How fear of failure left Lizzy in tears
LIZZY YARNOLD admits she used to weep into her pillow every night because of the pressure she felt to strike Winter Olympic gold.
Yarnold, who did so twice in the skeleton at Sochi and PyeongChang, confessed to the stress she put herself through in trying to achieve her dream.
“For about a year before Sochi I would pretty much every night cry myself to sleep because I was in fear that one race and moment would define me as a person,” she said.
“After Sochi, I really realised I had to change things a little and not just define myself as an athlete.” However, even winning gold in 2014 and the broader outlook she tried to develop afterwards did not stop her suffering again four years later as she struggled to see the bigger picture.
“I was having an awful lead-up to the Olympics,” said Arnold, speaking to Dame Katherine Grainger on UK Sport’s Medals & More podcast.
“I came 16th, which was my worst result.The next week I came 23rd and didn’t even make the cut for the second round. It got worse, worse, worse.
“It got a point where I had to sit back with a couple of people in my team very close to me who said, ‘Look, you’re just not enjoying this, something has to change’.
“Thank goodness they knew me so well that I was able to be open with them and they just pulled me back.
“It was the pressure I was putting on myself. I realised I just had to enjoy my sport. That’s what I did it for. I loved skeleton. I loved the thrill of going at 90mph. Luckily I remembered three weeks before PyeongChang.”