From the track to the ice to the training ground: Ashleigh Nelson to work with B5
Our work in women’s sport keeps growing, and so does our team of female role models. This week Ashleigh Nelson appeared in front of Birmingham City Women’s first team alongside Matt Himsworth, in a session supported by WSL Football. It’s her first public outing with us, so we can finally announce that Ashleigh is working with B5 Consultancy as a Senior Consultant.
Ashleigh’s story isn’t a highlights reel, and she doesn’t want it told as one. It’s the setbacks that give her the insight she brings to our work.
She went to Beijing 2008 as a 17-year-old sprinter but didn’t run: the relay team dropped the baton in the heats and her Olympics was over. In 2012 she won the Team GB trials, but her time fell short of the Olympic qualifying standard. In 2016 she was injured. In 2020 she was selected for Tokyo, only to be forced into Covid isolation and miss out.
Years of hard work, all building towards one goal, and by then it looked as though the chance had gone. Then a message arrived on Instagram from Adele Nicoll, the shot-putter turned bobsledder, asking whether she’d ever thought about bobsleigh. A push-track taster in Bath followed, and within months Ashleigh was racing on the World Cup circuit. In February 2026 she was part of Team Nicoll at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
It wasn’t how she had planned it. Life never is. But eighteen years after Beijing, Ashleigh realised her goal of competing at an Olympic Games.
That story matters for the work we do. A social media message changed the course of Ashleigh’s career, but she has also seen the darker side of being a woman in the public eye: abuse, racism and judgement. Her work goes well beyond online harms. She is passionate about mentoring and supporting sportswomen on mindset, mental health, injury and pressure, she is an ambassador for the mental health charity SANE, and she has spent years using her platform to talk about resilience and wellbeing.
Bringing Ashleigh in is about diversity of opinion and experience. Football still dominates our work but we’ve been so thrilled to work in cricket, rugby, snooker, darts, netball and athletics in recent months. Players respond to people who have walked their path, and an athlete who kept going through setback after setback, then rebuilt her career in a new sport, brings a perspective that none of us could.
We’re so grateful that Ashleigh has agreed to be a part of our team supporting women’s sport. Our belief is simple: girls and women in sport deserve the same level of support the men’s game has come to expect. Ashleigh shares that belief, and we’re delighted to have her with us.
Ashleigh said: “When I was coming through, nobody sat us down and talked about social media, dealing with pressure, the mental struggles that are inevitable or how to protect yourself. Some of it I had to learn the hard way. If I can help young women in sport enjoy their journey, enjoy their platform, use it well and know they’re not on their own when it gets tough, that means a lot to me.”
Matt Himsworth added: “I pinch myself often when I think about who we get to work with. Ashleigh’s incredible athletics career is only one aspect of why I’m excited to work with her – having the resilience and bravery to flip sports like she did is amazing – but it’s the insight she has into the human condition that really excites me. I’m drawn to people that have come through tough times, she’s done that, and thrived, and I’m excited for our clients to meet her”
Ashleigh will deliver sessions to first-team squads and academy players in the women’s games, and to staff and other sports organisations. If you’d like to bring Ashleigh into your club or organisation, get in touch at info@b5consultancy.com.
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