Fast Facts:Lizzy Yarnold start sochi-race1

Pursuit: Olympic and World Cup skeleton champion

Definition of success: “Whatever drives you and makes you get up in the morning.”

 

 

 

Another debut for The Secrets of their Success as we welcome the blog’s first Olympic gold medal winner! Not only that, but she’s a World Cup Champion, an MBE for Services to Sport, a Commonwealth Games Baton Bearer, TV presenter and – yes – national treasure. In the 2013/14 World Cup Championships she stood on the podium in seven of eight races, winning four. If you’re a Brit like me and looking for a sporting superstar to fly the flag – look no further than the talented and charming Sochi Skeleton Gold Medallist: Lizzy Yarnold.

First things first: if you’re not a winter sports fanatic, or you were on a distant planet during the Sochi Winter Olympics this year, you might be wondering what exactly Lizzy does.

“I compete in the sport of skeleton,” Lizzy explains, “which is a winter sport and takes place on an ice track – the same used in bobsleigh and luge. We travel head first, lying on a sled, steering the corners with small movements of our body.  We reach speeds of up to 90mph and can experience forces of up to 5G. I am the current Olympic Champion having won the gold medal at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and am the current overall Skeleton World Cup Champion 2013/14.”

Head first at 90mph, five times the force of gravity, face skimming just centimetres from a slick surface of rock-hard ice: the yearn for success comes in many forms but come on – what inspires a person to try out such an extreme sport?

“I was a heptathlete as a teenager and had always loved playing lots of different sports – so when I saw an advert for a talent search run by UK Sport called Girls4Gold, I went along to see how I would get on. After some gruelling physical tests I received notification that I had been selected to try out for the sport of skeleton. I had never heard of the sport before! Thereafter, I was put through my paces for another six months where the pool of talent was cut down from 1,500 to just 10 athletes – it was a similar process to the X-factor – but for sport! Our physical and mental strengths were tested and analysed over that time and the final group of us got to travel to Norway to try out sliding on the ice for the first time. It was so frightening but I was hooked and was lucky enough after that trip to be selected for the British Skeleton Team – where the hard work really began!”

And yes, Lizzy really does mean hard work:

“My year is split into two – during the winter we travel all over the world competing on the different ice tracks on the winter competition circuit.  And during the summer months I am training in Bath to get fit ready for the winter – lots of weights and speed work on the push-track facility we have there to practise our skeleton starts. I train two to three times a day when we are not on the road for the winter season – and then when we are on the road it is pretty much 24/7 devotion to skeleton.”

Olympic gold medallist Lizzy Yarnold

What strikes me about Lizzy Yarnold is the speed of her rise to prominence. It’s as though her breakneck speeds over the ice are reflected in her ambitions: in little more than five years Lizzy went from trying out a sport she’d never heard of to Olympic and World Cup champion. So which of her achievements gives her the most satisfaction?

“Winning the Olympic gold was so special as it is such an iconic event – however winning the World Cup title last season was a really proud achievement as it showed my consistency across the season and in my sport, it is considered a great title to win as you are the best in your field over a longer period of time.”

World travel, championship glory, celebrity status – it sounds glamorous but the reality of being a top-level athlete can be demanding in more ways than just the physical. I ask Lizzy what sacrifices she has made to get to the top of her sport.

“Being a full-time athlete is a privilege but you do have to sacrifice things in your personal life in order to devote everything to your ambition.  As a winter athlete I am away for half of the year so have missed so many weddings, christenings and birthdays that I have lost count!”

So I wonder, does she have cause to envy those in pursuit of a more routine vocation?

“Sometimes when I know I am missing out on family occasions or miss catching up with friends – but I feel very lucky to be able to do the job that I do so I am very thankful for the opportunity to train and compete in a sport that I love.”

Hearing what Lizzy has to say on her own achievements, it is perhaps only natural to be put in mind of a quote from the iconic bobsleigh film Cool Runnings. There’s a scene when Jamaican team coach Irv Blitzer, played by the late John Candy, explains the significance of winning Olympic gold: “A gold medal is a wonderful thing, but if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.” If you’ve heard Lizzy Yarnold presenting for the BBC or taking part in Audi’s The Road to Le Mans challenge, you’ll witness irrefutable evidence that she is one of those personalities destined for success, with or without the medal trimmings. In a sport she could dominate for the next ten years and more – athletes often compete into their forties, Lizzy is just 26 – you have to assume there is nevertheless a bright future when her sliding days finally come to an end. A predetermination for achievement, if you like. So how does Lizzy define success?

“You are the only person who can judge your own success,” she explains. “So whatever drives you and makes you get up in the morning – you have to determine your success by doing whatever it is that inspires you. Success comes in many forms and is often short lived – we tend to dwell on failure and celebrate successes very quickly so you have to remind yourself often of your successes to stay motivated.”

And what advice, from an athlete at the very peak of her sport, is there for those of us in pursuit of our own success?

“Never give up on your dreams. Be clear about what your ultimate goal is and set little intentions every day that will contribute to helping you achieve that big ambition.”

 Lizzy Yarnold racing

My sincere thanks to Lizzy who, as you will have gathered, exists in a perennial regime of training and competing. I managed to catch her in a brief UK interlude between winter training in Norway and then onto Germany and Austria in preparation for what I’ve no doubt will be another successful season.

To keep up to date with Lizzy’s hectic schedule and to get an idea of what it’s like to be a champion skeleton slider, visit her official website www.lizzyyarnold.com

You can follow her @TheYarnold or on Facebook at facebook.com/Yarnold.Lizzy

You can see Lizzy’s gold medal winning run at Sochi 2014 here and for a taste of her presenting skills, watch her on the BBC’s Get Inspired here 

My thanks also to Louisa O’Riordan of LCOR Communications for her assistance in arranging this interview.

 

Images courtesy of www.lizzyyarnold.com