Pride and excitement as Coltman family prepares to cheer on Melton's Olympian

The 29-year-old former St Francis Primary School pupil will be racing for Team GB at the Cortina Sliding Centre in Italy in the women’s skeleton – where competitors slide round a track on a sled, face down, at speeds of around 80mph.

Amelia is ranked in the world’s top 10 and is a medal contender, along with British team-mates Tabby Stoecker and Freya Tarbit, and training is apparently going very well on a track she loves.

We’ve been talking this week to Amelia’s parents, Gary and Theresa, who were both top level professional cyclists, before they flew out to the Games yesterday.

Theresa told the Melton Times: “I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed because we’ve had so many genuinely lovely messages of goodwill. The amount of people who will be watching Amelia on TV is amazing.”

Amelia will be cheered on trackside by 16 members of her family, including her sister and fiancee, with some flying in from the US and South Africa.

So, how will her parents feel when their daughter is at the start line preparing for the competition of her life in front of the eyes of the world?

“I’m usually living every moment with Amelia, I’m almost on the sled with her,” said Theresa.

“However I tend to look at it from a mother’s safety angle, all I want is for her to get to the bottom in one piece because we’ve seen her have a few bad crashes.”

Meanwhile Gary says he takes a more pragmatic, detached view of his daughter’s competitions, evoking the emotions he had as a head coach with British Cycling.

“I tend to focus on the process, I don’t get emotional about anything really because there is nothing you can do about it,” he said.

Amelia has always been competitive from a young age and excelled at a wide range of sports, including athletics, hockey and badminton. She ran for the Stilton Striders as a junior and was also a talented player at Melton Mowbray Tennis Club. From the age of three to 18, Amelia was in the town’s Nicola Misiuda dance academy, which Theresa credits with giving her great coordination and core stability for the sport she now does.

The first two heats of the skeleton are on Friday and the medals will be decided the following day after the last two heats. Twelve sliders are capable of getting a medal with just hundredths of a second between them.

Gary commented: “She knows she’s capable of winning a medal but she’s focused on just doing her best."

Excitement has been building for the Coltmans as they’ve watched the early events from the Games on TV. Theresa added: “Watching the opening ceremony I was just totally overwhelmed. I was thinking ‘this is real, she’s actually there’. I wasn’t prepared for how emotional I felt.”

If selected, Amelia could also be competing in the team event on Sunday with one of the Team GB male sliders. She has had success this season with Matt Weston, who is gold medal favourite in the men’s skeleton.