IT HAS been a rollercoaster ride just to get to the Winter Olympic start line, but Mica McNeill is already showing signs that the public's faith in her and team-mate Mica Moore was not misguided.

Back in September, the women's bobsleigh team were told that due to overspending by her sport's national governing body – the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association – they would receive no funding in the run up to the Games.

Cue an incredible fundraising drive which saw them reach their target of £30,000 inside a week of learning of the issue – before the two Micas responded on the ice by securing qualification for PyeongChang 2018.

For the past two weeks they have been head down in South Korea preparing for their big moment, and so far the signs are promising.

Across their three training days on the track ahead of Tuesday's opening run, the Brits steadily moved up the time sheets, including going joint second and third quickest on their fifth and sixth runs this morning.

And McNeill, who is from Consett, believes the 2017 World Junior champions - who achieved Britain's best result in more than eight years last November when finishing fifth at the Whistler World Cup - are showing they are not to be under-estimated come competition day.

"I'm really happy with how this block of training has come together," said McNeill. "In the gym, I feel strong and powerful. I think it's all coming together at the right time.

"I can't imagine sitting at home right now and watching it on TV and for that, Mica and myself are so grateful.

"It's given us the opportunity not just to come and fulfil our dream but to represent our country and have a female bobsleigh team at the Games.

"This means so much. This is our sporting career and every athlete wants to be competing. No one wants to be sitting at home and for that it means the absolute world.

"Obviously, getting here is absolutely incredible for what we've been through this last year but I want to see a single figure result."

Valuable practice time on the ice is essential to get a proper understanding of the nuances of the track, and the British duo have been making up for lost time this week.

In an ideal world, they would have had more practices prior to arriving in PyeongChang, but 2012 Youth Olympic Games silver medallist McNeill has been making sure to do her homework.

"I never got a chance to slide on it before, other nations have got 30, 35 heats on me and Mica," she added. "They've got experience here so we were at a bit of a disadvantage here. But I've watched hundreds of sleds and rewatched the races and really studied it.

"Then when I got the chance to go on the track, it paid off and I picked it up quite quickly. It's a really fun track.

"We're going to have to be switched on for every single minute that we're on that track and take the best that we can do with this situation. It doesn't faze us."

* Watch Mica McNeill compete in heats 1&2 of the women's bobsleigh on Tuesday at 11.50am, live on Eurosport 2. Don’t miss a moment of the Olympic Winter Games at Eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport app