Jaclyn Narracott's Winter Olympic skeleton medal the ultimate destination after a long, winding road

Sitting in the press conference, her smile obvious despite being hidden by the ubiquitous mask, it was impossible not to be carried away with the sheer joy Jaclyn Narracott exuded with every answer, every glance at the medal hanging around her neck.

And she had every right to be thrilled.

Few would have given the 31-year-old from Queensland a chance against one of the tightest, most competitive fields in skeleton history.

After all, less than a month ago Narracott had never set foot on a skeleton podium at world level.

Ten years after first getting on a skeleton sled and eight years of toil on the World Cup circuit had resulted in no medals.

That all changed in St Moritz, Switzerland, in mid-January, thanks to a change in mindset. There, she became the first Australian to win a gold medal in the skeleton World Cup.

«I finally let go of the need to medal the week before St Moritz happened,» Narracott said.

«I finally realised that my career wasn't going to be any worse or better if I did finally get that medal and, sure enough, let go of it and it happened – which is no coincidence, I'm well aware of that fact.

»There's always been that belief, but to actually get that concrete evidence in front of me and in front of everyone else, [that] was a bit of a game changer."

It was clearly a game changer, because fast forward a month and Narracott, beaming from ear to ear, is now not only a World Cup winner – Australia's first — but the proud owner of an Olympic silver medal.

Her husband and coach Dom Parsons, a bronze medallist in skeleton for Great Britain in Pyeongchang, said he noticed the change after St Moritz.

«The main thing I noticed in [St] Mortiz was just her confidence and her belief in herself, because she'd proven, mainly