Amy Williams' blog by Amy_Williams

Hello realbuzz.com fans, how is everyone today? I’m writing this blog to you from a little log cabin in Lillehammer, Norway. It sounds rather romantic, I’m sure you’re all thinking along the lines of big sofas, log fires, hot chocolate and being all snuggled up warm. But disappointingly it is far from that! We don’t have a fire or comfy sofas, but that’s not the reason for my stay, I’m here because it’s the start of the skeleton season, so I’m on the road for the next few weeks. The entire British Skeleton Team had a pre-season review camp in Bath last week, going through the season ahead, setting goals for the team and each individual athlete, arranging travel and hotels, in fact the list of things we covered was endless! It meant I had to spend a few days packing up my bags, sorting out all my kit and equipment, buying my favourite food goodies, such as tea bags, marmite, honey, yes honey a big necessity for me, I love the stuff, it’s my comfort food!

All our kit gets sent ahead with our support team which is a real blessing, as it means we don’t have to transport it all up to London for our flights – travelling with just hand luggage is such bliss! It will be my first full competition circuit since the Olympic year in 2009/10, so I am interested to see how I feel when I am back on ice and sliding again regularly. Later today will be our first day of sliding, after spending the first two days sorting out our sleds and getting them ready to be fit to slide! I am still on the same sled (Arthur), on which I won the Olympics, although as with a standard road car, he’s had a fairly thorough MOT! I hope he behaves himself for me! We have our first selection race on the 1st November in Winterberg, Germany, which is followed by a second race in Altenberg, again in Germany, on Nov 6th. I will let you know how they go.

Off the track, I attended the BT BOA Gold Ball that took place at Kensington Olympia on the 7th October in London. It was a huge event with just under 2000 people in attendance. I was privileged to be sat at the top table with Princess Anne and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. It’s a great event and crucial to Team GB in raising funds for the British Olympic Association who look after us athletes so well. As I write this over £700,000 has been raised which is an amazing amount of money, so thank you to everyone who donated, or bought the auction items on the night to help raise this huge amount. I’m actually keen to find out who won the bid to have me teach them on the skeleton track in Austria this year! I would like to say a quick thanks to Whatling Goldsmiths who lent me some jewellery for the night. I was able to go into their shop in Lacock which is just outside Bath, and chose a few items to wear with my dress. I felt amazing wearing their beautiful hand crafted pieces, so thank you Jane!