The Australian podium run continued late on Friday, when Jaclyn Narracott slid her way onto her first podium of the 2021/2022 World Cup season in St Moritz, winning Gold after two incredible runs kept her ahead of the top-ranked racers in the world.
Narracott's previous best this season was an 11th place finish last weekend in Winterberg, Germany and has struggled to get out of the mid-teens for most of the season.
The 2018 Olympian had consistent starts in both of her rides with a start time of 5.42, the 12th fastest of her competitors.
The first run is set her up to make it onto the podium, finishing in first with a time of 1:08.72, 0.17 seconds ahead of world number one Kimberley Bos (NED).
Narracott wasn't quite as fast in the second run finishing at 1:08.84, with Bos having the better second run with a time of 1:08.73.
The buffer created by her first run was enough to keep the 31-year-old ahead, winning her first World Cup medal of her career by 0.06 seconds.
However, it's not only a historical achievement for Narracott, her win today is the first World Cup gold for Australia in any sliding sport.
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The Queenslander acknowledged that even she didn't expect she could go as fast as she did, hoping the win encouraged more young women would take up skeleton.
“I knew today I had the potential to go fast but didn’t think quite that fast,” the 31-year-old said.
“This has been going for so long, I’m just like there are no words, it’s a perfect day in a perfect place.”
“I really hope this might be the catalyst to get a few more girls in the sport and hopefully some more funding so we can have a coach and be competitive. We are proving this year that we have the athletes, it’s just having the foundations behind us to give us a chance.”
Narracott ends the 2021/2022 World Cup season in 17th overall with 797, earning a 225 point boost following her gold medal.
The 31-year-old is the second Australian to win gold this week and the third podium for the country across three sports and there will be plenty of Aussies in action this weekend on ice and snow, looking to claim a medal in the final World Cups ahead of the Olympics.
The next time we'll see Narracott will be at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing after her season earned Australia an Olympic quota place.