Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold is set to make her first competitive appearance for 21 months in Whistler ©Getty Images

Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold is set to make her first competitive appearance for 21 months at the opening International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Cup event of the season, which begins in Whistler in Canada tomorrow.

The 28-year-old Briton announced last September that she would take a year-long break from skeleton after admitting she was feeling "burnt out".

Yarnold, whose gold at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games was Britain’s 10th in the history of the event, claimed she was struggling for motivation and opted not to defend her IBSF World Cup crown.

She has decided to return this year, however, as she bids to earn a second consecutive Olympic title at Pyeongchang 2018.

Yarnold last month called on the IBSF to move the upcoming World Championships, due to be held in February, from Sochi in the wake of allegations of state-sponsored doping in Russia in the McLaren Report.

The British star also refused to rule out boycotting the event, scheduled to take place from February 13 to 26, if the IBSF did not strip the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic host city of the event.

The IBSF could come under further pressure to do so after the second part of the McLaren Report is published in London next Friday (December 9), which may uncover more doping accusations against Russia.

In Yarnold’s absence, Germany’s Tina Hermann, who won World Championships gold earlier this year, clinched the women’s skeleton World Cup title.

Tina Hermann of Germany won the women's overall World Cup in women's skeleton last year in the absence of Lizzy Yarnold ©Getty Images
Tina Hermann of Germany won the women's overall World Cup in women's skeleton last year in the absence of Lizzy Yarnold ©Getty Images

The German competitor is among the entrants for the season-opener in Whistler at the sliding track used at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The women’s skeleton event is the first to be held at the Canadian venue, with two runs due to take place tomorrow.

Four of the five overall World Cup champions from the last campaign are braced to compete, with retired German Maximilian Arndt, part of the team which claimed the four-man bobsleigh crown, the only absentee.

Double Olympic silver medallist and multiple world champion Martins Dukurs of Latvia is hoping to retain his men’s skeleton World Cup title, while Canada’s Kaillie Humphries will bid to get her defence off to the best possible start on home ice in the two-woman bobsleigh.

South Korea’s Won Yun-jong, winner of the men’s two-man competition along with brakeman Seo Young-woo, made history last year as the first-ever athlete from his country to finish at the summit of the overall standings.

The duo are also set to take to the ice in Whistler as they continue their preparations for a home Winter Games in Pyeongchang.

Following tomorrow’s women’s skeleton event, the IBSF World Cup stop in Whistler concludes on Saturday (December 3) with action in men’s skeleton, women’s bobsleigh and the four-man bobsleigh.