Profile: Elise Christie on the fast track to Olympic stardom
With Pyeongchang 2018 imminent, it’s up to Britain’s Winter Olympics squad to liven up the typically cold and dreary month of February with some searing-hot performances.
One of Britain’s prime medal prospects is the humble yet fiercely determined Elise Christie. The short-track speed-skater’s accolades include a 500-metre world record as well as multiple medals on both the European and world stages.
But topping it all is her hard-earned triple gold from the 2017 Short-Track Speed-Skating World Championships in Rotterdam, which erased all doubts that the Scotswoman has what it takes to become a world-beater.
Christie took individual gold in the 1000m and 1500m alongside bronze in the 3000m, which constituted a landmark overall victory — she became the first-ever European women’s speed-skating world champion.
This is so far the crowning achievement of a speed-skating career that began at the age of 15 when Christie transferred from the sport of figure skating, and is only building up momentum as time passes.
Nevertheless, it has not all been plain sailing for the 27-year old, and some of her greatest fortunes have come intertwined with great misfortune.
Despite her precedent as world record holder, the prospect of a 500-metre victory in Rotterdam simply slipped away from her, testifying to the unpredictability of the sport.
The highs of Christie’s Sportsperson of the Year 2017 nomination were tempered by her modest reception, remaining at the bottom of the votes list with a relatively meager 6,504 votes — paling in significance to Sir Mo Farah’s title-clinching 85,524.
However, Christie’s personal Mariana Trench came with the turbulence of Sochi 2014, where she was disqualified from all three individual events following two collisions and one inside-lane infringement.
The first incident, a tripartite toppling that brought Korean prodigy Park Seung-Hi to the ground, exposed her to relentless cyber-attacks from unforgiving fans who drove her to delete her Twitter account.
Nevertheless, Christie has learned to silence the critics with her skating — taking the possibility of failure in her stride, she has adopted an opportunistic mindset that was evident during her golden Rotterdam campaign.
Christie told The Telegraph last spring, following her triple gold: “After Sochi, I spent two years feeling terrified of failing. My racing was more about trying to win medals than trying to win.
“This year, I just thought, ‘Well, there’s no point just thinking about medals any longer’. For me, it was about taking risks.
“So, while in the 1500 I got the gold, in the 500 I missed out on the bronze and ended up fourth. It has been a big shift in mindset.”
As the clocks drag ever-closer to Pyeongchang’s opening ceremony on 9 February, one brilliant possibility lies on the horizon.
A Winter Olympics medal would be a nearly unprecedented achievement for a British speed-skater, matched only by Christie’s coach Nicky Gooch —who attained a single bronze in Lillehammer some 24 years ago.
This would be just the achievement that the admirably determined and deceptively tough Christie needs to gain redemption for her Sochi disappointment.
Breaking Views wishes the ‘Ice Queen’, along with the rest of Britain’s 19-strong squad, the best of luck for Pyeongchang.
