A Cambridge athlete has won Britain’s first individual gold medal at the Winter Olympics in thirty years. Amy Williams won the women’s skeleton at the Vancouver Games on Saturday for the bob skeleton event.

Williams performed consistently throughout the Games and succeeded in breaking the track record with a time of 53.83 seconds on her first run of the Whistler ice track, then breaking her record once again by 0.15 seconds on her second run. She followed up with successful third and fourth runs, reaching speeds of up to 90 mph.

German sliders Kerstin Szymkowiak and Anja Huber took second and third place respectively, whilst Williams’s team mate Shelley Rudman finished in sixth place.

There was, however, significant controversy surrounding Williams’s first successful runs on Thursday last week, with both Canada and the United States issuing complaints regarding the aerodynamic qualities of her helmet, arguing that its design contravened federation rules. The complaints were rejected by the Bobsleigh Federation.

Britain’s success this weekend has been much celebrated, especially in Cambridge, Williams’s home-town. Students were quick to offer their support: Kai Lash, a first-year at King’s College, explained to Varsity that Williams’s victory “was a great achievement in itself, but made even more special by being the first individual gold medal we've received in the winter games in three decades.”

Their comments were echoed by Ros Wallduck, Secretary of the Cambridge University Ski and Snowboard Club, who stated that “Amy Williams’s success shows how hard work and determination can really pay off, and that people should realise that although Britain is viewed as the underdog in many respects, British athletes still have what it takes to succeed in snow-sports.”

Wallduck added, "This, despite the fact that Snowsports GB went into liquidation earlier this month after their pleas for £200,000 of emergency government funding were ignored.”

The last British individual athlete to win gold was Robin Cousins at Lake Placid in 1980.