Jackie Narracott overcame massive hurdles to reach Winter Olympics skeleton podium

Through a skeleton career almost derailed by a lack of funding and a severe concussion, Jackie Narracott has found a way to win Australia’s most unlikely Olympic medal.

Steven Bradbury became part of folklore with his speed-skating gold medal heroics while Chloe Esposito snatched a surprise modern pentathlon gold, but Narracott winning a silver medal in a sport where Australia has no facilities or training program tops the lot.

The 31-year-old, who hasn’t been home to Queensland since 2019, scorched to second behind German Hannah Neise.

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She made history, winning Australia’s first Olympic sliding medal, and it is the first time Australia has won four medals at a Winter Games.

Team chef de mission Geoff Lipshut admitted he thought he’d never see an Australian sliding medal, with Narracott finishing 16th in PyeongChang.

“We actually tried to run a skeleton program from 2006 to 2014 and we actually didn’t get the results and that’s why Jackie is so remarkable,” Lipshut said on Sunday from Zhangjiakou.

“She’s found a way to do something that’s truly incredible.”

Narracott raced in her first World Cup in 2014 and said it had been a tough and expensive slog to arrive at her silver medal, estimating she’d contributed at least $100,000.

She is fortunately coached by her husband Brit Dom Parsons, who won a skeleton bronze at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, and who she now has bragging rights over.

“I’ve been very fortunate that the OWI (Australia’s Olympic Winter Institute) helped me out in the last four years and helped me get a partnership with Canada and fund quite a bit of my season.

“Before that I had plenty of maxxed out credit cards and the