• Winter Olympics

Yarnold never doubted winning gold at Sochi

ESPN staff
February 25, 2014
Team GB return from Sochi

Great Britain's Lizzy Yarnold has revealed she knew she had the ability and confidence to go to the Winter Olympics and win the gold medal in the women's skeleton.

Yarnold clinched the only gold for Team GB in a four-medal haul, which saw Jenny Jones win bronze in snowboarding, Great Britain's men's curlers winning silver and the women's curling team clinching bronze.

Yarnold was given the honour of Great Britain's flag-bearer during the closing ceremony at Sochi on Sunday, and on her return to the United Kingdom says that she never doubted her ability to win gold.

"One thing that stood out for me was having confidence in yourself and belief in your own ability," Yarnold told Sky Sports News.

"Especially in skeleton I'm down at a very different time to other competitors. I'm almost competing against myself and against the track so I was trying to focus on getting the best possible performance down that I could was all that I could control.

"I know that I'm mentally strong and physically strong and that I could go and win the race, and I did."

Yarnold won the women's skeleton by almost a second ahead of second-placed Noelle Pikus-Pace. Yarnold had backed herself in Sochi after coming off a solid season by winning the World Cup.

"I went to Sochi and it was just my dream for me to get there so just to be a part of the whole thing was really important to me and really special," she said.

"I'd had quite a good season so far on the World Cup circuit, which is the normal circuit that we compete on every year - I'd podiumed on seven of the eight races and won the overall title so coming into Sochi I was already achieving more than I'd expected so new into the sport.

"Out in Sochi I just competed as best I could, put down four solid runs and I couldn't believe I won by almost a second."

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