Lizzy Yarnold

Elizabeth Anne Yarnold (born 31 October 1988) is a British former skeleton racer. She won consecutive Olympic gold medals in 2014 and 2018, making her the first British Winter Olympian to win two gold medals.

Having previously competed in heptathlon during her youth, Yarnold switched to skeleton in 2008 after enrolling in UK Sport's Girls4Gold programme which identified the sport as a good fit for her. She began competing in 2010 and became world junior champion in 2012. Yarnold won the 2013–14 Skeleton World Cup, followed by a gold medal in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The following year, she triumphed at both the World and European Championships to complete the grand slam of major titles in the sport. She became the first person to defend an Olympic title in skeleton and first British athlete to successfully defend a title in any sport at a Winter Olympics by winning at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, setting a new track record. Later that year, Yarnold announced her retirement from the sport. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours and Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours.

Early life and education Elizabeth Anne Yarnold was born on 31 October 1988 in Sevenoaks, Kent. She has two sisters, and grew up on a farm. She was educated at St Michael's Preparatory School in Otford, Kent, and Maidstone Grammar School for Girls. She then studied Geography, Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Gloucestershire.

During her childhood, Yarnold competed as a heptathlete, having taken inspiration from watching Denise Lewis at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Yarnold reached 54th in the national shot-put rankings but did not make a career from athletics.

Career

2008–11: Introduction to skeleton In 2008, Yarnold took part in UK Sport's Girls4Gold talent search scheme along with 1500 other young women. She was one of a hundred or so for whom skeleton was identified as an option. She had hoped to be picked for the modern pentathlon, and later admitted that she knew nothing about skeleton at the time.

In 2009, Yarnold took a summer job at an insurance firm in London where an underwriter showed an interest in her ambitions and offered to help financially support her. She then began training in Bath alongside Amy Williams who won a gold medal in the skeleton at the 2010 Winter Olympics. She followed this up by winning both the final leg of the 2011–12 series in Calgary and the 2012 World Junior Championships in Innsbruck. Yarnold was still working full-time for an insurance company in the off-season and revealed that she needed a good performance at the forthcoming senior World Championships to achieve extra funding. At the senior World Championships, she finished third to earn the bronze medal.

In the 2012–13 World Cup meeting in Park City, she won the silver medal, before securing a bronze medal at a subsequent event in the competition at Whistler. At the 2013 World Championships, she finished in fourth position,

2013–14 season: Olympic champion Yarnold won the opening race of the 2013–14 World Cup in Calgary. She had initially finished second but was promoted to first by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation following a post-race inspection which disqualified American Noelle Pikus-Pace for having a prohibited piece of tape on her sled. She then won silver and bronze medals respectively at subsequent legs of the competition in Park City and Lake Placid, which were both won by Pikus-Pace. Yarnold won a second meeting held in Lake Placid, before securing another victory in Winterberg. She also finished on the podium at St. Moritz after finishing runner-up to Pikus-Pace. Yarnold was victorious at the next event in Igls, before securing overall World Cup victory at the last race of the season with a ninth-place finish in Königssee. It was the first time in eight World Cup events that she missed out on a top-three finish but she finished the series 152 points clear of second-placed Pikus-Pace.

At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Yarnold won the gold medal after finishing 0.97 seconds clear of second-placed Pikus-Pace. She set the fastest time on each of the four runs and set new track records on her first and third runs. Yarnold's gold was the tenth gold medal achieved by a British athlete in the history of the Winter Olympics. Her victory also meant that Great Britain retained the women's skeleton title following Amy Williams' success in 2010. Yarnold declared: "My fourth run I was totally relaxed and enjoyed it. It was a bit of a messy one but I'm just so thrilled I got myself here after five years hard work." Her teammates gave her the new nickname, OC — Olympic Champion. At the end of the year, she was nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. She withdrew from the next World Cup event in Calgary after experiencing dizziness, but returned the following month, to secure a silver medal in Altenberg. She then claimed victory at Königssee to move into fifth position in the overall World Cup standings. Yarnold achieved her third and fourth victories of the World Cup season at the meetings in Igls and Sochi; the victory at Sochi was achieved on the same track that she had won her Olympic gold on a year earlier. She finished the World Cup in second position overall, losing out to Austria's Janine Flock in the standings by 20 points.

Following her gold medal in the 2014 Winter Olympics and 2013–14 World Cup success, Yarnold completed a career grand slam in the 2014–15 season with victories in both the European and World Championships. Competing at Igls, she became the European champion for the first time in February 2015. She finished 0.3 seconds ahead of second-placed Flock, with her success coming one day after her World Cup win on the same track. After the race, Yarnold said: "Being European champion was a huge goal of mine." The following month, she won her first World Championship, breaking the track record at Winterberg twice in the course of her victory. She won the event by a margin of 0.67 seconds from Germany's Jacqueline Lölling, and afterwards, Yarnold stated: "It's all I ever wanted."

In September 2015, Yarnold announced that she would take a year-long break and miss the 2015-16 skeleton season due to burnout. Describing herself as emotionally fatigued, she explained that it was "the right time to refresh, take stock and come back even more motivated for the future."

2016–17 season: Return to the sport After missing a year of competition, Yarnold finished fourth at the 2016–17 World Cup event at Whistler in December 2016. Two weeks later, she won a silver medal in the meeting at Lake Placid; these two results positioned her at the top of the season's overall World Cup standings. This was her only podium finish during the World Cup series, and she finished the competition in ninth position overall. In the World Championships held at Königssee in February 2017, Yarnold won the bronze medal. Reflecting on the result, she stated: "This is where I want and need to be - and is a major stepping stone." In the opening event of the 2017–18 World Cup in Lake Placid, she claimed the bronze medal. She recorded finishes of 23rd, 13th, 16th and 19th at subsequent World Cup events. At the series ending event in Königssee, Yarnold's final race before the forthcoming Olympics, she finished in fourth place and declared that she was "super happy" with her result. She finished the World Cup in overall ninth place. Yarnold was then chosen to be the flag bearer for Great Britain at the opening ceremony for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

She arrived at the Games in Pyeongchang suffering from several health concerns. These included a chest infection, which worsened to the point that she was having trouble speaking and breathing, and on the first day of competition she suffered from dizziness due to a flare-up of her vestibular condition. In her event, Yarnold took the lead with a new track record on the first run, but her medical issues left her on the verge of pulling out of the competition. She then fell to third place overall after the second run, one tenth of a second behind overnight leader Lölling. Her health improved for the second day, and she subsequently moved up to second after the third run, two hundredths of a second behind new leader Flock. On the final run, she set another track record to win the gold medal by 0.45 seconds.

She became the first British Winter Olympian to win two gold medals and the first skeleton competitor to defend their Olympic title. She admitted after her victory that she had had self-doubts about whether she could get back to where she wanted to be, adding: "Honestly, after the last few years the aim was to get to the Olympics, I wasn't thinking about medals." At the end of 2018, she was nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Post-Pyeongchang activities and retirement Just weeks after the conclusion of the 2018 Winter Olympics, Yarnold underwent surgery to remove a tumour in her knee which had been discovered six months before the Games. The use of crutches worsened her preexisting back pain, later diagnosed as being the result of two displaced discs. She was left struggling to sit, unable to drive and relied upon powerful painkillers for several months.

In September 2018, Yarnold stated that she was planning to return to training, but the following month she announced her retirement from the sport. She said that she had lived the dream and desired a fresh challenge. She was also the only skeleton athlete to have won two Olympic gold medals. After retiring, she began mentoring young athletes and working for the British Olympic Association's athlete commission.

Personal life On 1 May 2016, Yarnold married her partner James, who worked as a sled designer for the British team. The couple have three daughters. In her spare time she enjoys knitting.

Honours After winning her first Olympic gold medal in 2014, an open-top bus parade through her hometown of Sevenoaks, Kent was held in her honour. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to skeleton racing. Also that year, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Canterbury Christ Church University. In the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed Order of the British Empire (OBE), and later that year, she received an honorary doctorate in science by the University of Kent.

Career victories Winter Olympics Year Event Location Runner-up Margin Ref 2014 Winter Olympics Sochi Noelle Pikus-Pace 0.97

World Cup overall Year Event Location Runner-up Margin Ref 2013–14 World Cup Various Noelle Pikus-Pace 152 points 4 4 15 December 2013 Lake Placid, USA 0.34 Janine Flock 5 5 4 January 2014 Winterberg, Germany 0.57 Noelle Pikus-Pace 6 7 18 January 2014 Igls, Austria 0.32 Noelle Pikus-Pace 7 2014–15 1 13 December 2014 Lake Placid, USA 0.77 Elisabeth Vathje 8 4 16 January 2015 Königssee, Germany 0.71 Anja Huber 9 6 7 February 2015 Igls, Austria 0.18 Elisabeth Vathje 10 7 8 February 2015 Igls, Austria 0.30 Janine Flock 11 8 14 February 2015 Sochi, Russia 0.04 Maria Orlova