Freestyle skier Katie Summerhayes insists she is not going to let increased expectation levels go to her head this season as she aims to claim her first tour win.
Back in January Summerhayes wrote her name into the record books when she became the first British female skier to claim a freestyle World Championships medal with silver in the slopestyle final in Kreischberg.
She had already been tipped as one to watch having carried the flag on behalf of Team GB at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics while a year later she picked up World Cup silver in Silvaplana, Switzerland – again the first time a British female skier had finished on the podium in a World Cup event.
A Winter Olympics appearance followed at Sochi 2014 where she finished seventh in the slopestyle final and the Sheffield-born skier can also boast having a junior world championship title to her name having triumphed at the event post-Olympics.
But despite regularly challenging the world’s best, the 20-year-old is not getting carried away.
“I don’t want to be like ‘I want to win everything’ because I don’t want to not live up to it, but I would love to win a competition and I’ve been working really hard this summer,” she said.
“Last season was fun. It was the year after the Olympics so it was a bit of a weird season, but I had a great time, great fun and got a couple of good results.
“I came second at the World Championship, so I was super stoked.
“But you have to approach every competition the same, you don’t know what the course is going to be until you get there.”
A maiden World Cup win is high on the list of priorities for Summerhayes this season and as a result she has been busy working on her trick difficulty level.
“I’ve learnt loads of unnatural spinning,” she added.
“The way I’d describe it is like being able to write with my right hand and then having to do everything with my left.
“My natural way to go is right, so I’ve learnt loads of spinning left, which hopefully is going to help me.
“I’ve been working super hard on that for the past year, so hopefully I’m going to be able to put it into my competitions this year.
“I’ve had to practice it over a long period of time, but once you’ve got it, you’ve got it.” Sportsbeat 2015