It is the kind of switch that is occurring with increasing regularity in a sport in which, according to the British team's performance director Gary Anderson, there is more store being set on getting away swiftly and powerfully before the subtle skills of a bob's driver come into play.

"The Russians, Germans, Canadians and US are doing exactly what we are," Anderson tells insidethegames. "The start is the most important part of the race. If you don't nail the start and get a powerful push, you are not going to win.

"We are always on the look-out for people who combine speed and power. And, if we are looking for medals in Sochi 2014, I believe, ideally, we are looking for people who have already had Olympic experience in other sports. At the moment, we don't have that, but we have got people who have competed at world, European and Commonwealth level."

While it takes five or six years to train up a driver of a two-man or four-man bobsled, tweaking the talents of the person who is pushing is a swifter task.

"I can turn talented track and field athletes into brake men and women in 12 months," says Anderson, who took up his position 18 months ago, after extensive experience as a track and field coach.

"The hardest thing for me is to get these athletes performing in extreme conditions.

"We have seen people who are very quick and powerful, but don't like the idea of pushing downhill on ice and then having to jump aboard."



Endacott's team-mate Kelly Thomas was one former sprinter who did manage the switch and she was brake woman to Paula Walker at the 2010 Vancouver Games (above).

Gillian Cooke, too, ticked all the boxes when she turned up at a bobsleigh trial in 2008, having competed at two Commonwealth Games for Scotland in events ranging from sprints to pole vault and long jump. Adaptable athleticism and speed... bring it on.

Within six months, Cooke was a world champion in tandem with driver Nicola Minichiello, former wife of Toni Minichiello, who coaches heptathlon world champion Jessica Ennis.

Minichiello's reluctant retirement from the sport this year, after a series of knee problems, has left a gap that will take some filling. But there are experienced drivers, such as Walker and Fiona Harrison, who are already stepping up to that challenge.

Thomas, Cooke and Endacott are far from the first sprinters to switch disciplines in this way.

In 1992, Lenny Paul joined driver Mark Tout in finishing sixth in an event he compared to "putting yourself in the high-speed spin dryer for about a minute – sheer madness". Although how he knew that was never clear.

Ten years later, at the Salt Lake Winter Games, the 1990 Commonwealth 200m champion Marcus Adam partnered driver Lee Johnston to finish 10th in the two-man event.



Lammert (above), forced to retire from shot putting in 2010 because of an elbow injury, has been training with the German squad since February 2011, with a view to competing in the World Cup racing, which starts in December.

"We want her on our team in future," Germany's national coach, Christoph Langen, told reporters last week.

Endacott, by contrast, will have to pursue a steeper learning curve – as well as balancing two sports, at least until after the London 2012 Games.

She tells insidethegames she intends to keep her sprinting and bobsleigh working in tandem until 2013. "I want to try to make London 2012, but, after that, I will be giving bobsleigh 110 per cent," says the 31-year-old teaching assistant from Plymouth.

Anderson knew Endacott from his time as an athletics coach and invited her to a bobsleigh trial late last year after a conversation on Twitter that began as banter, but ended more seriously.

British Bobsleigh's standing invitation to competitors in other events to turn up at their University of Bath HQ and have a go on the bob, set up on a dry run, makes it clear that prospective brake men and women cannot expect an easy ride.

Competitors, it points out, need to be "fast, powerful and fit enough to withstand the rigours of the sport. The competitive season runs through the winter months, involving much travelling, training, practise and competing in cold conditions...

"No matter how anyone performs on the initial tests, it is the ability to push a sled on ice that is the overriding quality we seek. It has been proven many times that the fastest sprinter may not be the fastest pusher. Also, being big and strong may not be enough."

Despite that proviso, minimum standards are set. Men have to be able to run 30 metres – the crucial distance in bobsleigh – in 3.80sec from a standing start and to manage a standing long jump of 2.90m. For women, the corresponding figures are 4.20sec and 2.60m.

Endacott, whose next main competitive target is over 60 metres at next year's UK Athletics indoor championships, has yet to make her pushing debut on ice.

But Anderson is in no doubt she will make the grade.

"Katherine is as tough as they come," he says. "She's as hard as nails."

Katherine herself laughs at that suggestion – but doesn't dismiss it.

"That's probably right," she comments. "I am always happy to take on a challenge and I don't back down."

In her athletics career, that was proven when she came back from four operations on her knee to produce her outstanding performance in Delhi.

After finishing fourth in the 100m at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, she was promoted to bronze and then silver after Australia's Sally Pearson, the original winner, was disqualified for a false start and Nigeria's Damola Osayemi failed a doping test.

She got confirmation of her second promotion in the wake of earning gold in the relay – a sweet double triumph.

She and Anderson then became involved in what she described as some "banter" via Twitter that ended with her taking up the invitation – while trying to train at a snowbound venue on Plymouth – to try another sport for which ice was not such a drawback.



And the coach who helped her to her Commonwealth success, former world and Olympic 100m champion Linford Christie (above), was very supportive. "He told me to go for it," she says. "It's an exciting challenge, something completely different."

Anderson believes that, although Endacott is continuing to seek a sprinting place at London 2012, her realistic medal prospects exist in a winter environment.

"With due respect to a great athlete, would she be likely to get a medal at London 2012?" he asks. "Probably not. But she could have a real chance of getting on the podium at Sochi 2014."

Another prospect opening up for Endacott in her new winter world is regular training with the Dallas Cowboys. Through joint funding by UK Sport and individual sponsors, the British team have a regular programme of visits to the Michael Johnson Performance Center, at McKinney, Texas, all the way through to Sochi 2014.

"It's a world-class facility and it's great to be working in the same environment as athletes playing for one of the most high-profile teams in the world," Anderson said. Had they been there at a different time, they might well have encountered players from another high-profile team who sometimes train there – Manchester United.



Among those who were training alongside the bobsleigh squad during their last visit were Cowboys Leonard Davis (above) – at 6ft 6in and 365lb described as the BIGGEST man in the NFL – and Andre Gurode.

"When we arrived, it was 'Oh, here come the Brits. Cup of tea'," Anderson recalled. "It was quite something to be training alongside some of these guys. We were doing weight sessions with them – they said two of our guys, John Jackson and Bruce Tasker, had the right shape for NFL. They were very chuffed..."

The Cowboys were also impressed with the efforts of the British women in the gym, saying they had never seen such strong women. Wait until they see Endacott...

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.