ELISE: Twitter trolls drove me to depths of depression
Skater had to see psychologist to cope with online abuse... but vows to go for gold at next Olympics
THE world watched her weep inconsolably after hurtling feet-first into the crash barrier at more than 30mph. Yet behind her tears, Elise Christie’s fear was not solely that the dramatic collision – after which she was taken off the ice on a stretcher – could end her Winter Olympics medal hopes.
The Scottish speed skater was also terrified that online trolls – who had unleashed a barrage of abuse after her back-to-back disqualifications at the previous Games – would again rear their ugly heads.
The 27-year-old’s disappointment was one of the biggest stories of this year’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which ended last week.
Critics were quick to call out Christie’s ‘reckless’ style and accused her of ‘bottling it’.
But, speaking exclusively to The Scottish Mail on Sunday after returning home from South Korea, the reigning short track world champion defied those knocking her efforts and wondered if they could ‘try to stay standing up after being hit by the same force as a car’.
She believes she was the victim of ‘bad luck’, saying she was ‘knocked over’ by a fellow skater in the 500m final and ‘wrongly’ penalised in the 1,000m heats.
She also revealed she suffered depression after the Sochi Games in 2014, when she received death threats that were probed by MI6.
Now, as Christie looks ahead to the next Winter Olympics, in Beijing in 2022, she hopes her story will inspire others. The Livingston-born skater – who moved to Nottingham on her own at 15 to train with the national team – said: ‘You work so hard every day to achieve your dream and when it is taken away from you at that last moment it is very hard.
‘I am devastated I didn’t get an Olympic medal – I trained so hard for four years to get to that point and was getting great times going into it, but it is not over and I will definitely be competing in Beijing.
‘I want to inspire others not to give up. Not everyone succeeds the first time and even if you do your best you might not achieve your dreams, but you should always still try.
‘I have had so many incredible messages from children across the world who thought it was amazing I got back on the ice with torn ligaments in my ankle.
‘They saw I was a fighter… and that kept me going.’
Christie felt the weight of the nation on her shoulders when she stepped on to the rink last month.
But last year she became the first British woman to win a speed skating world championship when she took gold in the 1,500m and 1,000m – and then claimed the overall title.
She said: ‘The world watches the Olympics but there are other championships throughout the year.
‘I have already achieved so much in my career – including being short track world champion in 2017 – but people outside the sport focus on the Olympics.
‘The big thing about the Olympics is that you want to give the sport a good name and let people enjoy it. You know so many more people are watching you. For me the Worlds is so much more pressure than the Olympics and people who say I can’t cope on the big stage are wrong. ‘To be crowned world champion is the most respected thing in short track and it is really hard as you are skating for three days back-to-back with five different events.’ Christie felt confident when she travelled to South Korea and had not anticipated an agonising repeat of her fortunes at Sochi in 2014. She set the first Olympic record of
the Games during the qualification round of the 500m event, with a time of 42.872 seconds, but crashed out of the final after Dutch skater Yara Van Kerkhof clipped her hand trying to undertake her. A few days later she collided with China’s Li Jinyu in the 1,500m semifinal. She was carried off the rink and taken to hospital. Even with torn ligaments in her ankle, she put her skates back on for the 1,000m but got a yellow card and did not progress to the next round. She is known as one of the ‘softest skaters on the track’ and believes her style ‘clashes with’ that of the referee at PyeongChang, the same official who penalised her at Sochi. She said: ‘In the last ten years I have had just one penalty outside of that referee. Others will tell you I am known for staying out of the way of others and I hardly ever crash. ‘My style clashes with this particular referee. The rules of short track are very vague and it is down to the ref’s definition of when the entry to the corner begins. You are meant to pass the other skater before the entry to the corner. ‘In the men’s 5km relay final the amount of argy-bargy was insane but there were no penalties in it. ‘That is short track. It is aggressive and everyone bumps each other all the time – you can’t expect not to as you’re passing each other at ridiculous speeds on a tiny track. ‘With regards to crashing out at these Games I was knocked over in the 500m. Imagine your hand being hit by a car at 30mph and trying to stay on your feet, while on ice – it’s not easy.’ Christie was so badly abused online during the Sochi Games that the British Olympic Association told her to delete her Twitter account. Threats to her life were even investigated by the security services. She said: ‘Everyone is entitled to an opinion but that is quite different from trolling. A lot of the trolls have no knowledge of the sport and just want to have a go. It got really bad during and after Sochi and I wasn’t prepared for that. While I got some stick this time, as far as I am aware there were no death threats.
‘I used to struggle with online abuse but I let it wash over me now.
‘What bothers me is how much it upsets my mum. She knows everything I have been through, all the sacrifices I have made and how difficult it has been.
‘Any parent would be upset by that and it amazes me that parents can sit there trolling other people’s kids. After Sochi I suffered from depression because of it all – I’m not ashamed to admit that. My family saw how low I was.
‘I hadn’t seen myself as a big medal hope going into Sochi but the fact I was so close to medalling and made mistakes was really hard – and the online abuse made it worse.
‘It took a long time to get over and I saw a psychologist, but I came out the other end and feel better equipped to deal with difficult times.’
She added: ‘Depression isn’t something sportspeople used to speak about but, finally, it’s getting better.
‘I had over a year where I felt like I was on my own and it didn’t go well. At first I thought I could control it, but it is an illness and you need to accept that to get better.’
Christie said that even though she suffered ‘big disappointments’ at the Games, ‘I know I will be OK’.
She credits her boyfriend of two years, Hungarian speed skater Shaolin Sandor Liu, 22, with helping her.
She said: ‘He is a massive support to me and understands what I do and the work I put in.
‘When I get criticism online – which he does, too – he reminds me that I know the truth. I always want to respond to people to put my point across but he keeps calm and tells me to ignore it.
‘We are total opposites. I am feisty and he’s very calm. We live in different countries but that works for us as we have to train so much. We travel to see each other as much as we can and I train in Hungary quite a bit, which is how we met.’
Christie started as a figure skater but was drawn to short track, saying: ‘Figure skating is more girly but short track is about racing around as fast as you can and I liked that.’
She is aware the winter sport lacks the profile of some others in the UK but hopes to change that.
She said: ‘Kids sent me messages saying they wanted to start skating after watching me and that is such a huge thing. It is one of my dreams to get more people into the sport and even if some of my publicity is negative, at least it is raising the profile of short track.’
Imagine being hit by a 30mph car and trying to stand up