Rachel Blackburn and James Roche designed the sled, affectionately known as Arthur, as part of their doctoral thesis.

Rachel told The Guardian: "The concept is mine but there's a massive group of people that came together and expertise from everywhere. I knew nothing about the sport. I came at it purely from an engineering point of view.

“I thought about what's out there and how can we make it better. There were existing sleds that we could modify but there was too much to modify and we decided to start from scratch.

“It's the balance between the stiffness of the chassis for speed versus the sensitivity for the control. If you can't get the lines but you have the speed, then you're going to crash. It's achieving that fine balance for each individual."

Rachel and James, who have formed a company together, Blackroc, started work on the sled four years ago, backed with money from UK Sport and logistical and practical support from upwards of 20 UK companies, including BA Systems and the McLaren Formula One team.

James said: "Many a time I've had dreams, I've had nightmares, I've thought that's a great idea and then it's not worked. Then we came up with some concept designs and, before anything was made, we went and got approval and more suggestions from McLaren and they said, 'Go for it.' From that point on we had more belief. You can do drawings and you can try and perfect it but until you've actually made it and tried it, you don't know."

Once the sled was built, it was tweaked and tweaked again. The team’s confidence was bolstered when the Bath University student came second at the world championships last year.

Despite that, Rachel and James arrived in Vancouver with hope more than expectation. Rachel added: "It is unbelievable that Amy won the gold. Realistically, we didn't talk about medals or pressure or any of that, we just wanted everyone to do the best they could."