Jackie Narracott has taught the Yanqing dragon to breathe fire.
She narrowly missed the top spot in her first run by +0.02 of a second but her next run was phenomenal, sliding her into the top spot by a significant 0.21 margin, throwing down the gauntlet to her rivals in a stunning display of sledding.
The 31-year-old from Brisbane is loving the track and says she can get even more speed as she heads to the finals.
"I am stoked. There's more in both of those runs but I don't care, it's just so much fun," Jackie exclaimed. "I was just calm and fun and I did everything I needed to do to come down with my record which is unreal.
"Then to be sitting in first is more than I could have hoped for. To be actually siting here is pretty cool. This field is ridiculously competitive and to be sitting on top of it is phenomenal.
"It was always going to be a good race and I knew that if I put down two runs, calm and composed, I knew I was going to be in the mix. But that still doesn't make it any less exciting to be sitting in number one."
Jackie's dominance in her opening campaign is tipped to draw more attention to both her and the sport. She spoke about what this means to her heading into tomorrow's final.
"Hopefully this will get more girls inspired to give it a shot.
"It would be absolutely unreal if we actually got some more girls back into skeleton.
In January, Jackie won her first World Cup at Saint Moritz in Switzerland and became Australia's first ever World Cup gold medallist in Skeleton.
When asked about what created that turning point back in January she said "I had my husband and my coach by my side."
"Whereas all year we have been doing sessions via FaceTime and online. So, to have him here, by my side, where we can do video and work in real time and to have that support with me is huge.
"He was here at the test event for three weeks and he was at Saint Moritz for that week also."
Moving into the final, she has a cool head and wants to stay grounded.
"I try to stay in the moment, not watch too much TV, don't think too far ahead and just try to distract myself so that come 9pm tomorrow night (12am AEDT Monday), I am ready to go."
Her final preparation we be focused on ironing out any minor details and the millimetres that will make the biggest difference.
"[Tonight, I will be] going back through my runs and seeing what little tweaks we need to make and then it's just about recovery.
"First of all, just making sure my legs are ready to keep pushing fast tomorrow night and then just trying to keep my brain occupied and calm and not think too far ahead."
olympics.com.au
Jonathan Sweet
She narrowly missed the top spot in her first run by +0.02 of a second but her next run was phenomenal, sliding her into the top spot by a significant 0.21 margin, throwing down the gauntlet to her rivals in a stunning display of sledding.
The 31-year-old from Brisbane is loving the track and says she can get even more speed as she heads to the finals.
"I am stoked. There's more in both of those runs but I don't care, it's just so much fun," Jackie exclaimed. "I was just calm and fun and I did everything I needed to do to come down with my record which is unreal.
"Then to be sitting in first is more than I could have hoped for. To be actually siting here is pretty cool. This field is ridiculously competitive and to be sitting on top of it is phenomenal.
"It was always going to be a good race and I knew that if I put down two runs, calm and composed, I knew I was going to be in the mix. But that still doesn't make it any less exciting to be sitting in number one."
Jackie's dominance in her opening campaign is tipped to draw more attention to both her and the sport. She spoke about what this means to her heading into tomorrow's final.
"Hopefully this will get more girls inspired to give it a shot.
"It would be absolutely unreal if we actually got some more girls back into skeleton.
In January, Jackie won her first World Cup at Saint Moritz in Switzerland and became Australia's first ever World Cup gold medallist in Skeleton.
When asked about what created that turning point back in January she said "I had my husband and my coach by my side."
"Whereas all year we have been doing sessions via FaceTime and online. So, to have him here, by my side, where we can do video and work in real time and to have that support with me is huge.
"He was here at the test event for three weeks and he was at Saint Moritz for that week also."
Moving into the final, she has a cool head and wants to stay grounded.
"I try to stay in the moment, not watch too much TV, don't think too far ahead and just try to distract myself so that come 9pm tomorrow night (12am AEDT Monday), I am ready to go."
Her final preparation we be focused on ironing out any minor details and the millimetres that will make the biggest difference.
"[Tonight, I will be] going back through my runs and seeing what little tweaks we need to make and then it's just about recovery.
"First of all, just making sure my legs are ready to keep pushing fast tomorrow night and then just trying to keep my brain occupied and calm and not think too far ahead."
olympics.com.au
Jonathan Sweet
RSS Feed
