Aussie skeleton star Jaclyn Narracott slides into history books with Beijing 2022 silver

Jaclyn Narracott has powered her way into the history books, winning Australia’s first ever medal in a sliding event with silver in the women’s skeleton at the Beijing Winter Games on Sunday morning (AEDT).

The 31-year-old Queenslander came into the final two heats in top spot on the world standings, needing the lowest combined time across four heats to take gold.

She got her final push underway in perfect style with a track record in her third heat at The Yanqing National Sliding Centre in Beijing on Saturday night.

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However her main rival, Germany’s Hannah Neise, quickly bettered her record time, leaving Narracott 0.14s off the pace with one heat remaining.

Narracott recorded an incredible time of one minute 2.11 seconds in her fourth and final heat to give herself a shot at gold, however once again 21-year-old Neise just edged her out to claim gold by just 0.62 seconds across her four runs.

The medal win marks the fourth Australian medal of these Games, making Beijing 2022 the scene of Australia’s greatest Winter Olympic medal haul.

7PLUS HIGHLIGHTS: Watch all the best moments from a historic night of skeleton action here

Narracott looked emotional when she was told of the medal immediately following her final run, with her green and gold mouth-guard on show.

“It’s still so surreal ... absolute elation!” said Narracott, who also became the first Australian to win a skeleton World Cup gold medal after topping the podium at St Moritz, Switzerland, last month.

“Words can’t describe it. We’ve never won a sliding sport medal, so for me to be it... Creating your dream twice in two races, it doesn’t get any better”.

Bringing Australia’s