Benson was born on 12 February 1981 in Glasgow, Scotland.[2] He grew up in Troon.[3]
Benson is in the Royal Air Force, working as an avionics technician[2] since the age of 20.[4] He currently holds the rank of Chief Technician.[5][3] Whilst in the RAF, Benson competed with the RAF Athletics Team in the long jump and triple jump.[3] Benson moved into sprinting, running in the fastest Scottish relay team for 16 years; and competing in the Crystal Palace Diamond League.[2][3] However, the relay was not fast enough to qualify for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.[2] This led him to try out at a bobsleigh "talent identification" event in 2011, where he was discovered in bobsleigh.[2] This led to his becoming part of the GBR1 bobsleigh team; at the end of summer 2011 he was selected into the four-man GBR1 team.[6]
In 2011 Benson won the Royal Air Force Sportsman of the Year, mainly for his track sport achievements.[7]
Benson is married to Sarah Benson, who is a long-distance runner.[4]
In 2013 the four-man bobsleigh team won a silver medal at the European Championships.[8]
Benson's debut Olympics are set to be the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi,[2] and he was given special dispensation for time off from the RAF to attend.[6] Competition there for the four-man bobsleigh event began on 22 February 2014.[5] The British Olympic Association had qualified the GBR1 four-man bobsleigh team as on the "podium programme", i.e. that they have a chance of winning a medal.[6] Benson competed with John James Jackson, Bruce Tasker, and Joel Fearon; of whom only Jackson was experienced; Tasker, Fearon and Benson were all comparatively new to the sport.[6] The team finished fifth in the event, 0.11 seconds away from a medal. However, two teams that finished ahead of GBR1 were later disqualified as part of the Oswald Commission investigation.[1] The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the ruling in February 2018.[9]
Bobsleigh
