Skeleton stalwart Jerry Rice made many friends in his sliding career but has put the runners to rest to focus on his most important fan club.
The 30-year-old has announced his retirement after more than eight years and 79 races in British colours, highlighted by a lifetime best at the Olympics in PyeongChang 2018.
As for ‘why now’ - and why less than a year before the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing - Rice recounts just how much becoming a father has changed his world view.
“The main reason I’ve decide to retire is that I’m a family man now and I’ve got lots of responsibilities,” said Rice, whose daughter Reya has just celebrated her first birthday.
“I sat back and thought, ‘I’ve had a great career, I’m pleased with it, but, in order to keep up, it’s going to take extra time away from the family, and I can’t fully commit to that’.
“In my head, after PyeongChang, I was all ready to go for the next four-year cycle. It was all about just building on my performance in Korea and trying to go the next step in Beijing.
“But having a kid changes your perspective. As an athlete, you have to be selfish: you have to have a one-track mind.
“The moment you have a kid, you have to take a back seat a bit and they become the priority.
“You do that with a smile on your face because it’s amazing watching them develop and grow and you take a lot of joy from it.
“It was a fairly difficult decision but, when I really put my mind to it, it was the obvious decision to make.”
Rugby was the High Wycombe native’s first love - in all of its codes. He played semi-professional league and union in Hertfordshire, as well as Sevens in the summer.
He fell in love with sliding on the world-famous Cresta Run in St Moritz, the sport’s birthplace, and slid on an artificial track for the first time in late 2012.
World Cup and World Championship debuts followed in 2016 and 2017 and he was crowned Intercontinental Cup champion in the 2016-17 season.
Rice saved his best for the biggest stage, finishing tenth in a field of 30 at the Games in South Korea.
“For me, going to PyeongChang and performing to the best of my ability at the time made it all the more special,” he said.
“That was probably the only race where I had my entire family in attendance and, if I had to choose one race to have them at, it would have been that one and that made it extra special.
“Then, on top of that, I had my team-mates all winning medals - I doubt many athletes have experienced that!”
Rice leaves the British skeleton scene in rude health, with both Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt finishing in the World Cup top ten and Craig Thompson winning a maiden medal this season.
And with Laura Deas - the only more experienced member of the British squad than Rice before his retirement - leading a women’s squad packed with promise, he can rest easy on the future of the unique discipline.
“There’s a lot of very strong talent in the British programme at the moment,” he said.
“We are coming through as one of the dominant nations and that in itself is amazing for the programme but, for an athlete in it, it means the internal competition is massive.
“In the end, I thought, ‘the programme’s in good hands - they don’t necessarily need me and I’m more than happy to step aside and let the younger guys do what needs to be done to continue our Olympic success’.
“I’m happy with what I’ve achieved and ready for the next step.”
Sportsbeat 2021