Lizzy Yarnold was selected to be one of the two women skeleton drivers representing Team GB at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, and went on to become the first person to defend an Olympic gold in skeleton and the first British athlete to defend a Winter Olympic title.
21 Facts About Lizzy Yarnold
2.
Lizzy Yarnold set the track record for women's skeleton at the Olympic venue in the final heat of the race with a time of 51.46 seconds, beating Jacqueline Lolling's pre-Olympic record by nearly 1.3 seconds and her own first-heat record by 0.2 second.
3.
Lizzy Yarnold was the flag bearer for Great Britain at the Pyeongchang opening ceremony.
4.
Since taking up the skeleton sled, Lizzy Yarnold has lived in Bath, Somerset, initially in a flat owned by former skeleton athlete and Olympic gold medallist in the 2010 Winter Olympics, Amy Williams.
5.
On 1 May 2016, Lizzy Yarnold married engineer James Roche, who co-designed Lizzy Yarnold's sled while working for McLaren Applied Technologies.
6.
Lizzy Yarnold was initially a heptathlete; she was inspired to take up the sport after watching Denise Lewis at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
7.
In 2008, Lizzy Yarnold took part in UK Sport's Girls4Gold talent search scheme.
8.
Lizzy Yarnold began competing in 2010, winning her first official race in the Europa Cup at Igls in November.
9.
In subsequent seasons Lizzy Yarnold honed her skeleton-racing skills, learned courses, and achieved the athletic performance required to compete at World Cup level.
10.
Lizzy Yarnold's sled is named Mervyn after a former colleague of hers, Mervyn Sugden.
11.
Lizzy Yarnold won the opening race in Calgary in controversial circumstances when US athlete Noelle Pikus-Pace was disqualified for a technical infringement.
12.
Lizzy Yarnold eventually secured the World Cup Championship at the last race of the season in Konigssee and the Olympic gold medal at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, ahead of Pikus-Pace by 0.97 seconds.
13.
Lizzy Yarnold's gold was the tenth gold medal ever achieved by British athletes in 90 years of Winter Olympics competition.
14.
Lizzy Yarnold was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to skeleton racing.
15.
Lizzy Yarnold broke the track record at Winterberg twice in the course of her World Championship victory.
16.
Lizzy Yarnold finished as runner-up to Janine Flock in that season's World Cup standings, winning five World Cup races and being defeated by a narrow margin of 20 points after missing the Calgary round of the series for health reasons.
17.
Lizzy Yarnold finished the year seventh in the IBSF rankings and ninth in the World Cup.
18.
Lizzy Yarnold took the lead with a new track record on the first run: despite this she subsequently admitted that she was on the verge of pulling out of the competition due to her health problems.
19.
Lizzy Yarnold subsequently stated that she considers her second Olympic gold to be her greatest achievement.
20.
Just weeks after the 2018 Olympics, Lizzy Yarnold underwent knee surgery to remove a tumour in her knee which had been discovered six months before the Games.
21.
Lizzy Yarnold subsequently underwent a successful operation on her back in July 2018.