Calamity Christie
Agony on the ice as Elise crashes out for second Games running
FOR Scots athlete Elise Christie, the Winter Olympics were meant to be her crowning glory, with a target of three speed skating gold medals.
But last night in Pyeongchang, calamity struck the 27-year-old three-time World Champion once again as she was thrown out of her favourite 1,000-metre event and was carried off the ice in agony by her coach.
Her sad exit from the heat marked the end of another disastrous and painful Olympics that saw the golden girl of Team GB fail to finish a major race and have two more disqualifications added to her record.
There was stunned disbelief among audiences at her latest mishap in South Korea, sparking talk of an ‘Olympic curse’.
The short track skater, from Livingston, West Lothian, had already crashed out of her first race in floods of tears. In the second she was taken to hospital after injuring her right ankle in another collision.
But Miss Christie, who was disqualified in all three of her events at Sochi 2014, braved the injury to have one last chance at glory.
It was only confirmed an hour before the race that she would be able to compete – but as she pushed off in her blue skinsuit, it quickly became evident she was still troubled by the injury.
Within moments she had crashed to the ice after being clipped on her injured foot and it looked as if that would end her games there and then as she clutched her leg while lying on the ice.
However, there was a second chance as under short track rules, a crash on the first lap leads to a re-start. Despite being in obvious pain and struggling to make the start-line for the re-start, Miss Christie was soon back into her stride and crossed the line in second place, qualifying her for the semi-final. Within moments of the finish and clearly in great pain, she was scooped up by coach Nicky Gooch and carried away, still believing an Olympic medal was possible.
But then to gasps from the crowd and commentators, it was announced that she had been given a yellow card and disqualified after apparently bumping Holland’s Anna van Ruijven.
The decision stunned the Nottinghambased Scot who, despite her previous disqualifications, had never received a yellow card before. ‘It’s not my decision. I have to take whatever the referee gives me,’ she said.
The athlete said she had gone into the race knowing she had ligament damage from Saturday’s accident, but it was made worse within seconds of the race last night.
She said: ‘I thought about the adrenaline and how that might take over. I was in a lot of pain. I thought “Just do what you can do. I’m at the Olympics, I’m going to give it a go”.’
Asked if she thought she had an Olympic curse, she replied: ‘I guess you could say that. It’s a bit weird that it seems to happen at Olympics and nowhere else.’
Miss Christie, who is dating fellow speed skater Shaolin Sandor Liu, 22, added: ‘I’ve proved myself but I really wanted to bring it home for Great Britain. It really meant a lot to me and I’m devastated that I didn’t.’
There were dozens of messages on Twitter praising her courage last night. One fan wrote: ‘What an incredibly brave performance. Ignore the refs, it turns out you didn’t need a medal to make your country proud.’ Another said: ‘GB should be proud of her courage’.
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