Williams staying grounded

Amy Williams vowed she would not change amid the fame and attention that has accompanied her Olympic gold medal heroics in Vancouver.

The 27-year-old was greeted by friends, family and a media scrum at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday when she returned home for the first time since topping the podium in the skeleton. Williams became Britain's first solo Winter Olympics champion in three decades when she struck gold at the XXI Winter Games.

Williams insisted she will always be an athlete first, despite her rocketing public profile, saying: "The attention is not something I'm used to but I'll have to get comfortable with it. The other stuff is a massive bonus but I'm not going to change. I'll be the same person training hard to reach the next level."

Over the next couple of days, Williams will be centre stage amid a whirl of press conferences, receptions and a victory parade in her home town of Bath.

Attractive and articulate, the new poster girl of British sport will now be courted by sponsors, although she has received no offers as yet.

She added: "I'm starting to get the hang of talking and answering questions but it's not natural to me.

"I don't know what's going to happen next - we'll have to wait and see what's out there and who's interested. As yet nobody has approached me but I'm going to try and find the right people to look after me.

"I want to make the most of this opportunity. I hope people will sponsor and help out and help the sport - it would be great for the sport to get my face around.

"The gold medal has been a life-changing experience in that I'm now speaking to the media.

"But, ultimately, we're athletes - we train hard and work hard. We go to the gym every day, slide down slopes and travel the world. That will always be inside me."