‘I genuinely couldn’t have carried on without a break — I was so mentally and physically exhausted. It got to a point where I just couldn’t do it’

the sled, like going to a first competition,” she says. “It was really exciting. I really desperately wanted to do well and get to the World Cup.”

She did just that and, while her performances have been fluctuating at the World Cup — from second at Lake Placid to 15th in St Moritz — she remains among the contenders for World Championship gold.

The worlds are of secondary importance to some degree: the Olympics in Pyeongchang in a year’s time being the primary goal. Does she feel the dominance will come back? “I don’t know but I’m working hard to get there,” she says. “I’m not just doing this to win but to become a better athlete.”

Where once she would be almost unaware of the speed she achieved, so focused was she on the job at hand, she now is aware of the high-octane nature of her profession.

“It was just so fast, everything was rushing past me,” she says. “It felt much more like a motor race.”

While she was preparing for her return, Yarnold threatened to boycott this year’s World Championships as they were due to be staged again in the Russian city of Sochi.

Others also voiced their concerns and that pressure worked as the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation announced in December it would not be “prudent” to return in light of the Russian doping scandal. The event was relocated to Konigssee in Germany. It means no return to the scene of her greatest triumph but Yarnold is confident greater triumphs lie ahead.