This year the club and the Community Sports Trust are delighted to help and support Great Britain Skeleton star Donna Creighton.

 

One of the world’s fastest women on ice, Donna Creighton is a Yeovil Town local we should all be proud of.  

In her sport of Skeleton, Donna can reach speeds of 90 mph, lying head-first and navigating a track that has more twists and turns than a helter skelter.  

Great Britain has a successful heritage in the sport having won a bronze, silver and gold medal at the last three Olympic Winter Games.  It is Team GB’s ‘cycling’ of winter sport and Donna and her teammates are aiming to continue that success in just under six months’ time at the next Winter Olympics taking place in Sochi, Russia.

Donna is more motivated than ever to qualify for those Games having suffered heartbreak in 2010 when she narrowly missed out on a place in Team GB for the Vancouver Winter Olympics.   

Not to be deterred, Donna went on the following year to post her best season’s results finishing an incredible 6th in the World Rankings. By some margin, Donna is the ‘quickest starter’ in World Skeleton and posted some impressive results in the 9 World Cup races last season, including a 4th place finish on her favourite track at Lake Placid, USA.

Since the season finished in March, Donna and her Strength & Conditioning coach Andrew Roda, who has coached many Yeovil Town players and Donna since she was a teenager, have been focusing on the all-important off-season physical preparation.  

The summer training is a tough regime, made all the more difficult by the fact that Donna receives no funding to support her life as an athlete. British Skeleton, through the National Lottery, is well-funded so that Donna and her team-mates have access to the best coaches, equipment and sports science support.  

However, Donna herself is not and has to support herself during the summer months when she is based in her hometown of Yeovil and regularly travels for testing and specialised training on the Push Track at the outstanding facilities at the University of Bath.

Donna knows that these months are crucial to her preparations for the Sochi Olympics and the support provided by Yeovil Town FC and the Trust will mean that she can give training her total commitment.  

Donna said: “Competing at the Winter Olympics has been my dream and I will do everything I can to get there and make my town and country proud. The support from Yeovil Town FC will go a long way to help me make that dream a reality, and I couldn’t be more thankful to you all.”

Off the ice, Donna can also claim to have assisted Yeovil Town’s promotion last season.  

A trained Sports Massage Therapist, she spent some time supporting Yeovil Town’s Physio Michael Micciche in massaging Yeovil players after tough training sessions. We hope for good luck for both Donna and Yeovil Town FC in the seasons ahead!