Richmond man’s vital role with heroines of the Winter Olympics

Jack Baldwin, a former Army officer from Richmond, has spent years training soldiers in winter sports such as skiing and bobsleigh.

In 2003, he and coaching partner, Donna Leslie, led the first group of civilian winter sports enthusiasts as they tackled the skeleton bobsleigh event for the first time at a week-long camp in Lillehammer, Norway.

Little did Mr Baldwin know that he was helping to kick-start the careers of Vancouver gold medallist Miss Williams and 2006 Turin silver medallist, Shelly Rudman.

Although the girls went on to train with other coaches, Mr Baldwin said he felt proud that he was with them at the start.

“We were asked to help with the first set of civilians to be trained by the Army under a programme with the University of Bath,” he said. “Shelly showed promise straight away and beat everyone in the competition at the end of the training week. Amy was good too, but was a lot more laid back – we were very surprised when she came through in Vancouver because all eyes had been on Shelly.

“After her gold medal win, she said she couldn’t remember any of the run and that is just how she was when we were working with her. It showed her talent – she could just do it without thinking.”

Mr Baldwin has kept several pieces of memorabilia over the years and still has Miss Rudman’s first skeleton suit.

He said he would always remember the pair’s first nervous attempts on the skeleton run.

“It’s quite an intense process between a coach and an athlete in this event,” he said. “You can’t go with them down the track, you just have to push them off and let them go and they can get quite frustrated with you when they hurt themselves.

“Watching the Olympics was unbelievable though. It was an amazing feeling.”