Donaldson will join eight other hopefuls at a training camp at the New Zealand Academy of Sport South Island's Dunedin base to prepare a bobsleigh team for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
A talent identification project across New Zealand resulted in the selection of some of the country's strongest and fastest male athletes to form the team.
There is potential for New Zealand to excel in bobsleigh, given the resourcefulness and the calibre of athletes.
‘‘This team is that good that we can possibly get a medal,'' Donaldson said.
‘‘I wouldn't do it if I didn't think we could get a medal and it is another way to have a competitive outlet while my running winds down.
‘‘It should be fun.''
Two other athletes from Otago have also thrown their hats in the ring - New Zealand junior long and triple jump record holder Tom Davie and Kaikorai rugby player Willie Trew.
An unnamed Air New Zealand Cup rugby player has also signed on for the training camp.
Project co-ordinator and three-time Olympian Dr Angus Ross said initial performances at the open trials during the past fortnight measured up to top overseas bobsleigh teams.
‘‘The initial results are extremely promising and compare well with the data we have on the top overseas teams, although, of course, there is a lot of training to be done between now and Vancouver Olympics for that potential to be realised,'' he said.
New Zealand snowsport and skeleton teams won medals and gained world rankings in international competition this year.
Forty-one athletes fronted for the bobsleigh trials, and a further two tested overseas.
Triallists were ranked on their 30m time, jumps and bodyweight.
Following discussion with German bobsleigh coach Gerd Grimme and bobsleigh pilot Alan Henderson, a New Zealander currently in the United Kingdom, it was decided to invite the top nine rather than eight to the training camp in Dunedin on May 24-25.
Only one point separated eighth and ninth places.
Four of these athletes will then be selected next year to field a team at the world championship at Lake Placid in the United States next year. - with NZPA
