SKELETON: To the rest of the world, the sport of Skeleton looks about as relaxing as sleeping on a bed of nails, but you would be hard pushed to find a more relaxed and humbler athlete than Australia’s sole male representative in the sport in Sochi, John Farrow.

With his mum watching over him in the stands, Farrow put down two good runs to kick-start his Olympic debut in Skeleton at the Sanki Sliding Centre on Friday night.

“It feels great,” Farrow said at the end of his second run. “The nerves, wow I thought I would be kind of prepared for them being 31 years old. I thought - I can handle this - but nothing prepares you for that! Seeing my mum in the crowd and I got huge support on social media last night - it has just got me a bit jittery.”

Farrow’s first run was clean, putting it down in 57.84 seconds to finish in 19th place.

“I just did everything I needed to,” he said. “I had a little word to myself on corner 10 because I was tensing up a little bit. But I went past the ‘Hot, Cool, Yours’ [logo] and it just settled me right down.”

With the top 20 athletes starting the second run in reverse order, Farrow had little time to spare, something he said works to his advantage as it doesn’t allow time for any mental struggle.

While not as clean as his first, Farrow’s second run was actually a fraction faster, finishing in 57.73.

“I had a bump down the bottom of my second run there,” he said. “I was quite relaxed and I thought things were going well but maybe I relaxed a little bit too much. I got into corner 10 again and it’s crucial to carry speed on that one and I thought oh cool, you’re here again but I was a little too relaxed I think and then I had a fly out of 15 and got a few bumps on the bottom there.”

The time was enough to keep Farrow in 19th on 1:55.57, 3.58 seconds behind current event leader - Alexander Tretiakov of Russia.

“I need to keep a little more focus. Not just drive the track to corner 10, but drive it all the way to the finish.”

Farrow has one of the most inspiring stories of the Games, overcoming incredible adversity to even make it here. After suffering horrendous injuries in a training accident in 2011, Farrow’s future in the sport was seriously in doubt. Indeed, even walking again was going to produce a serious challenge.

Fast forward three years and with incredible dedication and hard work, Farrow has overcome the odds to see his dream become a reality.

“I love the support from my family but I’m really close to my friends too and having the support from everyone has been really big for me,” Farrow said after successfully putting down two good runs. “My family has always been there and they always will.”

The Sydneysider said that throughout his journey to these Games, he has found that his own motivation has become an inspiration for others and that has in turn given him strength to succeed.

“After my injury, I found I was doing something that it was said that I couldn’t do. It’s got a bit bigger now – I can represent everyone out there who has a dream and wants to go for it. I want to let them know that even if you have a little bit of a disadvantage or something’s going on, that you can still achieve what you want. Now that that is the main goal, I have so much support it’s been like a freight train. I’m just loving that!”

Farrow will now stay at the track to watch his teammates Michelle Steele and Lucy Chaffer in the final runs of the women’s event, and then do his best to relax ahead of his final runs.

“I’ll probably just relax tonight - watch the girls race and catch up with my mum. She has seen me race before in smaller races, but nothing on this scale. She hates the cold and she’s come out here to Sochi and it is 18 [degrees] but I’m sure she’s still cold. She looks like she is quite rugged up!”

After that, Farrow will just look to relax and have a quiet night ahead of his final two runs.

“I won’t watch any video. I know what to do on the track, I have done it so many times now. I think that can just cause a little bit of stress. This sport is all about relaxing and I think that is what I am going to do.”

Farrow will take to the ice again at 6.45pm local time (1.45am AEDT) on Saturday 15 February.