Gillian’s home city of Edinburgh where she’s promoting free eye tests for Optometry Scotland.
Apt, since the Scots athlete gave the world a right eyeful a year ago.
That’s when Gillian’s Lycra race suit split at the starting line to reveal a sexy black G-string.
She jokes: “I’m just so grateful I was wearing underwear that day.”
Gillian is 5ft 8in, softly spoken with mousy shoulder-length hair and muscles that bulge under her pullover and tight jeans.
She also has a squint she’s suffered from since childhood.
In fact, it’s so bad the 28-year-old struggles to see the track she hurtles down at 100mph.
She says: “The problem was picked up soon after I was born.
“Basically, my eyes work one at a time — but not together.
“I can switch between the two, but I can’t use both. It’s like having two lazy eyes. They considered surgery when I was young, but reckoned it would have given me double vision instead.
“The one thing that is difficult for folk is when I’m looking directly at them they don’t know what eye to focus on.”
Me: “One eye’s going to the shops — the other’s coming back with the change?”
Gillian giggles: “Yeah, that sort of thing. It was worse when I was younger and didn’t have much control over my eyes.
“The doctors thought about doing surgery again a few years ago, but the outcome still wasn’t certain.”
Despite her vision problems, Gillian was never wrapped in cotton wool by her computer programmer dad Philip or teacher mum Eleanor.
She says: “I wasn’t made aware I was different from anyone else. I just went outside and played sports all the time with my young brother Stephen.”
It certainly has never held her back. Gillian went on to do gymnastics, pole vault and long jump before moving into winter sports.
She says: “I’m not saying it wasn’t difficult. Tennis was pretty hard as I could hardly see the ball coming over the net until it hit me in the face, , while sometimes I’d be doing gymnastics, balancing on the bar when suddenly the whole room would take a jump to the left as I switched eyes.
“But because I could never totally rely on my eyes I had to rely more on my rhythm.
“It’s the same with the bobsleigh. I kind of feel my way.
“I was only able to do it after they developed contact lenses strong enough for my eyes.”
Gillian took up bobsleighing just three years ago after answering a Facebook appeal from her future Olympic partner Nicola Minichiello.
Remarkably, Nicola also has impaired sight — with just 20 per cent vision in her left eye.
Me: “A case of the blind leading the blind?”
Gillian laughs: “You’re not far wrong, I think we only have two good eyes between us.”
But their dodgy peepers didn’t stop the pair becoming World Champions at the
first time of trying in 2008. Gillian admits it was like hit 90s movie Cool Runnings — the story of the Jamaican bobsleigh team.
She says: “When I turned up at the starting line the Swiss and German teams were laughing at this skinny little Scots lass.
“But I soon had the last laugh as I may not be the biggest, but I have plenty of power with my take offs, which are up there with the best in the world.”
Shortly before the duo competed at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver last year, Gillian let rip. She sighs: “It’s fair to say my glute is more famous than my face.”
Me: “Your what?”
Gillian: “My gluteus maximus.”
Oh, her a**e... the incident became a YouTube sensation with over three million hits — it was also screened on TV networks across the globe.
To her credit, the embarrassing wardrobe malfunction didn’t put her off completing the run in St Mortiz in Switzerland.
She explains: “I hesitated only for a second.
“But if we’d pulled out we’d have been disqualified. There was nothing I could do but go for it.”
Me: “Was it cold?”
She says: “Bloody freezing.
“I blocked it out until I got in the sleigh and sat down, when I was suddenly reminded it was mighty cold.
“But there was interest in that clip from all over the world.
“The Netherlands were very keen on it for some reason.”
The dirty Dutch. She quickly adds: “I honestly don’t mind.
“Although it can get a bit irksome when the same person keeps banging on and on about it.”
Yeah, sorry about that.
But disaster struck at the games when Gillian and her 33-year-old partner
Nicola crashed out on the same track which claimed the life of Georgian racer Nodar Kumaritashvili.
Gillian is still recovering from internal injuries, which included a damaged hip.
She says: “I suffered nerve damage in my glute.
“So, yes, that famous backside was numb for a year. But the feeling has slowly started to come back.
“There’s probably not a bobsleigh track in the world that someone hasn’t died on. It’s one of those things. I get nervous, but you can’t let it put you off. A good crash is when your head ends up on the ice. A bad one is when
your shoulder is caught under the sleigh. We have burn vests on but that thin Lycra suit protects nothing.”
Not even her dignity.
She adds: “And no matter which way up you are, you will always keep sliding until the end. I guess you need bottle for it, but I love the sport — it’s the ultimate adrenaline rush.”
And unlike Kylie Minogue, Gillian has no plans to bring her backside out of retirement.
She says: “That suit was just a prototype — obviously I don’t wear it anymore.
“I plan on keeping myself covered up from now on.” Time’s up — Gillian has to split . . . again.
Gillian is supporting Optometry Scotland’s Open Your Eyes campaign to promote free eye care. Remember everyone in Scotland is entitled to a free NHS eye exam at their local optometry practice.