Lizzy Yarnold could make history on Friday in PyeongChang by becoming the first woman ever to successfully defend the Olympic skeleton title. There were hugely positives signs from her earlier in the week in the training runs. 29-year-old Yarnold had the third and fourth quickest runs on Monday. Yarnold came home ninth overall in the recent World Cup series and looks to be carrying plenty of speed out in South Korea.
On Tuesday in the final round of training, Yarnold posted the fastest time too. Yarnold’s success four years ago at Sochi followed up on Amy Williams taking the gold in the event at Vancouver 2010. The women’s event starts on Friday, February 16th and concludes on Saturday. Yarnold is heading into the event as the 4/1 joint second favourite at William Hill* (betting odds taken at 4:18 pm on January 14th, 2018).
Heading up the market is Jacqueline Lolling at 2/1. The German, who had a fantastic 2017 winning the World Championship and the European Championship while also topping out the World Cup overall for the last two seasons is going to be the one to catch on the day. Lolling, who works for the German Federal Police, won four of the eight World Cup races last season. Notably, in the 2016-17 season, she took a win at PyeongChang.
Women’s Skeleton Winner Odds*
Jacqueline Loelling 2/1, Lizzy Yarnold 4/1, Janine Flock 4/1, Laura Deas 9/2, Tina Hermann 7/1, Elisabeth Vathje 8/1, bar 20/1
British hopes are not just sliding on the shoulders of Yarnold in the women’s skeleton because teammate Laura Deas was also in fantastic form during the training runs earlier in the week. Deas was the quickest on the first run on Tuesday and that was still quicker than Yarnold’s final warm-up run. Deas finishes 7th overall in the World Cup series, a couple of spots higher than Yarnold and is a great shot to get up on the podium.
Could we see both of them up there? Bookmaker Betfred are running a special market where they have 4/6 odds on Lizzie Yarnold to win a medal* (betting odds taken at 4:25 pm on January 14th, 2018). There should end up being a really good four-way battle for the spots because along with Yanorld, Deas and favourite Lolling there is also Austria’s Janine Flock who had the fastest time in Monday’s first run. Flock won two of the eight World Cup series races in the 2017/18 season. Hermann and Vathje are going to be the main challenges to the top four.
Women’s Skeleton Predictions
Even though there is a lot of hype about both Yarnold and Deas going into this one, the form slider this season is Jacqueline Lolling. That’s without much question really and she is fully worth backing to get the gold in her pocket at the end of the day. She has had a dominant season.
Austria’s Flock has to be in the picture as well after a very strong season and then the final medal could well be a toss-up between the two Brits and Hermann. Hermann was superbly consistent in the 2017/18 World cup tournaments, without actually winning a race, she still did enough to claim second overall.
Realistically looking at the line up, Lolling, Flock and Hermann could be the medalists. It does seem unlikely that both Brits will get on the podium, but if one of them puts it together would probably be the experience of Yarnold to better hold her nerve and get in there.
