Olympic champion Amy Williams on why Britain's Beijing skeleton setback is only a temporary blip

Olympic champion Amy Williams believes Britain's surprise slide down the skeleton rankings is only temporary.

Williams, 39, won gold in Vancouver 12 years ago, part of a tradition of Team GB success in the sport, with seven medals in the last five Olympic Games.

However, for the first time since skeleton returned to the Olympics in 2002, there will be no British representatives on the podium, four years after Team GB sliders took half the available slots in PyeongChang, with Lizzie Yarnold becoming the first athlete to defend a women's title.

Despite high hopes, Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt finished 15th and 16th in the 20-strong men's competition, while 2018 bronze medallist Laura Deas and newcomer Brogan Crowley were in the bottom five in the women's event.

It led to speculation the team's hi-tech new equipment - which was predicted to produce faster times than rivals - has failed to fire.

"I’ll put a big large bet on it that they will medal in four years, so this is always early for them," said Eurosport's skeleton expert Williams.

"To be a nation with no track and we have got medals behind us – unfortunately just not in these Olympics – but trust me, four years’ time, we will be standing here and watching some medallists.

"There will be disappointment that we aren’t bringing home medals now, but I’m not too worried because I really know their time is in four years.

"I would tell everyone you have to keep the funding and the money, because money means medals and it has to be there. But also you have to have the right athletes at the right time.

"I knew we had to bring home a medal in Vancouver, and thank goodness I did, and we’ve kept that next generation. It takes a huge amount of money to do it in a nation with no