Dom Parsons has won Team GB's first medal of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics this morning, with a brilliant bronze in the men’s skeleton.
He finished ahead of Latvian Martin Dukurs – who held the coveted third place at Parson’s expense going into day two – by 0.11s. Parsons narrowly missed out on silver, ending the competition just 0.02s behind Olympic Athlete of Russia slider Nikita Tregubov.
He was rewarded for four consistent runs with Thursday’s times of 50.85 and 50.41 followed with an improved 50.33 and 50.61 today, ending with a cumulative time of 3.22.20m.
Parsons bronze is a momentous medal with his podium finish making him the first British male skeleton medalist in seventy years, going back to John Crammond’s bronze at the 1948 St Moritz Games.
The achievement underlined Team GB’s status as one of the dominant nations in skeleton. Going into PyeongChang, they were second in the sport’s all-time table with six medals won, behind only the United States, and have now won skeleton medals at the last five Winter Olympic Games.
As well as Parson’s superb result, teammate Jerry Rice also secured a fantastic result for Team GB. On his Olympic debut, he delivered a tenth placed spot with an accumulative time of 3.24.24m, which bodes well for Beijing 2022.
The duo of Lizzy Yarnold and Laura Deas complete for GB in the first two heats of the women’s skeleton today, with the medals decided tomorrow.
Did you know…?
Parsons lives and breathes skeleton. When not racing on a sled, he is designing them, having undertaken a PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Bath in 2013. A man with a clear need for speed, he is a Formula 1 fan whose hero is Ayrton Senna.
The 30-year-old is a former 400m runner who first discovered skeleton while an undergraduate at the University of Bath in 2007.
He subsequently finished in tenth place in Sochi and in eighth at the World 2017 World Championships.
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