Lizzy Yarnold has won a second successive women’s skeleton gold medal and become the first Briton to defend a Winter Olympics title.

Here, Press Association Sport looks at five things you may not know about Britain’s most decorated Winter Olympian.

1. Merv the swerve

Lizzy Yarnold has named her sled Mervyn
Lizzy Yarnold has named her sled Mervyn (David Davies/PA Images)

Yarnold’s sled is called Mervyn, after a former work colleague from the days when she worked in insurance, Mervyn Sugden. He offered to help out Yarnold with sponsorship when she needed money to continue competing.

2. Multi eventer

Yarnold was a keen athlete, competing in javelin and shot put. She then set her heart on becoming a modern pentathlete, before being talented-identified and encouraged to take up skeleton.

3. Dizzee Lizzy

Lizzy Yarnold is a fan of Dizzee Rascal
Lizzy Yarnold is a fan of Dizzee Rascal (Ian West/PA Images)

Yarnold often listens to grime music to motivate her before her races. She revealed she had listened to Dizzee Rascal moments before her first Olympic triumph in 2014, and is a big fan of the grime star Wiley.

4. Haberdasher

Yarnold lists her hobbies as knitting and listening to The Archers. During a year out in the wake of her Olympic success, she undertook a course in lampshade-making, wallpapered her house and completed an Open University course in book-keeping and accounting.

5. She-Ra, princess of power

Lizzy Yarnold is a Downton Abbey fan
Lizzy Yarnold is a Downton Abbey fan (Nick Briggs/ITV)

Yarnold is known by other members of the British skeleton squad as ‘She-Ra’. She deliberately avoided an entire run of Downton Abbey so she could watch the whole series whilst waiting for her gold medal run in Sochi.