Family's pride as Amelia achieves her 'life long dream'
Melton Mowbray’s Winter Olympics star, Amelia Coltman, has thanked everyone at home for their supportive messages which she says gave her ‘great motivation’.
The 29-year-old finished ninth overall in the women’s skeleton event at the Milano Cortina games to reinforce her standing as a world top 10 performer in the sport.
A team of 15 family members and friends were trackside to cheer on the former St Francis Primary School pupil as she made four runs down the Cortina track, with her last being her best.
People across the Melton area watched live television coverage of the event with a mix of pride and nerves as Amelia powered along the ice, face down on a sled, at speeds of around 80mph.
Her parents were there in Italy to roar her on and mum Theresa told the Melton Times: “Amelia is grateful for every message and good wishes she received from everybody back home in Melton Mowbray, and how this gave her great motivation and made the whole experience so much more special.”
On her daughter’s impressive performance under intense pressure, Theresa said: “It’s been an amazing experience watching Amelia compete for Team GB at the winter Olympics and witness the culmination of her life long dream. She is a credit to her team, her family but, more importantly, herself.
“She had three solid runs and saved her best performance until the fourth run, finishing in an extremely fast time fourth fastest.
"Finishing ninth overall in her first Olympic Games is an excellent achievement and one that Amelia is proud of.
"She beat previous world and Olympic medalists and was part of a successful British team.”
It was an exciting two days of competition for all those who flew out to Italy to cheer on Amelia, clad in supporters’ t-shirts bearing the name of the Melton ace.
“The stands were packed and the atmosphere was electric, something that very rarely happens on the World Cup circuit,” explained Theresa.
"Dealing with the noise and pressure of cameras everywhere you turn and knowing millions of people were watching was a new dynamic, and one that Amelia handled like a true professional.”
Television viewers got to know Amelia as she gave great insights into the sport alongside the trackside presenters for BBC and TNT Sport during the mixed skeleton team race which followed the individual event.
The camaraderie between the British athletes was clear to see, especially when they celebrated gold medals for Matt Weston in the men’s event and then the team race, in partnership with Tabby Stoecker, one of her best friends.
Theresa added: “Amelia started her Skeleton journey at the same time as Matt Weston the men’s gold medal winner and are great friends and team mates.
"She was delighted and immensely proud of his achievement, as she knows how hard they’ve worked to get to this point and how gifted an athlete he is and how he richly deserved his success.”
Amelia’s efforts were praised on television by Britain’s double Olympic skeleton champion, Lizzie Yarnold, who said the Melton ace had the experience now to do even better in the 2030 games in the French Alps.