Lizzy Yarnold

ByEurosport

Updated 30/10/2017 at 14:21 GMT

Lizzy Yarnold is Team GB's only defending champion heading into PyeongChang, having picked up the country's 10th ever Winter Olympic gold medal.

PyeongChang Winter Olympic hopeful Lizzy Yarnold

Image credit: Getty Images

Name - Elizabeth Yarnold
Date of Birth - 31/10/1988
Place of Birth - Sevenoaks, UK
Sport/Discipline - Skeleton
Honours - Olympics - Gold x1; World Championship - Gold x1, Bronze x2; European Championship - Gold x1

Yarnold is the latest torchholder for Britain in the skeleton, a sport which has consistently over delivered with two golds, one silver and three bronzes adding up to almost one fifth of the country's entire Winter Olympic haul.

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Four years ago in Sochi she provided the Games' golden moment, from a parochial perspective, as she dominated all four of her races, winning in a record margin of 0.97 seconds.

Yarnold, first identified as a potential skeleton champion when she took part in a talent ID programme called 'Girls for Gold' back in 2008, was nominated for Sports Personality of the Year in 2014.

She is without a gold medal since the World Championship of 2015, picking up a bronze in the competition in 2017 - but do not rule out the possibility that she will become the first ever British athlete to retain a Winter Olympic title.

Yarnold had an extended spell away from the sport between March 2015 and the start of the 2016 season due to "emotional exhaustion" but is renewed and ready to defend her title.

She said in October:

I have the confidence that comes with being Olympic champion, going to the huge spectacle that is the Games and coming away with the gold medal. Not many in the field can say that as a number of my rivals retired afterwards, including the silver medallist Noelle Pikus-Pace of the USA. It’s mostly going to be a field short on Olympic experience. However, I don’t think going in as reigning champion gives me a great advantage. It is a whole new track in South Korea and I will have to treat it with the utmost respect.

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