Amy Williams is a British former skeleton racer and Olympic gold medallist. Originally a runner, she began training in Skeleton in 2002 after trying the sport on a push-start track at the University of Bath. She described her first experience on a Skeleton track as exhilarating and terrifying, but she nonetheless enjoyed it and began training in Skeleton.
Although unable to qualify for the 2006 Winter Olympics, she was a member of Team GB four years later at the 2010 Olympic Games. Amy won a gold medal, becoming the first British individual gold medallist at a Winter Olympics for 30 years and the only British medallist in those Olympics.
At her first major event, the 2009 World Championships in Lake Placid, Amy won a silver medal. Four years later, she qualified for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, where her country was allowed to send two skeleton athletes. At the 2010 Olympic Games, Amy won the gold medal in the women's Skeleton, breaking the track record twice along the way and winning by more than a half a second.
At the end of the first day, in which Williams had established a 0.3s advantage over second placed Kerstin Szymkowiak, two protests were filed by other nations over the aerodynamics of Williams' helmet. Williams became the first British gold medallist in an individual event at the Winter Olympics for 30 years, following Robin Cousins' victory in figure skating at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, and the first British female individual Winter Olympics gold medallist since Jeannette Altwegg in 1952.
