Amy Williams won gold for Great Britain in the women’s skeleton at the Winter Olympics on this day in 2010.
The then 27-year-old from Bath became the first Briton to claim an individual Winter Olympic gold medal since Robin Cousins in 1980 and the first individual female since another figure skater, Jeanette Altwegg, in 1952.
Her achievement was all the more remarkable as it had come eight years after she took up the event for, in her own words, “a bit of a giggle”.
Originally a runner, Williams gave up a promising career in athletics as a result of shin-splints and took up skeleton having impressed during a practice session on the push-start facility at the University of Bath during the summer of 2002.
Having accepted an invitation to join the British Skeleton development programme, she finished second at the 2005 World Student Games and World Junior Championships, and repeated the feat at the World Championships in 2009 while claiming a series of World Cup medals along the way.
However, her big moment was to arrive in Whistler, when she earned the ultimate reward for all her…
