Great Britain’s first Winter Olympic gold medallist for 30 years, Williams won gold in 2010 in Vancouver – the only Britain to win.

Williams told BBC Radio 5 live that she struggles so much with stairs because of her “dodgy back” and knees that she’s had to relocate to a bungalow.

“I’m a little bit broken,” she said.

"I've got some dodgy discs in my lower back and neck.

“I've had four major knee operations.

“I'm in the chiropractor every few weeks and it is quite tough.

“Sometimes you think 'was it worth it?' but instantly you say it was worth it.

"I sold my townhouse, I live in a bungalow now.

“My knees really do not like stairs or doing much at all.

“It's hard because I'm still an active person.

“I still love to keep fit.

“I started to do lots of yoga which is less stressful on the knees.

“I still like to go for a jog but if I go too far I then can't really walk for a week.”

The 36 year old retired in 2012 but said her suffering now is a direct result of her skeleton training.

"My knees are definitely a result of that wear and tear of training three times a day since I was 15 or 16,” she said.

“And my back, my disc problems, are definitely from a bad crash when I first started, plus a few more crashes.

"I get a lot of nerve pain and problems.

“That's why I finished because I was on painkillers pretty much my whole career and epidural injections all the time.

“The doctors were saying 'you should really stop this' and I thought 'yeah I should'.

"I now just learn to live with it."