Britain’s Lizzy Yarnold won the season’s first race on a technicality.
The season’s last race, there was no argument.
Yarnold won the Olympic women’s skeleton gold medal Friday night, a victory that puts the 25-year-old unquestionably atop her sport, probably for years to come. Her four-run time was 0.97 seconds faster than silver medalist Noelle Pikus-Pace of Eagle Mountain, Utah, who entered retirement by exorcising the memory of letting a medal slip away in Vancouver four years ago.
“It won’t sink in for a few more days, but I’m over the moon,” Yarnold said, as a full moon illuminated part of the Russian night sky. “I’m so proud. I put in all the work for five years and it all worked out.”
Yarnold, who also won the World Cup overall title this season, claimed Britain’s first gold at the Sochi Games. Her time was 3 minutes, 52.89 seconds, and the final trip down the track was a mere formality, given that she already had a 0.78-second edge over Pikus-Pace and only needed to avoid a giant mistake.
It didn’t happen. The fourth run was like all the others — flawless.
She grabbed a British flag, hopped near the finish line, embraced teammate Shelley Rudman and seemed to just never stop smiling.
“Lizzy’s been a beautiful bubble of confidence in every one of her races,” said Amy Williams, the 2010 skeleton gold medalist from Britain. “I’m so proud of her that we kept the medal in Great Britain and wrote ourselves into the history books.”
Pikus-Pace insisted that this time, she’ll retire happy. Simply being in the Olympic race was victory enough; Pikus-Pace revealed afterward that she was dealing with concussion-like symptoms for several days before the race and minimized her training time on the advice of doctors.
“I felt fine and safe sliding but my vision has been going in and out of being able to focus, which slows my reaction time,” Pikus-Pace said. “It has been an extremely difficult week but my family, coaches, and prayers of many allowed me to come out and compete the best I can given the situation.”