Inspired by her uncle and confident after a World Cup win, skeleton racer Jackie Narracott eyes Winter Olympics medal

Watching the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics at the age of 10 ignited a fire in the belly of a young Jackie Narracott.

Her sporting career began in athletics and although she excelled as a sprinter, long and triple jumper, she knew it wasn't enough.

«I had dreams of going to the Summer Olympics and realised that wasn't going to happen,» Narracott said.

«But I wanted to be an Olympian and I was going to get there no matter what.»

She tried soccer for a while, but it wasn't until Narracott made the transition to winter sports in 2011 that things took off.

She initially tried bobsleigh but switched to skeleton a year later.

«After the first two runs, I was hooked,» Narracott said.

Now 31, the Queenslander is preparing to represent Australia in her second Winter Games at the Beijing 2022 Olympics.

She'll be part of Australia's third-largest Winter Olympic team, which also has the highest female representation (52.3 per cent) in Australian Winter Olympic history.

«It's unreal, beyond what I'd dreamt,» she said.

Narracott heads into the Beijing Games in career-best form.

In January 2022, she created history when she became the first Australian to win a World Cup gold medal in skeleton at St Moritz, Switzerland.

Narracott put the field on notice when she set a new track record in her first run with a time of 1 minute, 8.72 seconds. Her combined two-run time catapulted her to the top spot.

«Winning at St Moritz was a dream come true,» Narracott said.

It was a dream inspired by her uncle, Paul Narracott, who was the first Australian to compete at both a Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

Paul Narracott competed as a track sprinter at the 1984 Los Angeles Games before participating in the two-man bobsleigh at Albertville in 1992.

«Having Uncle Paul as