ICE queen Shelley Rudman says that she’s just about ready to take a tentative step back into training after her year away from the track.

The 33-year-old Pewsey slider competed in her third Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, last year and her post-tournament break turned into an extended sabbatical from skeleton after she fell pregnant with her second child.

Rudman welcomed daughter Sofia, who is now eight weeks old, into the world in January but she missed an entire season, including the chance to defend her World Championship crown in Winterberg, Germany, earlier this month as 2014 Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold emulated her by becoming world champion.

After a long spell based in Sheffield, the Winter Olympics ace has moved back to the county with fiance and fellow skeleton racer Kristan Bromley, children Ella and Sofia, and dog Lilly and is planning to begin pounding the streets of Wiltshire to start rebuilding her fitness.

“My training base was up in Sheffield and I made some incredible friends and had great support while based there. I’ve been back living near Pewsey for a few weeks now,” said the former World Cup and European champion, who won silver at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

“Kristan loves it down here but it’s been quite busy moving in to a new house which we’re doing up, with a new-born, Ella starting a new school and a new dog.

“Having a rest from the sport has actually been really nice. You need the time to recover mentally and it also allows a few injuries to clear up – I had some neck whiplash and my back had been playing up too, so they had time to heal.

“I kept fit throughout the first half of my pregnancy but I decided to relax for the second half of it. Eventually, I did start to want to get back out there.

“I lost my pregnancy weight naturally quite quickly, but I think it really helped that I was quite fit coming off the back of the Sochi Olympics during the first half of pregnancy.

“The plan now is to start to get myself conditioned enough to cope with an eventual high-level intensity of training. I’ll start running locally and do some circuit training in the parks and maybe mix it up with light body weights in my local gyms.

“After that, I’ll meet up with the performance team in Bath next month and work on a plan for the future.”

The next Winter Olympics take place in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018 but Rudman isn’t looking too far into the future.

She added: “A lot of athletes take a year out after an Olympic cycle. I’m just thinking about getting myself fit again and once I’ve got a plan, I’ll take things from there.”