Alan Ross records the bright start to the season made by some of Britain's female winter athletes.

While downhill skier Chemmy Alcott dances her way to recovery on ITV’s prime time Dancing on Ice after suffering a horrific double leg break, some of Britain’s other winter sports stars are tasting success on the slopes.

Newcomer Elizabeth Yarnold won her first FIBT (Federation Internationale De Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing) Skeleton World Cup event held in St. Moritz on January 20 in only her second ever start in the senior competition. After placing fourteenth overall in her debut, Yarnold produced the fastest time in the first run to win the event. Heavy snowfall prevented the start of the second run on the Celerina course in Switzerland which meant Yarnold came out on top.

The good news for British skeleton fans did not end there, however. The 2006 Winter Olympic silver medallist Shelly Rudman came in second to make it a one-two for the Great British team.

Both Rudman and Yarnold have already tasted success this season with Rudman winning the previous World Cup event in Königssee which sees her maintain second place in the overall rankings. Yarnold took the honours in a junior competition, the Intercontinental Cup, at the end of 2011. She set a new track record in the Lillehammer leg of the event for good measure and fought off another Briton, Donna Creighton, who was one of her main challengers for the victory.

The experience of senior competition does not seem to have done Yarnold any harm as she marked her return to the junior level of competition by winning the Junior World Championship at Igls, near Innsbruck, Austria, last Thursday (26th).

Speaking to BBC Sport, Yarnold expressed her delight at winning: “It feels amazing. I knew the competition would be tight and everyone brought their A-game. I was tense on the line at the start of the second run, but managed to relax enough and do what I had to.”

Yarnold was forced to manage her training alongside working full-time during the summer to fund transport, training and equipment costs. She receives no support from UK Sport, as of yet at least, because funding is based around results at the World Championships and the Olympics, so her current results are not enough to qualify her for official financial backing.

The support and help of her fellow British skeleton sliders has also helped Yarnold’s progress in the senior ranks, a debt which she acknowledges. The slider from Kent said: “We’re all good friends and very open. Last weekend [January 20 in St. Moritz], after the first run, Shelley came over and said, ‘Lizzy, good job, that was really well done.’ To know you have that support from your own nation is really, really helpful and pushes you forward.”

Although 2010 Winter Olympic gold medallist Amy Williams has had a less successful season so far, with a sixth place finish in Winterberg the highlight, the sharing of the top two spots for Great Britain on the World Cup tour gave Yarnold her chance. Willams withdrew from the Königssee leg of the competition and was replaced by Yarnold who finished fourteenth before her success in St. Moritz.

For Chemmy Alcott though, the future looks decidedly different. She was nailed down as one of the favourites for Dancing On Ice, before aiming to return to skiing in the spring and be fit for competition next season, with the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics her ultimate goal. However, the three-time Olympian had a number of metal screws as well as a plate placed in her leg after her accident in Canada in 2010 and her TV appearances are all part of a wider plan.

Alcott is motivated by the chance to publicise downhill skiing as well as attempting to bridge a funding gap due to her loss of UK Sport funding following the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, where her performances were not up to the required standard. Despite the risks involved with Alcott’s unorthodox method of recovery it has been given a cautious backing by British ski bosses who hope to see her back skiing soon.