“A Sunday Star Times article read … ‘adventurous kiwi women wanted…’ and I thought, it had to be me. The article was about this exciting sport called skeleton racing. All I knew was that these full on athletes speed down the bobsleigh track head first on their stomachs. That was how it all began.
After reading this article, I contacted Bruce Sandford, the former World Champion skeleton racer from Hamilton and after our talk I was hooked.
So without any knowledge of the sport, I headed to Canada to give it a go. After a 5-Day school at the Calgary Olympic Park, I was a qualified international skeleton racer! I entered my first international race the following weekend, representing New Zealand, I finished last and had two black eyes and a body of bumps and bruises, but the rush of race day nerves and the desire to get from the top of the track to the bottom faster than my previous run was thrilling and addictive.
In true Kiwi O.E. fashion I slept on floors, hitched lifts, borrowed speed suits and sleds, and made it happen. Foreign athletes and officials ensured I was looked after and arrived and made it to each of the following races.
Despite not having a coach or my own sled my progress was surprisingly good. Three months after my first ever run I was representing New Zealand in the Park City World Cup. In 2002 Skeleton rejoined the ranks of Olympic sports and I narrowly missed qualifying with a very bad crash leaving me racing with a fractured vertebrae in my neck. Today with 9 International seasons under my belt, I now have a coach, a few sleds, an assortment of medals and trophy’s including the 2008 Americas Cup overall winners trophy. I finished 12th in Torino in 2006 and I am now preparing for my 2nd Olympic games.