Former Winter Olympics skeleton bronze medallist Laura Deas has announced her retirement from the sport.
The 36-year-old Wrexham-born competitor’s career highlight came at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games in South Korea when she finished third, sharing the podium with gold medallist and good friend Lizzy Yarnold.
That was the first time a British duo had mounted the same podium at a Winter Games.
Deas finished 19th at her next Olympics, the 2022 Beijing Games and missed the 2023-24 season after becoming pregnant.
Deas had returned to training following the birth of her daughter, but having not raced since the end of the 2022-23 campaign, has now decided to quit competing.
Her final race was a World Cup finale in February 2023 where she took a silver medal which she says was “a lovely sign off”.
“Immediately after Beijing the Olympics, I wanted to at least do one more season because I didn’t want to leave the sport on that note because they (the Beijing Games) hadn’t gone so well,” Deas told BBC Radio Wiltshire.
“So I definitely knew that I had at least one more season in me from that point onwards.
“But in my head, it was quite an open-ended situation. I didn’t really have a hard end point in mind, and I think partly that was because I didn’t really want to approach any race knowing for sure that it was going to be the last time I ever stepped on ice.
“Because that’s the thing about our sport, really, is that there’s no way to just do it recreationally.”
She finished second in her final race, a World Cup event at Sigulda, Latvia and has fond memories of that day.
“I managed to win a medal, which was a lovely sign off,” said Deas.
“So I was thinking, ‘well, if this is the last ever time I set foot on ice, what a nice way to do it.
“I mean, that’s the thing, isn’t it? For a lot of athletes, it’s other things that contribute to that decision to move on and do other things. Sometimes it’s injury, sometimes it’s just performance.
“It was a really nice race as well, because a lot of my family were able to be there as well, and friends, and it was a lovely atmosphere.
“And it was the end of a season that had actually been very healing for everyone after the Olympic disappointment, to be able to go back onto the World Cup tour and have some success and kind of really show everyone what we could do again.”
You can listen to the full interview with Laura Deas on BBC Radio Wiltshire’s Sport at Six on Monday, 28 April, 18:00 BST and later on demand.