The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Hopes of Team GB athletes
ON THE eve of competing in the winter Olympics, four of Team GB’s major medal hopes shared some of their hopes and aspirations for the Games.
Skier JamesWood from the new Olympic sport of slopestyle is seen as one of Britain’s strongest medal prospects, curlers Eve Muirhead and David Murdoch boast a wheech of world championship medals and short-track star Elise Christie is Britain’s best-placed speed skater in world rankings.
Making its Olympic debut, slopestyle is where skiers and snowboarders perform tricks in the air as well as on rails and boxes.
Points are awarded for style and the difficulty of the run by a group of judges — though Woodsy, as he is known, has previously commented on the subjective nature of the judging system in his emerging sport.
Despite not making it to the X Games final in Colorado last month, Wood’s confidence remains high.
The Sheffield-born skier said winning a medal “would be a dream and an amazing thing” to achieve — and he believes he can do it. “I’m confident. A bsolutely!” he said. “I’m loving it here.”
Emerging from the mountains to visit Sochi’s coastal cluster of venues and athletes’ village, the 2013 world silver medallist said he was surprised by his reaction to his first Olympics.
“Whenever you see the flags flying and the national anthems going you get that feeling — it’s fantastic,” he said.
“This has been creeping up for a few years now, but suddenly it’s real and it’s very, very special.
“The snow’s fantastic and the course is unreal. It’s big and burly and it’s a great platform for us to showcase what we do. “I can’t wait to get going.” Key date: Slopestyle qualifying round, February 13.
Despite a fantastic season, in which she has retained her 1,000m European title, former Dundee speed skater Elise Christie says she cannot guarantee a medal at these Games.
The 23-year-old is one ofTeam GB’s main hopes in Sochi, but has spoken to me in the past about the flying elbows and corner clashes that make short-track races risky for their helmeted, gloved participants.
But the juxtaposition of speed and potential spills also makes this one of the most thrilling of competitive winter sports.
Christie, the 2012-13 World Cup 1,000m champion and the first British woman to win a world championship medal, goes in the 500m, 1,000m and 1,500m.
She told me she has been recording some of her fastest-ever times on the Sochi rink,
“Training has been really good out here and I’ve been getting some PBs,” she said. “So everything’s very positive so far.”
She discounted talk around the athletes’ village that the cavernous Iceberg Skating Palace is “slow”.
“I’ve not noticed. A ctually we’ve loved the ice when we’ve been on it,” she said.
“But a lot of people have been moaning about it and I can see why.
“Ice conditions make a big difference. If the ice is soft it is really hard to build speed. Your feet just slip away from you.
“But again, if it is hard you glide and go faster, but it breaks away as you push. So you really need it to be somewhere in the middle, where it’s got some glide but it’s not too soft that your blades are melting into the ice.
“We can usually tell straight away whether we like it, but everyone’s different and have their individual preferences.
“What will matter here is getting used to the ice conditions as quickly as possible.”
Key dates: Christie’s competition starts on Monday. The 1,000m final is on February 21.
Current world curling champion Eve Muirhead leads Team GB women into their Olympic campaign on Monday with a difficult opener against arch-rivals Sweden, the team they lost to in the recent European Championship final.
“It’s a tough opening match playing against the current European champions and they’ve had a good last few seasons,” she said. “They’re one of the top nations. “But we’ve competed in many European and world championships with similar teams to those here, so we practise day in, day out to be able to produce our best performances at these Games.
“Curling’s not like other sports where you play one game and it’s over, but we’re still going to go out and give the first game our best shot. “It’s important to get off to a good start. “Everyone’s really relaxed, enjoying it and anxious to get going — but we’re going to give it absolutely everything out there on the ice.”
Key date: Round robin group stages start on Monday. Women’s final, February 20.
David Murdoch, world bronze medallist in 2013, leads his young curling rink into a match with Russia on Monday.
“It’s exciting to be back, you never know whether you’ll get the opportunity again, he said.
“I’ve got some unfinished business with the Olympics and hopefully we’ll get something from it this time.
“But playing Russia in the opening match is a little bit of the unknown for us. It could be noisy in there.”
He added: “It’s important that we hit the ground running.
“It’s important for us to focus, get that head start, beat Russia and take that momentum into the night game against Sweden. So it’s a big day for us.”
Key date: Round robin group stages start on Monday. Men’s final, February 21.