Tabby Stoecker at the Arts and Media School

ISLINGTON’S first Winter Olympic Gold medal was being shown off at a secondary school this week, as skeleton-winner Tabby Stoecker told students that anything is possible.

Fresh from her victory in Milan Cortina last month, Ms Stoecker returned to her old stomping ground of Finsbury Park to take questions from pupils at Arts and Media School Islington.

The last time she was on the campus was as a teenager, when she volunteered at an after-school club as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award.

But now the Olympic-medalist was fielding questions from dozens of budding athletes about her success and how they could emulate it.

Speaking to the Tribune afterwards, Ms Stoecker explained how­­ she hoped to inspire a younger generation, and urged more funding for community sporting facilities.

She said: “I would really hope they can see an example in me as someone who wasn’t so dissimilar to them at that stage in their life, found a sport at 17 or 18 and managed to reach the highest level and come away with a gold medal. I really hope that that story alone just lights something in their brain that that is a possibility for them.”

The athlete added: “The medal is a symbol that you can achieve your dreams if you work really hard.

“So to see the ways it was lighting up the girls’ faces today, and seeing how inquisitive they are, and how much they wanted to share what sports they did, that is everything that I want from getting to be an Olympic medalist.”

Pupils were excited to meet Tabby after her Olympic success

Having only picked up skeleton aged 18 after going through a Talent ID programme, Ms Stoecker has been on a whirlwind journey over the past six years, from the training circuit in Bath to the global stage in this year’s Winter Olympics.

Before she discovered skeleton, Ms Stoecker’s first sporting memories are of doing gymnastics at the Talacre Community Sports Centre.

“It is pivotal that those spaces stay alive,” she said, adding: “They are so important for the community, for young people, old people, just to have it be accessible to do sport in whatever capacity that is. “It’s really important that there’s funding to keep those spaces alive.”

Meanwhile, headteacher Susan Service said it was an “absolute privilege” to have the Olympian come to the school.

Ms Service said: “She is so eloquent and our young people can really see that to get where she’s got to, you have to have determina­tion, you need to be inspired.

“It’s about seeing someone do it, and knowing that there is a pathway.

“You just need to have people supporting you, you’ve got to have the passion.”