A CIVIC reception is likely to be held for Melksham’s Winter Olympics bronze medallist Laura Deas when she comes home from South Korea.

A spokesman for Melksham Town Council said they were “considering their options” and would be speaking to the British skeleton athlete when she arrives home.

Laura, 29, clinched a bronze medal on her Olympic debut as her compatriot Lizzy Yarnold became the first Briton to successfully defend a Winter Olympics skeleton title.

Before flying out to compete at the games in Pyeongchang Laura, who moved to Melksham after she joined the GB squad which trains at Bath University, had pledged to make the town proud and bring home a medal.

She said: “Thank you to the people of Melksham for getting behind me. I will try my best to make you all proud and bring you back a medal.”

The town’s mayor, Cllr Adrienne Westbrook, said: “We have sent an email to Laura via her management company and will be inviting her to the Mayor’s Civic Awards reception a week on Friday, March 2.

“If she can’t come to that, I am sure that we will plan something else to welcome her home.

“I am absolutely delighted she has won bronze. I have already sent her a tweet congratulating her on her medal win, along with the thousands of other tweets I am sure she has received.”

Cllr Westbrook said that although the Welsh slider from Wrexham was not born in Melksham, the town was immensely proud of her win, adding: “It’s really exciting when somebody who lives locally has such an amazing win. It’s nice that she lives in Melksham and I think everyone in the town is absolutely delighted for her.”

Laura claimed bronze by 0.02secs as Britain won two medals in the same event for the first time in Winter Olympics history.

It was the first time that Britain had ever won three Winter Olympic medals in the same day, overtaking the record two from Chamonix in 1924.

She had a nervous wait for victory, and only knew she had achieved a podium place after her closest rival’s final run. Miss Yarnold overcame dizzy spells to win a second successive women’s skeleton gold medal and successfully defend the title she won at the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia in 2014.

Miss Deas has competed as a skeleton racer on the World Cup circuit, representing the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association., with increasing success.

She originally played hockey, representing North Wales, and took part in equestrian sports, becoming the eventing team captain for Wales. She was brought into skeleton in 2009 through UK Sport’s Girls4Gold talent ID programme.