The new bob skeleton season starts in earnest for Newton Abbot's David Swift in Winterberg, Germany, on November 27.

Swift will be racing on the Intercontinental Cup circuit – four races in Europe before Christmas followed by a further four races in north America in the new year.

The Intercontinental Cup is the second level of international skeleton competition behind the World Cup.

Swift does not have the qualification criteria for the World Cup, but hopes to achieve this by Christmas.

Last season he finished seventh in the Intercontinental Cup, and this year is aiming for a top three position. He is also hoping to improve on his world ranking – he is currently 29th.

During the past nine months there have been changes made within the GB Bob Skeleton Association and UK Sport.

UK Sport is now running the 'talent squad' – men and women from other sports who are now turning their skills towards bob skeleton with a view to training towards the Winter Olympics in 2014, which will be held in Russia.

In the meantime there are the Winter Olympic Games of 2010 in Vancouver, which are less than 90 days away.

The reshuffle has meant that the GB squad now comprises six men and five women, from whom the Olympic team – expected to be three men and two women – will be chosen – Swift is one of those with aspirations of making the GB team.

Having originally being selected for training towards the 2014 Olympics, he has since been 'fast-tracked' to the present squad – out of more than 800 invited to go for trials in 2006, he is the only one remaining.

Although bob skeleton is a winter sport, the spring and summer months can be quite demanding.

In the spring and summer, Swift trained at Bath University, as well as making use of the wind tunnel at Southampton University. Training was also undertaken with the lifeguards based in Bude, who run a tough fitness programme. However most of the hard work was done at Bath where, for six days a week, he trained for between three and five hours a day.

September saw him off to Italy to train on an indoor push track, before training on the full track in Germany.

From there, the GB squad flew to America, training at Lake Placid for ten days – where Swift was placed fifth in the selection races – before going to Vancouver for familiarisation training on the Olympic track.

Selection of the Great Britain team for the 2010 Winter Olympics will be made in early January.