Four years ago, Lizzy Yarnold sent her best friend Laura Deas a note.

Yarnold was competing in her first Olympics in Sochi and was sad that Deas, who failed to qualify for Great Britain’s skeleton team, couldn’t be there to compete alongside her. Hopefully next time they could share that kind of experience together.

Yarnold went onto win gold and Deas couldn’t have been prouder. Or more motivated.

After those Winter Games, Wrexham-born Deas continued to work with UK Sport with aspirations of making it to Pyeongchang.

Four years later, the two best friends are sharing an Olympic podium in South Korea: Saturday night at the Olympic Sliding Centre, Yarnold defended her title by winning a consecutive gold medal, and Deas, who had been having some of her best races lately, won bronze.

“It’s been a long four years, but I knew that I could do it,” Deas said through a few tears. “I just had to keep believing … To know I’m going to share an Olympic podium with one of my best friends is just incredible.”

Yarnold and Deas made history by becoming the first two Brits to ever share a podium in skeleton. Not only that, but their victories add to the country’s recent brilliant history in the sport, now winning medals in five consecutive Olympics: Yarnold won gold in Sochi, Amy Williams won gold in Vancouver, Shelley Rudman earned silver in Turin, and Alex Coomber took bronze in Salk Lake City.

Yarnold and Deas were aware of the proud history and knew they couldn’t break such a streak.

“I can’t believe I’m part of a Super Saturday,” Deas said.

Deas sat in fourth place after the first two heats on Friday and told reporters it was “a really nice place to be.” In her fourth and final run Saturday, she hit a time of 3:27.90, but three sliders still needed to go down the track. First went Germany’s Jacqueline Loelling, who beat Deas by .17 of a second — she ended up winning silver. Then came Yarnold, who finished in 3:27.28. The final slider was Austria’s Janine Flock, who was certainly in medal contention. But she slipped up early in her run and fell behind Daes’ time by .02 seconds, finishing in fourth place.

In skeleton, racers plummet head-first down a treacherous, icy track on a thin sled. The scoring system is fairly uncomplicated — unlike many other winter sports. There are four heats and the slider with the fastest combined time wins. Timing often comes down to hundredths of a second and anything can change in a split second.

And so was the case for Deas.

“I knew I’d put down a strong fourth run and I was really pleased that I was consistent every single run I put it out there,” Daes said, summing up her entire race. “Looking at the clock as others were coming down, I didn’t think I’d done enough until I saw Lizzy come down and she put in an absolute phenomenal run and I knew my only chance was if Janine was going to make a mistake, and then she made an early mistake and I thought maybe there was an early window for me here.

“But I didn’t want to believe it was actually going to happen until she crossed the finish line. I saw that she dropped behind me and I just…I just couldn’t believe it.”

In that moment, Daes thought for sure the time was wrong after Flock crossed the finish line.

“I kept thinking, this must be a mistake,” Daes said. “I must have seen it wrong. Someone is going to tap me on the shoulder and say sorry.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet. It really hasn’t. But I know I’ve worked so, so hard for this the last nine years.”

Daes’ goal heading into Pyeongchang — like any athlete — was to win a medal. She told herself she didn’t need to have the fastest, record-breaking runs, just four that were hard to beat when put together. Now that she’s done it, she feels a little unprepared for the moment.

Asked where she’ll keep her new shiny medal, she laughed and said she doesn’t know yet.

“I’m going to hold it for a very long time,” she said with a huge smile. “I don’t think I’m going to let it out of my hands or my sight for a long time.”