Melissa said she is proud of her achievement and the whole district was behind her with the students from Narooma Public School cramming into the school hall on Friday to watch her first two heats live.

Melissa’s family including her father local pharmacist Jim Hoar were there to watch her compete.

Melissa commented on Facebook:

“Thanks everyone, had a blast racing, the track is so much fun. I love going that fast! An amazing experience at the Olympics and I am blown away by everyone’s support! You all rock!”

Report from the Australian Olympic Committee’s Murray Brust and Andrew Pattison at Whistler:

Australians Emma Lincoln-Smith and Melissa Hoar have placed midfield in the women’s skeleton after some solid runs in a highly competitive event at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

Twenty-four-year-old Lincoln-Smith, sixth overnight after the first two runs of the competition, dropped back to tenth, while Hoar, who was 11th after her first two runs, finished 12th.

Briton Amy Williams blitzed the field with a new course record of 53.68 seconds on her third run, helping her to a total time for the four runs of 3 minutes 35.64 seconds and a significant margin of victory of 0.56 of a second.

Her victory ended Britain's 30-year wait for an individual Winter Olympics gold medal.

Canadian favourite Melissa Hollingsworth moved up from third to second with a great third run, but then a disappointing fourth run from the Turin bronze medallist left Germans Kerstin Szymkowiak (3:36.20) and Anja Huber (3:36.36) with silver and bronze, respectively.

Melissa Hoar started a little unsteadily in the first run of the competition on Thursday night, clocking 54.73 seconds, but then improved to 54.48 on each of her next two runs.

Her fourth and final run stopped the clock at 54.53, giving her an accumulated time of 3:38.22.

“I wasn’t entirely happy with my performance,” the 27-year-old former surf lifesaver said.