Interview with GB winter Olympic legend, Lizzy Yarnold.

At the end of 2021, Caroline had for the fortune of interviewing GB’s Lizzy Yarnold. Now, if you’ve never heard of Lizzy, she is a former world champion skeleton athlete and skeleton gold medal winner at the 2014 and 2018 winter Olympic Games. She achieved a career grand slam in the 2014/2015 season by being crowned World Cup winner, Olympic, European and World Champion! She is a bit of a sporting legend here in Britain and I can’t tell you what an honour it was to interview her (well, you’ll see in a minute as Caroline’s interviewing technique is enthusiastic to say the least!).

She was a sporty child and competed in athletics (alongside Montell Douglas for those of you who read that article in bsporty magazine!). She was part of the Gold for Girls programme and so keen was she to make a career out of sport that she was putting herself forward for almost every sport …. well, maybe except skeleton.

Thanks to her athleticism and speed, she was selected to have a go at the sport that has since made her famous. After her first go she admits that she wasn’t sure; she felt as though she’d ticked a box in giving it a go (just the one go.) But then she saw her fellow athletes going back out again and slowly but surely, she became hooked.

In this interview you’ll hear lots from Lizzy on defending her Olympic title, how skeleton feels and how you could have a go - it’s a bit tricky since we don’t have a track in the UK but there is a way!

In this first clip, you join Caroline and Lizzy just after an introduction to We are Girls in Sport.

As you’ll hear, Lizzy is a huge advocate of being active and trying sports - and she’s a big fan of failing too.

As for her sporting highlight, it might not be what you expected….

These days Lizzy is still very much involved in skeleton: she is on the board of the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association, she’s involved in performance management and she’s a mentor to younger athletes. Her body has worked hard for her she says, so although she is happy in retirement, she misses the people.

Would you gibe skeleton a try? We’d love to know!