Win still hasn't sunk in for Tarbit
Freya Tarbit says Sunday’s stunning World Cup skeleton gold in south Korea still hasn’t sunk in.
Tarbit won the second race of the season in PyeongChang to claim her maiden World Cup medal in her 11thappearance at the top level.
The 24-year-old beat reigning Olympic Champion Hannah Neise into silver by almost a second - a remarkable margin in any circumstance and an even more incredible statistic given that Tarbit had never even raced in South Korea before this month.
“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet. To win a gold medal for my country on the World Cup is such an achievement, I can’t quite put into words how much it means to me,” said Tarbit, who missed a medal by just two hundredths of a second in Saturday’s season opener.
Coming fourth in the first race was a career best result for me. I was really happy with it, so I came into the second race day wanting to lay down two runs I could be proud of.
“To come away from the weekend with a gold medal is insane and I couldn’t ask for better team mates to share this with.”
Just standing at the start line, let alone beating the best in the world, was an achievement for Tarbit given the serious injury she suffered in the summer.
The former long jumper has had to recover from a complete hamstring tendon rupture/avulsion fracture since July, stating immediately after surgery that, “summer training is going to look slightly different than how I had imagined. However, I’m ready to smash this rehab and lay it down this winter”.
Freya Tarbit won World Cup gold for the first time on Sunday (photo KBSF)
Tarbit did exactly that on Saturday and Sunday, backing up her fine performance in the first race with an even better one in the second.
And it wasn’t as if she faced a subpar field, either: she saw off 37 other athletes in a line up that also featured the reigning Overall World Cup Champion and current Olympic bronze medalist Kimberley Bos; 2018 Olympic silver medalist and former World Champion and Overall World Cup winner Jacqueline Pfeifer; current European Champ and Overall World Cup silver medal winner Kim Meylemans; reigning World Champion Hallie Clarke; and 2024 Overall World Cup bronze medalist Valentina Margaglio.
She clocked a time of 1 minute 44.68 seconds on Sunday to beat Olympic queen Neise by 0.96 seconds, with bronze medalist Janine Flock - an athlete with four times as many major medals as Tarbit has World Cup starts - more than a full second back.
“This win means a lot to me,” added Tarbit, who joined the British Skeleton set up in the summer of 2019 and won World Junior Championship bronze and Overall Europa Cup gold in 2023.
This summer has been really tough. After having hamstring repair surgery in July, these races were just supposed to be about sliding exposure for me. To come away with a gold medal is incredible and I still can’t quite wrap my head around it!
“I really want to thank my friends, family and coaches as without them I wouldn’t be here.”
Tarbit is next action this Saturday in Race 3 in Beijing, China (the home of the last Olympic Winter Games in 2022). The World Cup skeleton circuit then heads back to Europe for two more races in Germany and Latvia before Christmas.
