500 days to go – milestone moment for University’s winter-sport athletes on path to Pyeongchang 2018
Rio 2016 may have just finished but the countdown to the next Olympic and Paralympic action is already well under way, with only 500 days to go until the 2018 Winter Games begin in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The British Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association, based at the University of Bath, will be looking to build on the success they have enjoyed at the Winter Olympics during the past 14 years.
They have won medals in the women’s skeleton at each of the past four Games, starting with Alex Coomber’s bronze at Salt Lake City in 2002.
Shelley Rudman’s silver in Turin four years later was Britain’s only medal of the 2006 Games, while both Amy Williams and Lizzy Yarnold were famously crowned as Olympic Champions at the Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014 Games respectively.
The bobsleigh squad have also made massive strides in recent years, with the four-man crew’s fifth-placed finish at Sochi 2014 being Britain’s best result at the Games since 1998.
Both the skeleton and bobsleigh squads are in training at the University of Bath ahead of the 2016-17 winter season. As well as the UK’s only outdoor push-track, athletes also have access to the high-performance gym in the Sports Training Village.
They are not the only University-based athletes with hopes of competing on the Olympic stage. Sports Performance student Lloyd Wallace – supported by the Team Bath Dual Career Programme – is Britain’s number-one aerial skier, while fellow sporting scholars Nick Moynihan and Alice MacAulay are rising alpine skiing stars. The GB Luge team is also based at the Sports Training Village.
The Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games take place from February 9-25, followed by the Paralympic Games from March 9-18.
Among those working towards the Paralympics is University of Bath Mathematics graduate Kelly Gallagher, who won a historic gold alongside coach Charlotte Evans in the Visually Impaired Super G at Sochi 2014.
Find out more about winter sport at the University of Bath by clicking here.
