Old Dane Jeremy Rice is selected for Winter Olympics!

Old Dane Skeleton athlete, Jeremy Rice has been selected to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next month.

Jeremy has been a member of the Great Britain Skeleton Team since 2012 and was the overall winner of the Intercontinental Cup tour 2016/2017. He has performed brilliantly this season, his ultimate goal being preparing himself for a medal bid in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, so he is thrilled to have been selected for the 2018 Olympics. He will compete in the individual Bob Skeleton event along with 26 other Olympians from around the World.

Chorleywood born and bred, Jerry left the School after A levels in 2009 and developed his passion for Skeleton from visits with his family to the world famous Cresta Run, where his father and two brothers still compete on a regular basis. The Cresta Run is the forefather of Winter Sport, having started in St Moritz, Switzerland in the early 1880s; the modern Skeleton and Bobsleigh has developed from there.

Travelling head first and reaching speeds of up to 90 mph on a 35kg sled, riders can experience forces of over 5 Gs around some bends. Skeleton athletes require massive power and speed at the start and need huge upper body and core strength to remain still and balanced on their sled as they fight the gravitational forces on the bends. Races are usually over two courses (the Olympic competition is over two days and 4 courses) and the tracks around the World are all very different. However, each track is approximately 1200 metres long and the athletes cover that distance in a little over 50 seconds.

Jerry has put his life on hold for 5 years to reach his Olympic moment and has been based full time at the University of Bath Sports Village since 2013. He has had to forgo his other passions of rugby and skiing and, following some impressive form at the Bob Skeleton World Cup this season, he got the nod from the selectors. He is only the 4th male athlete to represent GB in this discipline in the modern era.

Currently, ranked 21st in the World, Jerry is targeting a top 12 finish.

The races will be shown live on BBC TV on 15th and 16th February in the early hours of the morning.

Good luck, Jerry. We hope you make Chorleywood and St Clement Danes proud!