Olympic skeleton champion Lizzy Yarnold of Britain believes her triumphant Sochi 2014 experience may prove vital in the bid for gold at Pyeongchang 2018 ©Getty Images

Olympic skeleton champion Lizzy Yarnold of Britain believes her triumphant Sochi 2014 experience may prove vital in the bid for gold at Pyeongchang 2018 but is expecting a tougher challenge than ever before at the Games in South Korea.

Yarnold shot to fame when she marked her maiden Olympic Games appearance by winning the skeleton title in the Russian city two years' ago and has Pyeongchang firmly at the forefront of her mind.

The 27-year-old says she has "remembered why she loves sport" after resuming training following her decision to take a year-long break from the sport in September 2015 to attempt to recover from what she described as "emotional exhaustion".

She opted to cut that back slightly, however, in order to be in the best possible shape ahead of her Olympic title defence in the South Korean resort in February 2018.

"Not many athletes who compete at the World Cups have been to an Olympics - they don’t know what it takes and how different the Olympics are but certainly in each World Cup race there are very strong athletes now and I am sure they will be around in two years’ time," Yarnold told insidethegames at the launch of a UK Sport talent identification initiative called "#DiscoverYourGold" here today.

"The others being so good always pushes me to be better so I am very grateful for them.

"The difference now that I have is that I know what it takes to win a gold medal, how ruthless and how relentless you have to be and I think that will help."

Tina Hermann of Germany may prove the biggest threat to Lizzy Yarnold's Olympic skeleton crown ©Getty Images
Tina Hermann of Germany may prove the biggest threat to Lizzy Yarnold's Olympic skeleton crown ©Getty Images

Despite her shock choice to step away from skeleton for a prolonged period, Yarnold insists she never lost motivation but admitted she found it tough to look so far ahead to Pyeongchang following her Sochi 2014 success.

"Once I had gone to the Olympics I didn’t know what was going to happen after," she said.

"Once you’ve been to the Olympics you immediately start thinking right when is the next Olympics, let’s start the four-year plan now but I found that difficult and suffocating that my life was driven around something that wasn’t happening for four years.

"The break was crucial for me to step back and reflect on everything that I had achieved and ask myself why I wanted to do it."

Yarnold will split her summer training time between GB Skeleton’s base in Bath and her home in Portsmouth before she competes in the first International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup in Whistler in December - which she described as the "toughest track in the world".