Skeleton, Women

At the beginning of the 2009-10 season, the favorite in this event was Germany’s Marion Trott, the 2009 World Champion and winner of the 2008-09 World Cup. But leading up to Vancouver she had no World Cup wins and was only fourth in the standings. Also highly considered were the bronze and silver medalists from 2006, Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards of Canada, sliding on her home track and leading the seasonal World Cup in 2009-10, and Britain’s Shelley Rudman, who was coming back from having a baby in 2007, and was second in the World Cup standings heading into Vancouver. On the first run, all bets were off as Hollingsworth was fifth, Trott ninth, and Rudman 11th. The leader on the first run was Britain’s Amy Williams, who had never won a World Cup event, but had been fifth in the season’s World Cup in 2008-09 and also stood fifth in the 2009-10 standings. Williams managed to hold onto the lead after the second run, although Germany’s Kerstin Szymkowiak moved up to second place with the fastest time in the second run. Hollingsworth moved up to third place, just 0.03 seconds ahead of Anja Huber (GER), but Rudman and Trott were pretty much out of the medals by that time. In the third run Williams extended her lead to 0.52 seconds with the fastest time, with Hollingsworth and Szymkowiak exchanging positions. On the final run, Rudman finally found her form with the fastest time of the run to finish sixth overall. A relatively conservative run by Williams, the fourth fastest of the run, ensured that she would win Britain’s first ever gold medal in skeleton. In winning silver and bronze medals Szymkowiak and Huber won Germany’s first ever Olympic medals in this discipline. Williams won Great Britain’s first individual winter gold medal since Robin Cousins in figure skating in 1980, and the first by a woman since Jeannette Altwegg in figure skating in 1952. Hollingsworth was in second after three runs, but placed only 11th on the final run, dropping her from the medals, and she publicly apologized to her Canadian fans.