Amy Williams Bob skeleton slider Age 24 Born: Cambridge, UK Lives: Bath, UK Date of Birth: 29/09/82 Height: 5' 8” Weight: 63kg Education-Secondary School: Hayesfield, Bath, UK Sixth Form: Beechen Cliff, Bath, UK Art Foundation Course: Bath College, UK Currently on Sports Performance degree, Bath University, UK I live in Bath and train at Bath University Sports Training Village. I started the sport in 2002, and in 2005 I finished 2nd in the Junior World Championships, the World Student Games, and the Europa Cup tour. I am currently one of the top two Great Britain women sliders, and was the highest placed British athlete in the recent World Championships in St Moritz. I am currently 17th in the World Cup rankings after five World Cup races, with three left to race, having dropped down a few places due to missing the race in Nagano, Japan, in order to prepare for the World Championships. |
"Why she loves the sport and what made her take it up" I was always very active and competitive when I was growing up, and I competed in many sports, including swimming, sprinting and cross country. I trained for 400m sprinting at Bath University, and one day I joined in with a friend who was training on the push track at the Sports Training Village. I discovered I had the necessary speed for push-starting and so I put myself in for the World Push-Start Championships in Holland. When I finished in 2nd place, the British performance director who was there invited me to join in with an Army ice camp in Lillehammer, Norway. The first time I went down I thought it was OK, but didn’t love it straight away, it was really fast and you got a feeling that you just couldn’t describe, then the more I went down I started to love it: the adrenaline-rush was amazing. It became an addiction to get down faster than the time before, and not to hit as many walls on the way down! |
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Amy's Website www.skeletonamy.co.uk |
The season started off really well for me. In the first World Cup race in Calgary, I had my best result yet in finishing 10th, which gave me a little confidence boost for the next races. Having only raced on them once previously, the American tracks were not well known to me. In Salt Lake City I placed 16th, which was a disappointing result since training had been going really well, and I hoped for a podium finish. Upon the advice from my coach, I had chosen the runners that I would use for the race, but they ended up being the wrong kind for the conditions of the ice on race day. Unfortunately I found that I didn’t have the control I needed to do my steers. | The equipment that we use is very important; you do not always know what type of runner to use until you try them and find out. I was pleased with my 11th place In Lake Placid, as the Americans and Canadians are so strong on their own tracks. | ||