Former student & Olympic Gold-Medalist, Lizzy Yarnold retires
16th October 2018
Lizzy, who graduated from the University of Gloucestershire with a BSc in Geography and Sport and Exercises Sciences, became Britain’s most decorated Winter Olympian in PyenongChang in February.
She first received a university sports scholarship in 2007 as an athlete, but took up skeleton while studying at the University of Gloucestershire. Lizzy received an Honorary Doctorate from the university in 2014.
Double Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold has retired from skeleton.
She won gold at the Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang Winter Olympics earlier this year.
“I do want to stay involved in skeleton,” she told Press Association.
“It’s given me so much and I want to give back to the sport as well.”
Yarnold acts as an athlete mentor and plans to attend December’s first World Cup event of the season in Sigulda, Latvia, where she will be supporting British athletes hoping to emulate her success.
Britain have pedigree in skeleton – sliding head-first at 90mph down an ice track with Yarnold succeeding Bath’s Amy Williams as Olympic champion.
lley Rudman have won medals too, and Laura Deas claimed bronze behind Yarnold in South Korea.
Yarnold, who won world and European titles in 2015, has plenty to choose from when it comes to career highlights, but she lists her most recent success as her best.
She had to manage a genetic knee condition and back pain – she has had operations on both since – while also nursing a chest infection which prompted dizzy spells in South Korea.
She did so, to become the first Briton to win two Winter Olympic golds.
Lizzy Yarnold of Great Britain poses after being named Team GB flag bearer for the Opening Ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games
“Sochi still means a lot,” she said. “But I really didn’t believe that I could go to Pyeongchang. I didn’t know if I was going to get selected.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to win the gold medal at all.”
Yarnold addressed pupils of Maidstone Grammar School for Girls, sharing her early aspirations in heptathlon and her participation in UK Sport’s Girls4Gold campaign which saw her transition to skeleton.
She has reaped the rewards of her hard work and become an inspiration to the pupils she addressed, as well as many others.
Yarnold added: “It was a very odd moment sitting in that hall where I’ve taken all my exams, I’ve been a part of presentations. I’ve just been through so much.
“It just reminds me that I can say with complete honesty, you never know what’s around the next corner for you.”
She also vowed to remain outspoken about anti-doping in retirement. The 2014 Games in Russia were overshadowed by state-sponsored doping and Russian athletes who met specific criteria were permitted to compete in Pyeongchang, but not under the Russian flag.
The World Anti-Doping Agency last month lifted its suspension on RUSADA, Russia’s anti-doping agency, in a decision which has been met with criticism from athletes.
Yarnold – a member of the British Olympic Association’s athletes’ commission – told Press Association Sport: “At the moment I do feel as if we’re not being listened to.