Shelley Rudman

Shelley Rudman is a British skeleton racer, born on 23 March 1981 in Swindon, England, who won the silver medal in the women's skeleton at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Cesana Pariol. She began as a track athlete specializing in the 400 metres hurdles and studied at Bath University, the training base of the British bobsleigh and skeleton programmes, where she was persuaded to try skeleton in 2002. In the 2004-05 season she became the first Briton to win a Europa Cup race, and her Olympic silver came as a surprise because she had never placed above fourth at a World Cup event. She raced again at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics, finishing sixth and sixteenth, and carried the British flag at the 2010 opening ceremony and the 2006 closing ceremony. She also won the 2013 World Championship title in St. Moritz and several European Championship medals.