In 2006 Shelley Rudman claimed silver at the Turin Winter Olympics but she is hoping to go one better in Sochi next year – and her sole visit to the skeleton track was enough to keep the world champion interested.
Rudman, European champion in 2009 and 2011 and World Cup winner in 2011/12, went to St Moritz in January and left with a World Championship gold medal.
Now she has her sights set on Sochi and the 32-year-old is intent on putting behind her the sixth-place finish in the Vancouver 2010 Games, as British teammate Amy Williams clinched gold.
Rudman targeted St Moritz partly due to her preference for the track but she admitted having made just one trip to scout the Olympic venue.
However, she liked what she saw and is eager to take on the challenge presented by both the track and the competition of the biggest stage of all.
“I really liked it," she said. “I thought it was technical, it had quite a lot of interesting sections: three uphill, which are a bit of a USP for the tracks. Vancouver was a fast track but this one has the three uphill sections.
“There's some real technical elements to it, which are challenging. And I need to keep trying to develop my steers through some of the sequences.
“When I'm next there I'll really get a good understanding of whether or not it suits me and whether I'm going to have a lot of work to do to get it in my system and learn it.”
© Sportsbeat 2013