Jackie Narracott has made Australian Olympic history by winning a shock silver medal in the women’s skeleton at the Beijing Winter Games.
The 31-year-old Queenslander scorched to second spot behind German Hannah Neise to capture Australia’s most unlikely Olympic medal at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre on Saturday night.
Australia had never before medalled in any of the sliding events at a Winter Olympics and doesn’t even have any training facilities, with Narracott based in England and having to prepare in Europe and Korea.
It brings Australia’s medal tally in Beijing to four – one gold, two silvers and a bronze – bettering the overall haul of three medals won at the last three Olympics.
A beaming Narracott had her green and gold mouth-guard on show when she was told of the medal immediately following her final run
“It’s still so surreal … absolute elation!” said Narracott, who also became the first Australian to win a skeleton World Cup gold medal after topping the podium at St Moritz, Switzerland, last month.
“Words can’t describe it. We’ve never won a sliding sport medal, so for me to be it… Creating your dream twice in two races, it doesn’t get any better”.
Narracott shocked the field to lead at the halfway point after two runs on Friday and then slipped back to second after the third run on Saturday night behind Neise.
With the times cumulative over four runs, she kept her cool in the final run, clocking one minute 2.11 seconds but the 21-year-old German fired home a run of 1:01.63 to take the win by 0.62 sec.
World Cup series winner Kimberley Bos from the Netherlands laid down a lightning final run, clocking 1:01.87 which secured her a bronze medal.
“Everything just clicked,” Narracott said.
“That’s the most relaxed I’ve felt on the sled, probably my whole career.
“I had nothing to lose. I knew that if I was just relaxed, and feel what I’ve been doing for the last three months, it would be OK.”
Narracott put down a red-hot third run to set a track record of 1:01.79 but it was short-lived with Neise beating the mark at 1:01.44.
Narracott trailed Neise by 0.14 seconds heading into the final run, with world champion Tina Hermann, also from the traditional sliding powerhouse Germany, in third a further 0.34 back.
She is coached by her husband Dom Parsons, who won a bronze in skeleton for Great Britain at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games before retiring, and he is by her side in Beijing.
“Silver beats bronze every day of the week,” she laughed.
Now she’s hoping her success, with the prospect of teammate Breeana Walker also winning a medal in the monobob, may inspire a new generation of Australian sliders.
“I’m hoping it will get some more girls into skeleton. We used to have a program in Australia so to have some more girls back in and for it not to end with me would be absolutely unreal,” she said, while admitting she couldn’t wait to get home to some sunshine.
Team chef de mission Geoff Lipshut lauded the achievement of Narracott earlier on Saturday just to get into a medal position after she finished 16th on her Olympic debut four years ago.
Narracott’s silver continued the team’s success story, following a moguls gold for Jakara Anthony, a silver for Scotty James in the snowboard halfpipe and a bronze for Tess Coady in the snowboard slopestyle.
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