Despite winning both his qualifying races, the 37-year-old three-time Olympian has missed out on the chance to bring his career to a glittering close after the British Bobsleigh Association (BBA) opted to leave him and his brother Karl (30) out of the team.

The move has stunned the brothers' family who have already spent hundreds of pounds booking flights and accommodation at the Olympic village at Whistler, near Vancouver.

And they are mystified Lee has been left out despite winning qualification races in Germany and Switzerland.

They say the BBA has offered no explanation for its decision.

The boys' mum Helen, of Skelder, is now refusing to even watch the Winter Olympics on TV.

"Quite frankly, we're all devastated," she told the Whitby Gazette.

"I would hardly have gone out and purchased tickets and accommodation – which is huge money for the Olympic Games – if our son hadn't qualified last year.

"It's all very upsetting and not the way Lee wanted to finish his career.

"Whether he came eighth, 10th, 12th, he would have been able to say goodbye to everybody but now it looks like his last race was in St Moritz (Switzerland] last month."

Lee had won race-offs against fellow GB driver John Jackson in Konigsee, Germany and St Moritz last year.

The Whitby Gazette broke the news at the time that Lee had made it and it was to be his Winter Olympics swansong.

But when Jackson was chosen instead – and Karl Johnston denied the chance to earn his place in the team – an appeal was lodged with the British Athletes' Commission.

Mrs Johnston said the barrister who heard the appeal case told the BBA to reconvene its selection committee and base its selection purely on the two races in Germany and Switzerland – and nothing else.

But it was to no avail.

Mrs Johnston believes the BBA may have even approached the British Olympics Association to alter the wording so it was the sled that qualified rather than the driver.

"They didn't change a thing," she said.

"There's no justification for leaving them out."

When asked by the Whitby Gazette to explain its decision, the BBA did not respond.

The 2010 Winter Olympics is due to start on 12 February.