Winter Olympic bronze medallist Alex Coomber acknowledges her sport will never be as big as football but she is hopeful her heroics in Salt Lake City could spark a new skeleton craze in Britain.

Coomber, who won her medal on Wednesday, believes skeleton racing could be the "next big thing" after her sport captured the imagination of Britain's youngsters.

Her national association have reported a surge in interest and the RAF flight-lieutenant, who helped Britain record their best Winter Olympic results for 66 years, believes anybody young and athletic could turn their hand to the sport.

Coomber said: "Just like curling plans to do, we need to capitalise on the Olympic success immediately. In four months nobody in the country will be talking about skeleton bob World Cup races, so we must use the high profile we have now.

"We have to strike quickly and promote the sport correctly. We need to introduce young, athletic people to the thrill of skeleton racing. The beauty of this sport is how fast you can learn it and then be racing at a high standard.

"When I learned I was racing in World Cup races within a month and that would never happen in luge. The other advantage is it's not stupidly expensive like bobsleigh."

Coomber's head-first lunges down the slope may look life threatening but Britain's 14th Winter Olympian medallist has no intention of quitting yet.

Just hours after her Salt Lake performance she was back to planning ahead for the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.

She added: "I've really enjoyed the experience and the wonderful atmosphere, even though it's a big relief the whole thing is finally over.

"I'm definitely going to try and go two better in 2006."

But for now Coomber is looking forward to being reunited with her boxer dog Fogarty, who watched her medal run from Somerset wrapped in a Union Jack flag.

She said: "It will be great to see him again. I'm also looking forward to having a good lie-in and tucking into some junk food."

Coomber, proudly wearing her medal around her neck, arrived back in England with her husband to be greeted by her mother and mass ranks of the media at Heathrow Airport on Saturday afternoon.

Her podium place was Britain's first winter Olympic individual medal since Nicky Gooch won a short-track speedskating bronze at Lillehammer eight years ago.

She said: "The last few days have been absolutely hectic and I haven't really had time to sit down and think of my achievement.

"Everyone who goes to the Olympics hopes to come back with a medal and in my first games I have done so. The colour doesn't really matter and in my sport the times are so close anyway with fractions of a second separating gold to nothing.

"It's absolutely excellent to have claimed third position. You always race to win and I'm delighted to have won this bronze."

The 28-year-old, from Dean in Somerset, also thanked the RAF for giving her the time off to train and compete.

He said: "I hope it will do them good as well and that they can use this to their advantage. It's unlikely, however, that I will leave them and compete on a full-time basis.

"I'll have a month off from training and the recovery period is in my training programme anyway and then I'll begin my summer training programme which will involve weights, circuits and sprinting."

Her mother Rosemary Hamilton, who clutched a congratulatory balloon and hugged and kissed her daughter on arriving back at Heathrow, said: "I'm absolutely thrilled for her and very, very proud.

"I can't believe the amount of attention she's getting. I don't know how film stars cope."