Laura Deas ( ; born 19 August 1988) is a British sportswoman, best known as a

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

racer on the World Cup circuit, representing the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association. She won bronze at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

Pyeongchang Pyeongchang (; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ; ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seou ...

, South Korea.

Early life

Born in Wrexham, Wales, Deas attended

Howell's School, Denbigh Howell's School Denbigh ( Welsh: ''Ysgol Howell Dinbych'') was an independent girls only school located in Denbigh, Denbighshire. The school taught girls from the age of 3 up to 18 and contained a pre-preparatory , preparatory, senior and si ...

. She played hockey, representing North Wales in competition, and participated in equestrian sports, from Pony Club tetrathlon in which she became team captain and latterly eventing (taking it up professionally from 2006 to 2008),

Skeleton

Deas was brought into skeleton in 2009 through UK Sport's "Girls4Gold" talent identification programme and was selected to UK national team the following year. She rides a Blackroc sled. Deas won her first Europe Cup race in

Winterberg Winterberg ( Westphalian: ''Winnenmerg'') is a town in the Hochsauerland district of North Rhine-Westphalia, central Germany and a major winter sport resort of the Wintersport Arena Sauerland. Geography Winterberg is located in the middle of ...

in 2010, in only her fifth international race, after placing third in the two previous races. Deas finished fourth in her only Junior World Championships, in 2011 (her only year of eligibility) at Park City. In March 2012, she joined the North American Cup circuit for two races at Lake Placid, both with podium finishes. For the next two seasons, Deas competed in the Intercontinental Cup, where she had one third-place finish and two second-place finishes. She made her World Cup debut in the 2014–15 season, in which she claimed two medals, took seventh place in the world championships at

, and finished fifth overall. Deas earned her first World Cup victory in the opening race of the 2015–16 season. The same season she also finished third at Lake Placid and fifth at the European Championships in

St. Moritz St. Moritz (also german: Sankt Moritz, rm, , it, San Maurizio, french: Saint-Moritz) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in ...

. Her best European Championship result was fourth, in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

at Igls. In the overall World Cup rankings, Deas finished her first season in fifth place, with 1314 points. The following year, despite earning more points, she dropped back to seventh place; and in 2016–17, 1240 points was good enough for sixth place. Deas featured in the Olympic team for the first time in 2018 after finishing the World Cup season standings in seventh place, ahead of fellow Team GB skeletoner and defending Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold. She took the bronze medal behind winner Yarnold and silver medallist Jacqueline Lölling, thus becoming the first Welsh woman to win a Winter Olympic medal. Deas competed for Great Britain again in the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...

and finished in 19th place, a result that has since been attributed to inadequate equipment.

References

External links

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Laura Deas
at the British Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association {{DEFAULTSORT:Deas, Laura 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from Wrexham British female skeleton racers Team Bath winter athletes Welsh Olympic competitors Olympic skeleton racers of Great Britain Skeleton racers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Skeleton racers at the 2022 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in skeleton Welsh_Olympic_medallists