On this day in 2010: Amy Williams wins skeleton gold for Great Britain

Amy Williams won gold for Great Britain in the women’s skeleton at the Winter Olympics on this day in 2010.

The then 27-year-old from Bath became the first Briton to claim an individual Winter Olympic gold medal since Robin Cousins in 1980 and the first individual female since another figure skater, Jeanette Altwegg, in 1952.

Her achievement was all the more remarkable as it had come eight years after she took up the event for, in her own words, “a bit of a giggle”.

Originally a runner, Williams gave up a promising career in athletics as a result of shin-splints and took up skeleton having impressed during a practice session on the push-start facility at the University of Bath during the summer of 2002.

Having accepted an invitation to join the British Skeleton development programme, she finished second at the 2005 World Student Games and World Junior Championships, and repeated the feat at the World Championships in 2009 while claiming a series of World Cup medals along the way.

However, her big moment was to arrive in Whistler, when she earned the ultimate reward for all her hard work despite having to survive on meagre funding during the early years of her journey.

She had arrived in Canada in the shadow of team-mate Shelley Rudman, who had returned from Turin four years earlier with a silver medal.

But Williams, who had claimed a second-placed World Cup finish in 2009 on the controversial Whistler track – Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died after crashing before the opening ceremony at the Vancouver Games – set out her stall from the off.

She posted a track record of 53.83 seconds in her first competition run and then shaved off 0.15 seconds in her third to go into the final round more than half a second ahead of her closest rivals.

And she proved unstoppable as even post-race protests by the United States and Canadian teams failed to ruin her day.

Williams said at the time: “When I started, I had to pay my own way to all competitions. I had to pay all my own hotel bills. I did wonder at times, ‘Why on earth am I doing this?’. But if you want to win you have to make these sacrifices. I was prepared to do that.

“Sometimes to get to a competition, I had to get five trains from the UK with all my bags and my heavy sled. But going through things like that just makes the success feel even better.”