Christie skates towards perfect Valentine’s gift

GB medal hope Elise and her boyfriend focused on winning Olympic golds

Scot Elise Christie wants to give her boyfriend the perfect Valentine’s gift – and he’s planning on giving her one to match.

Christie, who used to train at Dundee Ice Arena, and Hungarian short track speed skater Shaolin Liu are both considered top medal contenders in PyeongChang.

She advanced to tomorrow’s 500m quarter-finals after setting an Olympic record in her heat on Saturday – and her other half believes she’s in the shape to finally crack the podium.

“It’s pretty hard watching Elise,” he said, after finishing fifth in the men’s 1,500m.

“I was in the stands shouting. I know she couldn’t hear anything but I couldn’t stop myself. She’s giving me a lot of power when she’s doing good so I’m cheering out for her.

“I know she was nervous but she’s getting better, I’m teaching her. I think it’s a really good thing to be in the same sport and giving advice to each other.

“I remember in 2016 before that season started she said we’re going to both be world champions together.

“I won my world title that year but she won her three 12 months later and that really annoyed her. I’ve always said the better I do, the better she does.

“We’re trying to help each other and handle the pressure together. We’re seeing each other when we can in the village but we’re both very focused on what we have to do here.

“We can celebrate Valentine’s Day when we have finished, hopefully both with Olympic gold medals.”

Christie admitted to a bad case of nerves before she took to the start line in the first of her three events in South Korea.

Not known for her super-fast start, Christie is still the world record holder over 500m and clocked 42.872 seconds to break the eight-year Olympic record this weekend.

And that set up a showdown with Korea’s Minjeong Choi with three tension packed races standing between the Scot and her Olympic ambition.

“You can train, train and train but it’s only when you are out there racing that you actually know how good you are feeling,” added Christie.

“That was my best start in years and that is really going to help my nerves.”

Christie has avoided her main rivals in the draw for the quarter-finals, where she will face Canada’s Kim Boutin, Germany’s Anna Seidel and Liu’s compatriot Andrea Keszler with the first two through to the semi-finals.

China’s Fan Kexin goes in the third quarter-final while South Korea’s Minjeong Choi is favourite to advance from heat four.

GB medal hope Elise Christie set an Olympic record in her 500m qualifying heat.