GB skeleton riders blitz practice rivals as custom skinsuits deliver cutting edge

Great Britain’s skeleton riders will pursue Winter Olympic gold this week aided by the latest version of the revolutionary skinsuits that have helped British Cycling to dominate the last three summer Games, the Guardian can reveal. The custom-made aerodynamic suits provide a “massive” improvement on the conventional ones – with riders expected to benefit by as much as a second during each of their four skeleton runs in the Games.

Eyebrows were certainly raised among other teams on Monday when the British rider Dom Parsons – who is only ranked 12th in the world this season – was quickest in the second run on the first day of practice. On the women’s side Laura Deas, who is ranked seventh in the World Cup standings, posted the first and second fastest times in her runs, with the Sochi gold medallist Lizzy Yarnold – ranked ninth in the world – producing the third and fourth fastest. However those performances came as no surprise to Team GB, who have seen earlier versions of the suit help Amy Williams and Yarnold win skeleton golds. Competition gets under way on Friday.

The suit works largely due to special drag-resistant ridges developed by scientists at TotalSim in Northampton, and the English Institute of Sport, which create a “turbulence effect” in the suit that reduces the amount of wind resistance acting on the body. The suits are also custom-made, with each athlete undergoing a 3D laser-scan for fitting before they are built with polyurethane derivatives.

Yarnold last month coyly suggested to the Guardian that unspecified “innovations” could help her get back on the podium in Pyeongchang. “We don’t get hold of the technical innovations until the Olympics, and as soon as we finish competing it all disappears into someone’s bag and is taken away,” she added. “But that innovation on the equipment side is where we can make massive gains.”

TotalSim has been heavily involved with British Cycling for the previous three Olympics, leading the aerodynamic developments with helmets and bikes right through to the clothing the riders wear. The company’s managing director Dr Rob Lewis, a founder member of UK Sport’s technical development-focused Secret Squirrel Club, was last year given an OBE in recognition of his contribution to the performances of British athletes’ performance since 2008.

Since the suits were introduced for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, British Cycling have dominated the Games – winning 14 medals there with 12 in London and Rio. Track cycling and skeleton benefit because the sports are so much about aerodynamics. As one source put it, referencing Sir Dave Brailsford’s long-standing claims that marginal gains were the secret to British Cycling’s success: “These gains are not marginal gains. It is one massive big gain.”

Team GB, meanwhile, will be hoping to win a first medal of the Games on Tuesday when Elise Christie takes to the ice believing she is in world-record shape as she prepares for her first moment of reckoning at these Winter Olympics.

The 27-year-old, who broke the 500m Olympic short track speedskating record in her heat on Saturday, knows she faces a precarious path to winning a medal. However she insists there is plenty more to come in the quarter-finals - which take place at 10am GMT - and, if all goes well, the semi-finals and final a couple of hours after that.

“I felt I had more to give after Saturday’s first heat and that’s exciting as I normally also get faster through rounds,” she said. “My lap times are faster in training, a couple of tenths a lap, so I’m hoping I can break my world record. As long as the ice keeps its condition there is a chance of that for sure.”

Christie was rewarded for her performance in her first heat with a straightforward-looking quarter-final, with only the Canadian Kim Boutin - who is ranked fourth in the world - likely to pose a danger out of her three opponents. And with the top two going through, Christie is confident she can move on to challenge for a medal, providing she can get her start right.

“The thing I am most nervous about with the 500m is the start,” she said. “Because I am weak compared to the top girls. On Saturday my start went the best [it has] in years. I have belief in my new start I’ve been doing so that’s built a lot of confidence.

If she were to win a medal it would no doubt seen as redemption for her three disqualifications at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. However, Christie says that is not quite the case.

“I obviously have small fears of that happening again,” she admitted. “But my goal at these Olympics is to enjoy it because I didn’t get to enjoy the last one.

“As much as it’s about trying to win a gold medal and bring a medal home, it’s as much about enjoying it because, if I do retire – and I’m not saying I will – I want to have a good memory of an Olympics.”