THE snow hasn’t yet melted after the Sochi Winter Olympics, but already a skeleton slider from Amersham has turned his attention to the 2018 Games in South Korea.

Jeremy Rice is part of the GB Development Squad and after watching Lizzy Yarnold win gold in Russia, the 23-year-old believes his time has now come.

He said: “The 2018 Games are in Pyeongchang, South Korea and that’s the one I’m aiming for.

“That’s always been the plan. This is now our cycle and it’s all go from here.

“Nothing is guaranteed. We can only qualify three men for the Games and by the time they come around there will be eight of us available.

“So I have to get through that and then I also have to get to enough World Cup points to qualify. There are plenty of hurdles to get over, but I’ve had a pretty good first season and I’m confident that is where I’ll be.”

Rice, who is now ranked 71st in the world, has every reason to be confident.

While his team-mates were all talent-spotted, he backed himself and applied directly to British Skeleton after a year in St Moritz, Switzerland doing Cresta Run – the original ice run sport that spawned luge, skeleton and bobsleigh.

He said: “My dad did Cresta Run and every year they offer jobs to work in St Moritz so I applied and got one.

“The jobs aren’t that exciting, but you get free use of the run and I realised I was pretty good at it. When I came back I went directly to British Skeleton.”

They were impressed, and Rice has now completed his first season in the Europa Cup, which is like the third division of international skeleton.

Next winter he hopes to earn enough points to reach the Inter-Continental Cup, or division two, before making the step up to World Cup level.

He said: “I’m ranked 71st in the world now and want to keep improving so when the next Games come around I’m in the best place I can be.”