Australia added another medal to its tally at the Winter Olympics over the weekend, with Jaclyn Narracott claiming Australia’s first ever sliding medal in the women’s skeleton.
Winning the silver medal, Narracott became Australia’s fourth medallist of these Games in Beijing, making it Australia’s most successful Winter Olympics to date.
It was a brilliant performance from Narracott, who hails from Brackenridge, Queensland. She defied the odds in sport that is largely unknown and underfunded in the Australian sporting scene.
She described the feeling of wining silver as “indescribable, surreal, unbelievable”.
The medal is a major milestone for Australia in the skeleton, a sport that has long failed to attract funding. Narracott also suffered for a severe concussion in 2018 that almost ended her career.
Last month, against the odds, she won gold at the World Cup. Speaking to Channel 7 after wining Olympic silver, Narracott said the World Cup win was a “huge” achievement that had given her confidence coming into the Olympics.
“It gave me the concrete belief, and it gave everybody else the concrete evidence that I am good enough, that it wasn’t just in my head and it wasn’t just a fluke, all of the good runs that I’d had,” she said.
Narracott described winning the Olympic medal as a “dream come true…It’s been so surreal and everything that we’ve worked for finally came together”.
Michelle Steele, a former Australian slider, said she couldn’t put into words the enormity of what Narracott had achieved on the world stage.
“What she has achieved tonight in this sport, in this field, is just phenomenal,” Steele said.
“She had a smile on her face throughout this competition. She has put a smile on the face Face of all the Aussies watching tonight. Just an unbelievable performance.
“And under the pressure she’s been under, all of these athletes have been under, she has come out on top, the champion. Silver medallist for Australia.”
It marks the first time a women’s Olympic skeleton medal had gone to an athlete outside of Europe or North America.
Narracott said she hopes her achievement in Beijing encourages more women to get into skeleton sliding.
“We used to have a program and there’s no reason why we can’t be competitive at every Olympics and World Cup,” she said. “We just need the girls who want to do it and hopefully this will get more into the sport.”