Amelia Coltman and Freya Tarbit win World Cup gold as British Skeleton start 2024-25 season with six medals in PyeongChang
University of Bath-based skeleton athletes won six medals, including gold for Amelia Coltman and Freya Tarbit, as Great Britain made a sensational start to the 2024-25 IBSF Skeleton World Cup season in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Coltman kicked off the new campaign in style by winning the opening women’s race on Saturday to claim her first-ever World Cup medal at the home of Lizzy Yarnold’s Olympic triumph in 2018.
Tarbit missed out on a podium place by just two-hundredths of a second but made amends the following day as she won Race 2, marking the first time GB women have won gold in the same World Cup season since Yarnold and Shelley Rudman 12 years ago.
Fellow Brit Tabby Stoecker made the wider podium in Sunday’s race with a fine fifth-place finish.
The men’s races saw the same top three on both days, with Marcus Wyatt and Matt Weston securing silver and bronze respectively behind Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer. Sixth-placed Craig Thompson was on the wider podium in Sunday’s race.
The results mean that GB won 50 per cent of the medals on offer in PyeongChang and is testament to the hard work put in by the sliders during pre-season at their Team Bath Sports Training Village base.
Natalie Dunman, Executive Performance Director of the University-based British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association (BBSA), said: “Winning any medal at this level is incredibly difficult so to come away with six from four races when there were more than 30 sliders in each field is really pleasing.”
The University of Bath is home to the UK’s only outdoor push-start training track and British Skeleton athletes also do their strength and conditioning work at the Team Bath Sports Training Village. Click here to find out more.
Pictured top, from left: Marcus Wyatt, Amelia Coltman, Freya Tarbit and Matt Weston with their World Cup medals from PyeongChang. PICTURES: Korea Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation.
