CHARLIE’S COMEBACK Shire slalom star recovers in time for Olympics
Charlie Guest can’t wait to compete Perthshire slalom skier Charlie Guest insists her gruelling rehabilitation from a broken back has proved more than worthwhile after she was selected for her first Winter Olympics in PyeongChang next month.
The 2014, 2016 and 2017 British Slalom champion’s career was on the rise in November 2014 and she had been pre-selected for the World Championships in the USA.
But while on the slopes in Sweden with coach Stefan Moser she crashed into a boulder and fractured four transverse processes of her lumbar spine.
She had to endure a six-hour, 155-mile journey to hospital in Ostersund on a stretcher following the accident.
For the skier, from St Martins near Balbeggie, the road back to full health would prove far more arduous.
The 24-year-old was nursed back to fitness under the care of the medical team at the sportscotland institute of sport.
Having returned to the slopes, Charlie has since shown fine form with a recent first-place finish in a FIS race in Finland.
A number of impressive World and Europa Cup results booked her place on the plane to South Korea.
She was named as part of a 25-strong ski and snowboard GB team on Thursday.
Charlie believes all the painstaking hours spent in the gym will pale in significance to the joy of making her Olympic bow.
She said: “I’m absolutely over the moon, I couldn’t believe it when I got the call.
“It’s been a tough few years, but it’s been well worth the persistence.
“It still hasn’t sunk in, and I don’t think it will until I’m on the plane - that’s when it will really be real.
“Since my big injury four years ago, it’s just been constant hurdles. As soon as I got over one, another appeared.
“The journey hasn’t been smooth but being selected for the Olympics was always my goal though.
“2014 was too soon, 2018 I wanted to be there and at 2022, I want a medal.
“I’ve had a few more injuries since Christmas, but I’m back training.
“I’m in Switzerland up first and then we’re flying out to South Korea on Saturday.”